Three Cups of Tea (Heather Potter)

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson & David Relinpages;
368
Where did you find the book?Barnes and Noble
Brief summary of the book (8-10 sentences…NO MORE!)Three Cups of Tea is about the first young women of their community to be educated. Some faced disapproval and rejection, yet ultimately, the desire for education over powered the threats. Mortenson, after promising a group of Pakistani's that the next time he returned he would build a school, actually accomplished this. Not only did he not stop there, he went around impoverished areas attempting build schools for many young girls in multiple areas. Greg Mortenson took this effort realizing that the women of the community stuck together through tooth and nail. With that, he realized that when you educate one female you educate an entire community. The book takes personal accounts of the young girl's journey and challenges that they faced in order to learn. It is a very inspirational novel.
Who is the audience for this book? Anyone who is interested in current worldissues and the happiness change can cause. I enjoyed this book, it was straight forward and showed that an ordinary person can make a change.
What is the author’s writing style? (Provide a 1-3 sentence description, as well as a properly cited passage that shows the style.) His writing seems to be very inspirational and airy.He makes you think while getting his point straight across to you. One evening, he went to bed by a yak dung fire a mountaineer who’d lost his way, and one morning, by the time he’d shared a pot of butter tea with his hosts and laced up his boots, he’d become a humanitarian who’d found a meaningful path to follow for the rest of his life.” (Mortenson)This was one of the very first times Mortenson realized he was a changed man after the Pakistani's found him lost on the mountain. After they nursed him back to health, he promised them a school. You can see is where he decided to care for others in the world. Aside from that, he included parts of himself, the laced up boots, and parts of his new cultural benefits he gained while there.

What are 3 (three) passages that really struck you in some way? (Properly cite the passages and provide an explanation as to why/how they struck you.)
Mortenson had very strong quotes throughout the book, there were passagesI enjoyed but more so it was the things he said with very little words that got to me.a. "You can hand out condoms, drop bombs, build roads, or put in electricity, but until the girls are educated a society won’t change." (Mortenson)Throughout the book there is a common theme displayed that girls are the back bone of society despite them being undermined. During a few points in the book it is said that if you educate a male, that's just one person. If you educate a female you educate a community. The girls in the community helped each other out and remained in the area while the men left to cities to find jobs. Without the girls being educated, only half the community has potential to grow.b. "In times of war, you often hear leaders—Christian, Jewish, and Muslim—saying, ‘God is on our side.’ But that isn’t true. In war, God is on the side of refugees, widows, and orphans." (Mortenson)Mortenson often referred to those types of people as the innocents. They were the people dragged into war and crisis without a desire for it, they were the people that should have been left untouched in the worlds crisis since they did not have a say to begin with.c.“They raised 62,340 pennies. These kids, in all their purity and innocence, were reaching out to kids halfway around the world.”At different points in the book Mortenson stressed on how the child's mind could be altered and shifted. Though Mortenson took the opportunity to change the lives of children half way across the world, he still managed to do so right here in America. Th fact more children helped raise money for the cause speaks for the purity and innocenFinally, provide how you interacted with the book.

What could you relate to? Were there parts that really spoke to you? (4-6 sentence paragraph)The book was about impoverished people in a third world country. It was not exactly the modern life that we enjoy today. I could never relate to anything these girls had to go through for their education or the rejection they faced. Education in America is taken completely for granted and to see how people must struggle to learn the basics is rather sad.