"Three Cups of Tea" Author at Bellows Falls Middle School
On Tuesday, Nov. 6 at 7p.m. Rockingham Free Public Library (RFPL) in Bellows Falls*, will host an author visit with Greg Mortenson, who wrote the N.Y. Times bestseller, "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission To Promote Peace: One School at a Time,*" co-authored by David Oliver Relin (Penguin 2007).
***Because of this event's popularity, the event has been moved to the Bellows Falls Middle School: 15 School Street, Bellows Falls. ***
Greg Mortenson is living an astonishing life filled with high adventure, exotic travelling and above all else, he is a humanitarian with a mission of peace, intent on improving lives. Mortenson's lifelong interest in mountaineering culminated in a 1993 climb of Pakistan's treacherous K2, the world's second highest mountain, which changed his life. Since then, he has dedicated his life as a humanitarian devoted to promote education, especially to girls, in remote, volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. He sees the education of girls as one of the major solutions to bring economic development, peace and prosperity to impoverished societies, and says, "you can hand out condoms, drop bombs, build roads, or put in electricity, but until the girls are educated a society won't change".
This dedication to his mission has led him into dangerous, arduous and life threatening experiences: In 1996, he survived an eight day armed kidnapping in the Northwest Frontier Province tribal areas of western Pakistan, and in 2003,escaped a firefight with feuding Afghan warlords by hiding for eight hours under putrid animal hides in a truck going to a leather-tanning factory. He has overcome two fatwehs from Islamic mullahs, and also received hate mail and threats from his fellow Americans after 9/11, for helping Muslim children with education.
And rewards have also been part of his story, As of 2007, Mortenson has established 58 schools in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan, which provide education to over 24,000 children, including 14,000 girls, where few education opportunities existed before. "If we put 1 percent of the money we put in the war on terror into education, it could have a profound difference," he says. His deeds and successes have made him a living hero to rural communities of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he has gained the trust of Islamic leaders, military commanders and tribal chiefs from his tireless effort to champion education.
Tom Brokaw writes:"Three Cups of Tea" is one of the most remarkable adventure stories of our time. Greg Mortenson's dangerous and difficult quest to build schools in the wildest parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan is not only a thrilling read, it's proof that one ordinary person, with the right combination of character and determination, really can change the world."
Refreshments will be served.
This event is free & open to the public.
Please call the library with questions:
802-463-4270