Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

A friend of mine recently shared with me his experiences teaching in rural China where he had to take a 6 hour bus ride after getting off a 5 hour train from the airport where he said goodbye to civilisation.

I am not surprised considering the natural beauty of the place he lived in for a few weeks. He was reluctant to leave but he had to as he had a job to go back to.

In fact, he loved teaching there so much, he even contemplated taking an unpaid sabbatical to spend a year there. Such is the drive to return to "the ends of the Earth" to help kids in the mountain learn to read and speak English. 

 

Reading Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time, you will be inspired to do the same too.

David Oliver Relin, Adventurous Journalist

In the 1990s, Mr. Relin established himself as a journalist with an interest in telling “humanitarian” stories about people in need in articles about child soldiers and about his travels in Vietnam.

“He felt his causes passionately,” said Lee Kravitz, the former editor of Parade who hired Mr. Relin at various magazines over the years. “He especially cared about young people. I always assigned him to stories that would inspire people to take action to improve their lives.”

So it made sense when Viking books tapped him to write a book about Greg Mortenson, a mountain climber who had an inspiring story about building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Elizabeth Kaplan, the agent for the book, acknowledged that the relationship between the two men was difficult from the start. Mr. Mortenson, who was traveling to remote areas, could be hard to track down, and Mr. Relin spoke publicly about how Mr. Mortenson should not have been named a co-author. Still, the book was a huge success, selling more than four million copies.

Relin wasn't the face of Three Cups—that would be Mortensen, but he was still mired in the controversy and even a lawsuit from four readers who took issue with the book's authenticity. Back in 2011, 60 Minutes took a long look into the book, Mortensen, and his charity, and raised questions about fabrications, and whether the book was actually making good on its promise to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan (at the time there were unfinished schools). (Source: The Atlantic)

Central Asian Institute (CAI) in Korphe, Pakistan

 As the story goes, Greg Mortenson is an American nurse and mountaineer, who loses his way trying to climb K2, fails and wakes up to find himself in a destitute little village of Korphe in Pakistan.

He is deeply touched when he sees that the poor villagers used their most precious food supply e.g. sugar in tea for him, a total stranger.

Up and on his feet again, Mortenson asks to see the school only to be told that there is none. He's shocked especially when he sees young children drawing with sticks on the ground with nowhere to learn. 

The little girls remind him of his younger sister, who died from epilepsy, and inspired him to both become a nurse and scale the mountain.

Feeling indebted to them for their selfless act, he vows to return to build a school for them. Mortenson's journey raising funds back in the US is awe-inspiring as he receives only a few hundred dollars from the 380 letters he sent out!

However, he gradually gains support for his noble intention and eventually finds a generous donor from the Silicon Valley - Greg returns to Korphe to build his school for girls. The book was a bestseller for 4 years and many, many people are inspired and/or motivated to donate or even join the Central Asian Institute (CAI), the non-profit organization Mortenson sets up later.

The story sounds too good to be true and maybe it is? After all, how can Mortenson oversee the building of schools in the highly inaccessible and extreme weather conditions in Korphe, and its surroundings areas where the Taliban lurk; play his role as a husband and father and manage his charitable organization back in the US? You can read about the allegations against him here.

Reading about Mortenson's poor accounting and management skills, I am not surprised that he got into trouble. After all, his fund-raising efforts amount to US$5 billion of charitable donations from the public.

Mr. Mortenson acknowledged that some of the details in the book were wrong. Mr. Relin did not speak publicly about the charges, but he hired a lawyer to defend himself in a federal lawsuit that accused the authors and the publisher of defrauding readers. The suit was dismissed this year.

In April 2012, the Montana Attorney General’s office announced that Mr. Mortenson had agreed to repay the charity more than $1 million in travel and other expenses used to promote the book, including “inappropriate personal charges.”

As more and more "charitable organizations", "humanitarian groups" and "social enterprises" spring up to support various causes, you will find more and more skeptical people. If you want to set up such an organization, be as transparent as possible in all your accounting. And walk the talk.

Mortenson was born on December 27: Capricorn. Capricorns are well known for their determination, responsibility, and practicality. December 27 is also on the Sagittarius-Capricorn cusp, also called the Cusp of Prophecy. Individuals born on this cusp may exhibit traits of both Sagittarius and Capricorn, such as a love of adventure and a strong work ethic. He is also a Fire Rooster (1957).

On the other hand, David Oliver Relin was born on December 12, 1962, a Water Tiger. Water tigers are quite confident about their ability and they can always go all out step by step in the face of any challenge rather than out of mind because of some trifles or mood. Being calm and careful, water tigers pay attention to humanity and they dislike the rigid and dogmatic procedure. They can always seize the current general ideas and the future popular trend. Also, water tigers are willing to adopt new ideas and techniques and they judge things clearly, rarely making mistakes. However, they need to look out for their indecision; otherwise, they will waste time and energy and delay the original plan. They should make good use of their judgment and not be too timid for the determined things to avoid losing the opportunity.