aud’acious

Just finished Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time written by co-authors Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.  Read it in preparation for the forum speech he gave at Brigham Young University last week.  Got a chapter short of deadline but finally finished a week later.

To me it’s a very cool story of a guy who was in the right place at the right time and willing to do something remarkable.  People must have thought he was crazy in the beginning.  He was.  For all logical reasons.  Yet, it turned out to be exactly what the people of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and America needed.

I work on this side of the ocean trying to help students understand the Middle East.  Reading this book makes me feel like I’m part of this big adventure sweeping the country.  I just read another article today about a new teacher of Arabic in Memphis, Tennesee of all places.

Before this report becomes all glowing and no guts, I will add a few other things.

1-Something about the writing was jolting me around.  Maybe it was because I knew enough of the story, I wanted to get to the meat.

2-I’m a little sad there were so many references to the Nobel Peace Prize.  I definitely feel Greg Mortenson is a great candidate for the prize but I thought it was a little tactless to mention it so many times in his own book.  Understandably people were quoted referring to it and Mortenson was not the only author of the book.  This is why meeting him in person helped me resolve that concern I had.  See my post below about his coming to Provo.

3- We all can be dismissive to a certain degree.  There were a few times I cringed at some dismissive ways “Europeans” and “Americans” were sometimes sized up in the book, though.  Many of the references come from typical stereotypes.  American stereotypes of Europeans.  World stereotypes of Americans.  The thought that kept going through my mind is how many dedicated European humanitarians I’ve met around the world and many Americans are interested in more than the bottom line figure in the bank.  (Another concern which was resolved by his presentation.)

Two of my favorite quotes from the book:

“The only way we can defeat terrorism is if people in [Pakistan and Afghanistan] where terrorists exist learn to respect and love Americans,” Mortenson concluded, “and if we can respect and love these people [in Pakistan and Afghanistan].  What’s the difference between them becoming a productive local citizen or a terrorist?  I think the key is education.” pg. 268

“…You have to attack the source of your enemy’s strength.  In America’s case, that’s not Osama or Saddam or anyone else.  The enemy is ignorance.  The only way to defeat it is to build relationships with these people, to draw them into the modern world with education and business.  Otherwise the fight will go on forever.” –Brigadier General Bashir Baz pg 310

Here’s a true story that happened to me recently in Washington DC.

There were two Palestinian principals and two Afghani university professors who are also deans of education and science in their respective fields. They spent their first week in LA, their second with an American teacher somewhere in the US and their third week in DC. One of the Afghani deans spent a week in Ohio with a young 6′4″ baseball-loving, American government teacher who had never been out of North America and never lived outside of Columbus. The Afghani, named Farmanunullah, was an older man with a pot belly, a salt shaker beard, cheery smile, little English (two classes), and 7 kids. His wife incidentally wants more kids but he is “opposite”.

Apparently from the Ohian teacher, Gaven’s stories, their week together was unique. “Where is the water in your house?” Well, says Gaven, “It comes out of faucets like this one.” Farmanullah lifts the lever, turns it off, lifts it again, a smile creeps across his face. “Only cold water? No hot?” Gaven says, “Turn the lever to the left.”

Anyway, so a bunch of hippy entreprenuers all in their late 20’s and early 30’s who want to save the world met with us in a modern building in the diverse bustling neighborhood of Adams Morgan. These are just the type of people who know that you can hire a green cleaning service and have all recycleable paper products. They showed us the powerpoint of their cool businesses and unique job titles like Joey, Chief Experience Composer. Afterwards they said, “We know the government takes a long time to get things done. We are looking for cool projects that we can tackle and have solutions in a much shorter more efficient way.”

So people began sharing the difficulties they face in education in Palestine. The two Afghan teachers sat quietly with I’m guessing somewhat oblivious but smiling faces. There wasn’t much time left and the Chief Experience Composer turns to the Afghan teachers and asks what challenges they are facing. This was probably the first time the entrepreuners realized the Afghanis really didn’t understand much of what they had said because it took several attempts before there was an intelligble response.

With a broad papa-like smile on his face, Farmanullah said, holding up three fingers, “In Afghanistan, we have three problems. One. We have bad government. We need to change government. Bad. No more government. Two. We have no building for school.”

“How many students are in your school?” asks Joey.

“6,000.”

“Alright so you need a building…,” says Joey.

“Third. No electricity.”

“Ooo, that is a problem, ” says Joey’s co-worker/friend, whatever they call each other.

Farmanullah sits back in his chair, his face is broad and smiling. His hands cross his lap. “You can change our government?” He says, “In Afghanistan we have tribes. Many school buildings, tribes come burn down. No good. We need new government.” Then it was over. The meeting was over, the discussion was over.

Oh funny. A side note about Farmanullah. Apparently Gaven told me that one early morning he was driving Farmanullah to school with him. It was still dark outside. Farmanullah said, “In Afghanistan if we have school under stars? No good.” …I agree.