Three Cups of Tea

Here (in Pakistan and Afghanistan) we drink three cups of tea to do business; the first you are a stranger, the second you become a friend, and the third, you join our family, and for our family we are prepared to do anything – even die”
-Haji Ali, Korphe Village Chief, Karakoram Mountains, Pakistan.

I closed the book putting it back into in my backpack under the front seat, where I found the old lady’s sandal taken off, and she was sitting on the seat next to me crossed leg, sleeping. She reminded me of my mom. In less than 10 hours I would be meeting my mom after more than a year since I left Malaysia. But the lady’s figure, countenance, shalwar and shawl, had more to tell and gave me perfect description of Pakistan women told by Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin in their collaboration producing extraordinary book, Three Cups of tea.

Mortensen's mission is a relentlessly positive one, especially in an effort to trounce impoverishment out of Pakistan and Afghanistan, after failed to conquer K2. As climbers, we both know about the hardship of climbing, but after reading this book, I realized that the summit he’s trying to achieve to promote humanity is much more difficult than any summits. It is by building one school at a time in Pakistan and Afghanistan. As a Muslim I am personally feel connected to most of anecdotes Mortensen incorporated in this book. He talks about Shia and Sunni, marriage in Islam, solah, etc. And all of his stories are told in the most captivating and suspenseful, heartwarming, storytelling book, Three Cups of Tea, which definitely won my heart.

A huge thanks to Taufiq (Ketuat) and Paan for introducing this amazing book to me. And more credit to Paan for lending it to me to bring it back home. By the time I’m writing this entry, I have 3 more chapters to go. This is the first time, me, reading the book without any urgency to end it to know the end. I do not want it to end. The humanitarian mission of changing the world to a better place to live. To live without any qualms of what does the future holds, especially, when I am now sitting in Starbucks having my favorite USD$3.80 caramel macchiato, and know that every one dollar I spend could pay for a day lesson for a teacher in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The flight was about to land in Hong Kong. I was just finished reading the part where Mortensen tells about Korphe’s first school inauguration, which deeply moved me into tears. Putting back the book in my backpack and trying to reach my passport and boarding pass for the next flight, I saw the lady sitting next to me dropped her passport on the floor. I bent, picked it up and figured out that it was Pakistan Passport.