Three Cups of Tea

"Here (in Pakistan and Afghanistan), we drink three cups of tea to do business; the first you are a stranger, the second you become a friend, and the third, you join our family, and for our family we are prepared to do anything - even die." - Haji Ali, Korphe Village Chief, Karakoram Mountains, Pakistan

In 1993 a mountaineer named Greg Mortenson drifted into an impoverished Pakistan village in the Karakoram mountains after a failed attempt to climb K2. Moved by the inhabitants' kindness, he promised to return and build a school. Three Cups of Tea is the story of that promise and its extraordinary outcome. Over the next decade Mortenson built not only one but fifty-five schools - especially for girls - in the forbidding terrain tat gave birth to the Taliban. His story is at once a riveting adventure and a testament to the power of the human spirit.