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Three Cups of Tea

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Three Cups of Tea
"Educate a boy, and you educate and individual. Educate a girl, and you educate a community.” Three Cups of Tea is a very powerful and inspiring book. I enjoyed it thoroughly and I would recommend it to any of my peers. I enjoyed reading about Mortenson’s accomplishments when it comes to the Balti People. I love that Relin portrayed Mortenson with all his flaws. He is a human and makes mistakes but it was the way he overcame his mistakes and challenges that impressed me. Relin’s writing in Three Cups of Tea is beautiful, elegant and sophisticated. This book had such an influence on the way I view the world and all the people in it especially those in impoverished countries. I particularly enjoyed how the Balti people influenced Mortenson’s life in such extreme ways. The two prompts that I decided to write on are “Have you ever known anyone like Mortenson” and “Discuss his repeated brushes with failure and how they influence your opinion of Mortensen”. Let me begin by saying Mortenson is an amazing individual. He did something that not many people have the gusto to go through with. He truly loved the Balti people and wanted the make their lives better through education. When I first read this prompt I immediately thought of one of my youth leaders, Cherissa Newton. She hasn’t accomplished anything as substantial as building a school for people in some foreign land. But, she is a social worker who works with underprivileged children each and every day. What Mortenson was on a large scale, helping lots of people all at once, but what Cherissa does is on a small scale, helping individuals over time. She has helped me become a better public speaker and more personable to others. Because of her, I have overcome a lot of my shyness. Cherissa helped me through a lot. She gave me many opportunities for generosity, aid and leadership. She appointed me president of the Laurels in my church. She may not have given me the opportunities personally but through my leadership in my church I have learned a lot about others and myself. I used to serve in my community at least once a month and every month that we did, we would see such compassion in the people we were helping. It was a truly sublime experience. I wouldn’t trade my community service in the last year for anything. Mortenson’s repeated failures helped me gain a very strong opinion of him. Through all his trials and tribulations, he still did what he was set out to do. He built a school even though he had no money, no love life, and his health was taking a turn for the worse. He faced daunting challenges of raising the needed funds, facing death threats from angry Mullahs, separation from his family and a kidnapping to eventually build 55 schools in the Taliban Territory. I absolutely love hearing about people who do not give up even when everything is being thrown at them. He overcame all his failures and many bumps in the road to do what he was set out to do. There were a few points in this book where I was overwhelmed by this man's tenacity and integrity. He is an inspiration to so many people. He is a very determined person. Whether he is climbing K2 to put his sister, Christa’s necklace on the summit, or building a school to bring education to the young girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It’s amazing to me that someone like Mortenson exists in this world. It seems we, as Americans, are all filled with abhorrence, aggravation, and egotistical mindsets when it comes to helping others. Mortenson didn’t think about himself when he decided to help these poor children in Korphe. He thought about what was good for them and how he could repay them for nursing him back to health. I truly believe he came to love the people of Korphe and I believe that is what the world is missing, a heaping dose of love and compassion towards others.

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