Three Cups of Tea

Three Cups of Tea

Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

Katy Harrison

The non-fiction novel, Three cups of tea, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, takes place in the Karakoram Mountains of Gilgit Baltistan Pakistan, 1993. The novel is a biography. It tells a story about  Greg Mortenson, the novel co-writer and an inspiring character, who ventured into Pakistan to accomplish his mission in the memory of the deceased sister, but ends up helping the entire community. The setting of the story is crucial to the plot. It is a perfect background for Greg’s noble and altruistic actions.   

Greg is a mountaineer and a nurse, who attempted to climb K2, the second highest mountain in the world. Having lost his sister, Greg made it his mission and purpose in life to do something outstanding to honor the memory of his deceased sister. He wanted to reach the summit and place his sister’s necklace at the top of the mountain. However, he lost his chance to reach the top when he stopped to help and rescue another climber and bring him down the mountain to safety. Having failed his mission, Greg experiences a great disappointment and finds himself in the village of Korphe, where he receives help from the inhabitants. During his time in the village, Greg discovers the poor living conditions of the people. He discovers a different world where the people have no opportunity to improve living conditions for themselves and their posterity.  The village does not have any schools, and children educate themselves by using sticks to write in the mud without a teacher to aid them. He also discovers that people are faced with a constant threat of terrorism, and that some young people were even joining the terrorist groups, due to lack of aim in life.

The setting pushes Greg to become proactive and try to help the people. The story revolves around his promise to make a change and help improve the living conditions.Greg instinctively realizes that education is the key to positive change. He realizes that he can bring that change, by providing initiative and means and by involving the villagers. Greg concludes that building a school would be a better monument to his sister than placing her necklace at the top of the mountain. Education is a powerful tool for improving the social and economic conditions for people in rural areas and a tool to combat poverty. Education is also a good way to counter the spread of terrorism and violence brought by certain Islamic groups. These groups propagated free education but also militant views, that would result in increased violence and terrorism.  Greg’s idea was to provide free and more liberal education that would discourage boys from joining militant Islamic groups and that would create better people.

Greg’s mission as a humanitarian requires significant sacrifices, financial and personal. We are left to admire Greg’s unselfishness and his love for mankind and hope that his efforts will result in a positive change for the local people.  

Unknown words:

Tenuous: Very weak or slight

The tenuous evidence provided by the witness was not enough to convince the jury of the innocence of the suspect.

Edema: a condition characterized by an excess of watery fluid collecting in the cavities or tissues of the body

Low levels of albumin in the blood cause edema.