Why I'm loving 'Stones into Schools'

"Haji Ali spoke. ‘If you want to thrive in Baltistan, you must respect our ways. The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an 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. Doctor Greg, you must take time to share three cups of tea. We may be uneducated but we are not stupid. We have lived and survived here for a long time.’ That day, Haji Ali taught me the most important lesson I’ve ever learned in my life. We Americans think you have to accomplish everything quickly…Haji Ali taught me to share three cups of tea, to slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects. He taught me that I had more to learn from the people I work with than I could ever hope to teach them."

— Greg Mortenson 'Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a Time'

Photo from 'Three Cups of Tea'

Haji Ali was the Pakistani village elder that found and hosted Mortenson when he became lost after a failed attempt at climbing K2. The respect and integrity of this first relationship became the foundation for Greg's vision to help build schools in the far reaches of Pakistan, and eventually Afghanistan. Greg understood that in order to work with the communities he would have to build deep relationships, understand the complex tribal customs and languages and employ local members of the community. His team in Pakistan, the dirty dozen, he calls them, is made up of numerous different tribes and professional backgrounds. Some are educated, others are former Taliban members. Their common goal is to help build schools for children.

Greg Mortenson's NGO, the Asia Institute has built schools, and community-led projects throughout deeply rural areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. His story, told in both adult and children's versions of 'Three Cups of Tea' and the more recent, 'Stones into Schools,' accounts how balanced education is actually a mode of peace building, reducing the occurrence of students getting recruited into extremist Madrassas.

Mortenson understands the importance of working respectfully with local custom. His contracts with new projects always commence with the Islamic prelude,

'Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim'

(In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the beneficial)

Then, he underlines why they must build a school (i.e. Usually because the government has not provided one). 'The Central Asia Institute will provide building materials, skilled labor, school supplies, and help with teachers' salary and training,' he writes,
while, 'the local community, under local governance agrees to provide free land, subsidized manual labor and support for teachers.'

Then, they promise that the exact terms will be worked out after a jirga is convened. A jirga is a traditional council session, a formal gathering of elders sitting in a circle on a carpet, or under a tree, and as a rule the participants are forbidden from adjourning until consensus has been achieved around a decision. This means that it is only with the full support of a community that a project will get underway.
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Other than his adept character, ceaseless work and courage, Mortenson understands the importance of sitting with the village elders, of taking the time to do it right. His approach has allowed him to build hundreds of schools in one of the most removed and dangerous regions of the world.

It is a lesson in Peace.