One School at a Time

I was having the longest and the crappiest day of my life when one man brought a smile to my face. This man was Greg Mortenson.

I had the honor of meeting this man whose fan I had become after reading his book, Three Cups of Tea. He received the Sitara-e-Pakistan ("Star of Pakistan"), Pakistan's highest civil award in 2009. He looks older now. He has started to lose some hair. There's somewhat of a tummy. He greeted me with an assalam alaikum and said khuda hafiz when I was leaving. He told me the book was ready to be published in Urdu and Pushto very soon. He said higher education was becoming more important in Pakistan. He asked me what I was studying (after he asked me if I was a teacher and I had to tell him I was actually a student!). He's soft spoken, funny, listens to you with utmost humility, and is passionate about what he does - everything I had imagined of him when I read the book.

Time and again I have bashed American and Pakistani governments for being insensitive and selfish. And here comes a man who shows me that there are still good people left in the world who would go out of their way to do something for others, in the most selfless manner. He is the American who is working day and night for a better tomorrow of children half the world across from home for him. He goes to places where few foreigners dare to go - places often considered to be the front lines of the War on Terror. And he works with the most basic ideas: let your children go out and play, sit with your elders and listen to their stories, educate the women (because "when you educate a boy, you educate an individual but when you educate a girl, you educate the community"), instead of bombing people, get to know them, understand them, build their trust. He says that hatred in the world comes from ignorance, that education needs to be America's top national and international priority - especially education for girls. "Ignorance is the enemy," he says.

Not only does Mortenson speak from the heart, he makes me look at my country in a way I had never seen it before. Parts of Pakistan I've never visited are heaven on earth, he says. I am in awe of the poor and illiterate men of Pakistan's most impoverished areas that are the champions of girls' education in their villages. When the men from Mullah Omar's village come to him, asking him to build a girls' school in their village, Mortenson finds them playing on the swings of a playground. I finally think of these bearded men in turbans as humans, people who never saw a childhood in a country ridden in war. Mortenson learns that everything is discussed over chai in Pakistan, that relationships are build over a steaming hot cup of this special tea, that family is crucial in my culture. In the words of Korphe's nurmadhar Haji Ali (who was also Mortenson's mentor),

"The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything, even die."

Thus, Mortenson's lecture was enlightening, invigorating to say the least. The reality he presents is gruesome but he shares hope, nonetheless, that something can be done and is being done. Pakistanis and Americans have a lot to learn from him. He is a reminder of the power of one man's determination in the face of gigantic obstacles. This is one man's mission to promote peace - one school at a time. This man clearly deserves to be called a hero.

Mortenson lectures at the Lied Center on KU Campus. Photo by Artem Bagiev.

He signed my copy of Three Cups of Tea!