We met Greg Mortenson!

On Tuesday night, Eric and I drove to Lincoln to hear a talk by an extraordinary man. Based on the recommendation of a kind stranger on a plane, we read a book recently called Three Cups of Tea, about a regular guy from the states who, after he is saved from death by exposure by a kind Pakistani village called Korphe, decides to build a schoolhouse for them (their "school" was a dirt clearing) in gratitude. The book is fantastic and entirely true-- packed with mountain climbing and culture shock adventures, creative solutions in the face of obstacles so ridiculous (and frightening) you could spit, and a true testament to the kind of world understanding and better choices a good education can foster. I learned on Tuesday night something I am so incredibly proud to say: Three Cups of Tea is now required reading for senior US military officials.

The book's subject, co-author and determined philanthrophist Greg Mortenson has the most unbelievable touring schedule I've ever seen, and he made a stop at Union College in Lincoln this week to talk with an absolutely packed and riveted audience. I talked to a lady who said she bought her tickets on July 17th, and 863 tickets had already been sold! We bought on August 3 and I thought I'd been quick about it.


Please pardon our camera phone pictures! We forgot our camera, as usual.

Greg is a nervous speaker. He's one of those who is always a little short of breath, always rubbing his palms on his pants. He's a little heavier than the pictures in his book (which has to be the constant travel and room service coupled with little exercise and perpetual exhaustion), so he trundles a bit when he walks. His sport coat was too tight, he was sweaty and and inflected only a little when he spoke. But the crowd was enthralled; every other sentence he spoke raised gales of applause. The crowd was not at all what I expected....there were very few young people there. The absolute vast majority of the crowd was seniors. Seniors! I actually felt a little ashamed at being so totally surprised. I will freely admit that I don't generally think of seniors as having the types of open minds necessary to really get into this kind of material. Which doesn't quite make sense because they have lived so long, so they should have more open minds. Many of the older folks I know have allowed their experiences to narrow them, so now I tend to generalize. It was different and kind of cool to be shown the wrongness in my thinking that way.

Greg offered a lot of really interesting information on Pakistan and Afghanistan, and there were even some nationals in the audience who asked him about his interactions with the Parliament and other authority figures, and had specific requests of him-- please appeal to this mullah who keeps denouncing you in this region, please get the government to allow you to film a commercial in which you tell the people how Americans are helping-- and they got all emotional when talking about how their countrymen slander Americans for being selfish when that is not the case. It was moving. We felt very lucky to be there.



By the way, Union College students are an incredibly chipper bunch.

After the talk, an announcer said that only 150 people could get their books signed and that we could get a ticket for that from the ushers as we left the main hall. The A tickets would be signed first, then Bs, Cs and Ds. Three people ahead of us, the last tickets were given out. OF COURSE! So we took our time leaving, went to the restroom, had a cup of delicious cinnamon tea with little cookies. I had a donation yet to give and just needed to relinquish my envelope, so I made my way over to a student and asked him where I could put it. Just as he said "Oh I'm sorry....I don't know," a lady came up and said "We live in Omaha and can't stay and this line is just crazy, so here's my ticket back." It was a B. I put on a coy smile and asked if that ticket was available...so of course he gave it to me! YAY! Eric was really excited. It took us an hour and a half to get through the line, but we got to shake Greg's hand and thank him, and he wrote in our book and Eric's mom's too. Greg looked exhausted and I felt kind of bad for tiring him further with small talk and the possibility of carpal tunnel...but it's not every day that you get to meet a legend of a person who is truly, honestly making the world a better place.



Here are two very nice articles on Greg's visit this week in the Lincoln Journal Star.

Greg finished his second book, Stones into Schools, just this past Monday. I think it's to be released by Christmas. There's also a kids' book, Listen to the Wind, which will be an interesting read someday.

If you are interested in world politics and especially those of the middle east in a post-911 world, as well as a dramatically inspiring success story of just one guy who cared enough to repay a debt to people commonly misunderstood, you would probably enjoy his book. Book synopsis on this page

Mortenson's website

The Central Asia Institute's website

Spending our Tuesday night in Lincoln with Greg was totally worthwhile. And if he ever comes to Lincoln or Omaha again, you can bet we'll be there, books outstretched, questions at the ready.