Three Cups of Tea

So late last week I visited Cloudscome's site and read a post about a book called, "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson I thought, wow, that sounds like a great book. I thought that I would check it out at my local library and then read it over the holidays. Instead, it called for me when I was at the Barnes and Noble bookstore. It beckoned for me to read it, I bought it and then couldn't stop reading it until I was finished. What an inspiration to teachers, people who consider all muslims terriorists, anyone!
Late last week I wrote a post about peace, about how I feel we need to bring our troops home, because I want them home. We have so much work to do, we have so much we need to do for others. We are going about this war on terror all wrong. One thing that so inspired me about this book was not this man's mission, but my heart change. I have not been so kind in my words about the terrorists. I have not educated myself about them, I have not wanted to, I have been a terrorist in my thinking. How am I any better than they? My heart was changed for this underdeveloped country. I found myself thinking, "no wonder." Here is a country that is basically illiterate. These taliban "people" come to their villages and offer to educate them, especially in the Koran, and when they graduate from their madrassa they offer them money ($300 American dollars, a yearly fortune to most) to join the Taliban. Do you see why I said, "no wonder?" If I were poor, illiterate, barely able to support myself, let alone my village, I would take the money and run!
Greg Mortenson, and the CAI, have been working towards peace for over a decade, they have been building schools amongst the poorest of the poorest villages. They have been providing for the refugees from war torn villages. But most importantly, they have built trust among Americans and Muslims. Something our government has been supremely failing, since the war on terror began.
So what can we do? How can we help bring about even more peace? Below you will find some websites, more importantly read his book. You too, will walk away with a different view of what one person can do!
Three Cups of Tea Website
Something I would like to do in my school or classroom is have a Pennies for Peace campaign. Children can bring in pennies and donate them. The monies go to build schools in Central Asia. Can you believe that for a dollar a day they can pay a teacher there? It only takes $12,000 dollars to build a whole school!
How can you help? http://www.ikat.org/index.html