Natalie

Intro- Chapters 3 due Tuesday

 * Summary : Three Cups of Tea starts out telling the story of Greg Mortenson, a mountain climber with strong ambitions and a big heart who set out to climb the mountain K2 but on his way back down gets lost and stumbles upon the village of Korphe. The story starts out with Mortenson lost on the mountain after falling behind his group on the way down. It then flashes to the beginning of his climb when he and his friend Darsney made their way to one of the check points, exhausted after a long day of climbing, when they saw a help signal from one of the faster climbers higher up the mountain. Exhausted, Mortenson and Darsney took a short rest before starting the climb up to help their friend in need. Pratt and Mazur the two other climbers with Fine (who was in high altitude shock) were carrying him down and when Mortenson and Darsney joined them their help was gladly welcomed. They finally made it down to one check point and called the rescue helicopter but they said it was too high for them to come get them. So they took a quick rest and then completely exhausted they basically crawled down to the lower checkpoint, dragging Fine in a sleeping back behind them. They were welcomed as heroes and Fine was saved. Pratt and Mazur rested and started back up the mountain. Mortenson and Darney slept for days before they called it quits to start heading back down.On the way, that was when Mortenson got lost. Soon though he found his way back to the trail and he stumbled upon his guide Mouzafer. Mouzafer led him down the mountain, thanking Allah for his safety. Once they were safely on dry ground, Mouzafer went on ahead and set up camp for every night because Mortenson moved slow. They were heading back for Askole, but Mortenson yet again went astray and arrived at the little village of Korphe. He stayed there for a little, getting to know the people before Mouzafer was brought to the village to take him rightly to Askole. Mortenson didn't stay there for long, soon he was back in Korphe because he felt drawn there. One time he asked the cheif to see their school and he discovered that they didn't have one. That the kids gathered together and worked without a teacher for 5 days out of 7. He was heart broken and he promised to build them a school. All his life he had taken care of his sister Christa who was suffering from acute side affects of Meningitis. She died on her 23 birthday. He wanted to honor her memory. **


 * Passage Master : Excerpts from pg. 3 that preface Mortenson Accomplishments because they already set him on the pedestal of greatness. Pg. 9 "After Christa's death..." meaningful passage about what he wants to do for the memory of his sister because it shows the kind of person he is. Pg. 30 Talking of the misfortune in the village of Korphe to show the suffering and understand what is going on there. Last paragraph on page 33. It tells the preface of what is going to happen, of what he is planning on doing.

**Chapters 4 though 6

Summery: **The beginning of chapter four goes back and tells the story of Mortenson's childhood in Tanzania. It tells the story of how he has three sisters and he grew up for fourteen years in Africa. His father built a learning hospital and had a huge influence over the people of Tanzania who felt a connection to him when he opened the hospital and rewarded the people with praise at their success. We can already see where Mortenson gets his people skills and persuasion with people of different cultures.At the age of 11 he climbed his first mountain, Kilimanjaro, and he hated the climb the whole way up but once he got to the top he fell in love with the view. The Mortenson family moved back to Minnesota when he was fourteen. He went into the army after high school, which was right after the Vietnam War so army moral was very low. He studied medicine and became a medic. His dad died, and then he went out to California to be a nurse and a climber. He took the odd hours of nursing that no one wanted so he could go climbing all the time. He dated a park ranger named Anna and one day when they were on a mountain climb he slipped and slid down thousands of feet of rock, breaking his arm. He called his mom to tell her that he survived and he found out that during the time he was falling, his favorite sister Christa (whom he had taken care of and gotten a job for) had died. After the funeral he felt lost until he got the call to be the medic for the K2 climb, and it was then that he decided to honor his sisters memory with the climb. The flashback ends and it goes to present where Mortenson was a nurse and didn't have enough money for the school. He starts dating a doctor and he receives money from his moms school for the school in Pakistan, and then he got money from one of the doctors friends so he had enough money for the school. He goes to Pakistan, and starts buying supplies at the same time he is starting to embrace the Muslim culture.

I think that the individual still creates history because it is his character that helps him advance and gain peoples trust to accomplish his goal.**

Researcher:

Following are approximate prices in Lahore market during the month of March 2009. Construction including material per square ft= Rupees 1250 to 1500 Labour cost without material per square ft= 125 to 150 Electricity & Plumbing per square ft= 10 Rupees each Cement bag= 325 Stone crush= 40 Rupees per square ft. Sand Truck= Rupees 12000 Bathroom Tiles= Rupees 300 to 1200 per square meter Marble= 20 to 80 Rupees per square ft. Bricks= 3600 to 4000 Rupees per 1000 Approximate covered area for single storey house 5 Marla= 1125 square ft. 10 Marla= 1800 square ft.

1 Kanal= 3200-3600

1 Pakistan rupee = 0.011872 U.S. dollars
 * Just to put into perspective how much it should cost to actually build stuff in Pakistan.**


 * Chapters 7 through 10

Summery:Chapter seven consists of Mortenson gathering all the supplies on his truck and making the journey through the mountains to the town of Skardu. They travel along a steep gorge path and make it to a bridge which is blocked by Al Quaeda because they got promised an unfufilled promise by the government. Finally an agreement is made and they let everyone pass. When Mortenson arrives at Skardu, he goes to his friend from before his K2 hike, Changazi who takes his supplies and puts them in storage. Soon though another one of K2's friends from the hike, Akhmalu, comes and takes Mortenson to his village because he wants Mortenson to build the school there. He leaves the next day and Changazi tricks him into coming to his own village where he plans on building the school. Mortenson is overcome with anger and demands to be taken to Korphe. When he gets to Korphe he is grandly welcomed back and everyone runs up and hugs him but he soon finds out that they cannot build the school without building a bridge first. He is crushed. He goes back home to try to raise money for a bridge. Moreena dumps him when he gets home and he is even more devastated. He has no where to stay so he ends up crashing at an old climbing friends place. His other Doctor friend tells him to call the same guy who gave him the money the first time, so he does. The guy, Jean, gives him the money with a promise for a picture of the school when its done. Elated to be starting again, Mortenson goes back to Korphe with supplies for the bridge, by the next winter the bridge is built and he and the elders make plans to start building the school the following Spring. He even finds a teacher among the Korphe men. Mortenson is nearing 40 though and he wants to get married, but he hasn't met anyone yet.

Even though things get very tough for Mortenson and he keeps having to start over, he keeps at it and he keeps his promises to the Korphe people. It is truly the individual who creates history because it is Mortenson's perseverance which has gotten him this far. He has a heart of gold and is honest to the people. I can expect only great things for his future because he has created great things in his history.

Connector: We go to school everyday, working on laptops and having books and ipods and phones. These people have none of this, yet they have happiness. All they want is an education, and we sometimes complain about having to go to school. Imagine if the tables were turned and how lucky we would feel to get a bridge so we could have a school. **

Chapters 11-14

Summery: Mortenson goes back home in hopes of gathering some money to live off of so he can build his school. Marina comes back and says shes sorry and that she made a mistake and she wants him back but he says no, he is over her. He goes to see Jean and shows him pictures of the bridge and then gets in contact with an American named McCowen whom he ran into in Pakistan. They all see each other at a great ceremony where Sir Edmund Hillary is giving a speech. Mortenson meets the love of his life, Tara Bishop there and 6 days later they get married. He puts up his return trip to Pakistan four times just to stay with her because they are so in love. Finally he leaves and waves goodbye to his new wife and goes back to Korphe where he starts to build his school. Before he had left Jean convinces him he could get paid for the work he is doing by McCowen so he has something to live off. He gets to Korphe and starts to build the school, at first he is very domineering and controlling. He tries to make everything perfect but that annoys the Korphe people and he is told to back off and watch. At the beginning of the building process, the Korphe people spent a lot of time sanctifying the building ground by sacrifices and prayers. Even though at first, the Muslim religious leader did not agree with the school that was built by an infidel and would teach girls as well as boys, he soon became a huge supporter and he even helped carry the roof pieces 18 miles to Korphe. Another leading tribe came to rebel against the school but Maji Ali stood tall and though they walked away with half the towns rams, Maji turned with his head held high at the thought of his children finally getting education. Finally the school was finished and Mortenson went home to his wife whom he found out was pregnant. Jean wanted him to set up an organization to build schools all over middle east as his job, and he named Mortenson the CEO of the business. Mortenson had to go back to Pakistan to find out where he would build his next school. He wanted to go to the Walik tribes that had defeated the British and Alexander the Great. He was fascinated with them so he found a way into their lands with a driver he befriended who brought him there. When he got there he was welcomed with a feast but when he fell asleep he awoke to a gun pointed at him and he was taken prisoner. He was kept prisoner for 10 days with little hope of surviving. He knew Tara would be worried as he was only supposed to be gone a couple days, and he became depressed missing her. Finally on the 10th day they took him out and blind folded and he thought that he was going to be shot. Instead they brought him to a celebration and said that he would be freed. He was overcome with relief and was anxious to return home to his love.

I think it is really Mortenson's character that got him through the tough time when he was imprisoned. Someone could argue that his imprisonment shaped him as a person, and there is no doubt that it affected him, but it was his individual personality as a whole that actually got him out alive. He is going to shape a better future, where waring groups can be at peace.

Director: What are your views on the true love between Tara and Mortenson? How has Mortenson shown that an individual creates history? Is Mortenson too trusting in the land of the Taliban? Discuss how Mortenson was feeling when he was captured, how did his character affect his feelings and his outcome? When the school was finished and he was offered the job to build more, how did this shape his life? Why is it that the people holding him captive would have cared more if he was having a baby boy, then the truth that it was a baby girl?

5-14-10 Chapter 15-16

Summery: Mortenson and his wife have a baby girl, he names her middle name the same middle name that his sister Christa had. He starts having a schedule where he calls his Pakistan office at night before he goes to bed, which is morning for them, and then he wakes up at 2 in the morning to call them again at the end of their work day. Usually he doesn't get more than five hours of sleep. While his life at home is very happy and he loves his wife and new baby girl and they are even talking of having more children, he is called by his Pakistani accountant that a corrupt religious leader has made a religious law against his schools. Mortenson finds out that he has to go back to Pakistan sooner than he hoped and when he returns, he gathers all his Pakistani friends, ranging from a Taxi driver he ran into after his kidnapping to his friends from Korphe. They made plans to figure out what towns they would build schools in. Before Mortenson had come back, his friend Jean was diagnosed with Leukemia and he had rushed to finish the Korphe school in order to show Jean a picture. He took care of the sick old man until his death. When he died, he left Mortenson's new company over a million of dollars. So Mortenson was determined to build as many schools as he could, quickly before the religious law went into affect to ban him. He built three schools in three months. It was faster now because he knew what he was doing. And then for the inaugural ceremony for the Korphe school, he brought Tara, his daughter (who was only 9 months), and his mother to see it. They were over joyed to see all the accomplishments that their loved Mortenson had put his heart into.

Passage Master: I picked several passages that exemplified how Mortenson's personality made him so successful in bringing people together.He has Shiites and the Sunnis working together when they have been warring for years. His accomplishments knows no bounds which is why, he as an individual will change history.

5-18-10 Chapter 16-19

Summery:After doing so much in mere months, as much as he could, Mortenson patiently waits the verdict of the head religious council of Iran as to whether or not he is banned from continuing his charitable work in the Middle East. When he finds out that he is free and welcome to continue his travels and building schools and even supported in doing so by the council, he and the people who work for him are overjoyed and he sets off right away to figure out what the CAI will do next. He started getting really stressed because so many people were coming to him and asking for his help but he couldn't help everyone and he was stretching himself too thin. He helped bring water to a village so that the people could actually take care of themselves and the child mortality rate was cut in half. Then Mortenson met a man who was the leader of a village in the Hushe valley, when he was a child his father sent him down the river so that he could travel to a place where he could receive schooling. Now, he sought Mortenson's help to build a school in his own village so his children wouldn't have to be sent away to get schooled. His daughter was the first woman of the Hushe valley to be educated. "For these blessings I thank Almighty Allah, and Mister Greg Mortenson." Mortenson went through refugee camps and funded a doctor to come and perform surgeries and teach local doctors to perform them themselves when he was gone. He set up a teacher workshop for all the teachers of his new schools to learn a curriculum and he spent his time traveling from village to village visiting his schools. Soon the Pakistani region of Kashmir was under constant attack from their Indian neighbor and thousands of people escaped to a refugee camp in Skardu. Hearing stories from half a world away, Mortenson left for Pakistan to see if he could help. With help from the military and a local religious leader, Mortenson helped the refugees that were camped in the dunes of the desert build a water tank with a pump from underground water and a school so they could start a new life. As Mortenson continued to stretch himself thinner and thinner, it was taking a toll and he no longer took care of himself. He started ignoring calls and pissing off those people that worked for him and their funds were dwindling so he had to give presentations asking people for donations. It wasn't going too well and he tried unsuccessfully to petition the help of very rich people. They used him and never donated. His wife became impatient and told him he had to actually be in the family too, and things changed when his son was born. He loved his family and he would do anything for him. As conflict arose and stress increased in Pakistan on all borders and the Al Quaeda and the Taliban became more active, Mortenson felt a pull to just jump in and fight to protect the innocent that were getting killed everyday. He found ways of supplying people with things without having to pick up a gun.

Mortenson is changing history because of his character and his personality to never give up, but he also has some flaws and is spreading himself too thin. Maybe it was circumstance of his childhood that made him able to endure and thrive in the Pakistani way of life. He was used to the constant fight for survival which is why someone with a comfortable sheltered home all their life would have a harder time living in Pakistan as he has. But it is still his personality that is keeping him from giving up especially when funds are low and he still wants to help so many people.

Researcher: [|http://ikashmir.net/slides/doc/pakterrorismoct2003.pdf] Website power point on Pakistan right before and after the 9/11 attack, focuses on the Al Quaeda and Taliban influences in the government. Good source to put into perspective the turmoil that was going on in the country during this time in Mortenson's story. All the refugees and attacks going on around him were brought about by these acts.

Article written in August 2007 [] " ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Newly declassified intelligence documents reveal the depth of U.S. officials’ concern that Pakistan was providing funds, arms — and even combat troops — to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan for years before the Sept. 11 attacks. They also show rising frustration at what U.S. officials called Pakistan’s “resistance and/or duplicity” toward Washington’s repeated requests for help in getting the Taliban to hand over Osama bin Laden. A top official at one point said hauling Pakistan before the U.N. Security Council should be considered. The documents, released under a Freedom of Information Act request by George Washington University’s National Security Archive and posted on its Web site, add detail to what is already generally known about U.S. intelligence on Pakistan’s links with the Taliban as it surged to power in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s.

The cables and letters between senior U.S. officials — most of them stamped “confidential” and heavily redacted for public release — lay out those concerns in language stripped of diplomatic niceties. All but one of the 35 documents deal with the period between December 1994 and September 2000. Sensitive details, including what appear to be names, have been blacked out in many places. They show that U.S. officials as early as 1994 believed Pakistan’s intelligence services were deeply involved with the Taliban and its takeover that year of the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. It was the first major victory for the then-obscure religious militia that went on to capture the capital, Kabul, in September 1996 and then gain control of almost all of Afghanistan by mid-1997. Responding to the new documents, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam reiterated Pakistan’s previous strong denials that the country ever gave military support to the Taliban. She also denied Pakistan ignored U.S. requests to use its influence to persuade the Taliban to surrender bin Laden. In 1996, U.S. intelligence officials concluded Pakistan’s Interservice Intelligence was more involved with the Taliban than Pakistani officials had been telling American diplomats. An Oct. 22 cable to Washington said the service was supplying the Taliban with food and fuel, adding that “munitions convoys depart Pakistan late in the evening hours and are concealed to reveal their true contents.”
 * Pakistan denies claims**

Two weeks later, another cable to Washington said large numbers of Pakistan’s Frontier Corps were being “utilized in command and control; training; and when necessary — combat” in Afghanistan. The Frontier Corps were comprised mostly of ethnic Pashtuns, who would not stand out among the Taliban, who were also mostly Pashtuns. Aslam denied the cable’s claims. “That’s absolutely baseless. Our troops have never been involved inside Afghanistan,” she said. The Taliban regime imposed a version of Islamic rule that was among the world’s strictest — subjugating women, banning music and chopping off the hands of thieves. But the Taliban won support inside and outside Afghanistan because its rise quelled fighting among regional warlords whose battle over power after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989 killed countless civilians. “There was a time when everyone supported them, because after the civil war everyone thought that they would bring stability and peace to Afghanistan and they might unify the nation,” Aslam said. Pakistan gave diplomatic recognition to Taliban rule in May 1997; recognition followed from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. "

Chapter 20-21

Summery: 9/11 has changed everything in Mortenson's world. Especially coupled with his mentor Haji Ali's death Mortenson was fighting indefinitely for his cause.His taxi driver friend takes him to the Marriot where all these reporters are camped out trying to find the biggest scoop and story while also trying to get across the border to Afghanistan. Mortenson tries to spread the message that not all Muslims are bad and that to fight the war on terror they must all unite and bring education to the youth of Pakistan and Afghanistan. All these interviews and messages that he sent back to the US got him receiving hate mail for what he was trying to do for the people of Pakistan. Americans called him a traitor and said that God would punish him for what he was doing. He almost gave up but he came around and kept on doing his thing. He goes back to Pakistan because he cant stand being away when so much is going on and he cant do anything to stop it. He wants to go back and help the people that he can and try to get into Afghanistan because he knows they are worse off then the children in Pakistan.He tries to cross the border to Afghanistan but they say he needs a different kind of passport and rip his making it illegitimate. When he goes to get a completely new passport and they see that he has been to so many places in Pakistan, they alert the US military. The U.S. question him and ask him where Osama Bin Laden is. He is finally released to continue his work. He finally finds a way to get into Afghanistan and view what the schools are like there and starts seeing how he can help. He even pays teachers that have not been paid in years the salary that the government owes the. Mortenson realizes that the money that the U.S. government was promising to rebuild Afghanistan was not coming and helping the people, instead most of it wasn't even arriving and the little that did went to help the U.S. military bases. He goes back to Washington D.C. and briefs some of the U.S. military leaders and he is offered military money to support his fight on terror. He refuses it however because he knows that if the people he was trying to help knew he was using U.S. government money then they would turn against him.

Connector: Where were you on 9/11? What was your state of mind afterwards? All these people trying to apologize to Mortenson for something that they didn't do.

End of the book

Summery:At the beginning of the second to last chapter, Mortenson returns to Korphe with a reporter and his photographer because they want to write an article about the area. The reporter however learns all that Mortenson is doing in the region and the support he has from the people and how he is effectively fighting the war on terror. When the reporter comes back to the U.S. and writes his article, he makes it all about how great Mortenson which gains him and the CAI a lot of the well deserved support that they needed. Soon there are donations flowing in and the company's bank account is over 1 million. Mortenson is able to take a well deserved raise and give raises to all the people who work for him in Pakistan. He is also able to start expanding his progress from new schools in Pakistan to schools in Afghanistan to fulfill the promises he had made to the northern riders who had traveled 6 days to find him. He was welcomed to the land with new ambitions to continue building schools all over the area and actually fighting the war on terror.

Mortenson changed history with his character and personality. Because of his perseverance he has kept to his goals and promises. He is a true American Hero.

Director: How is Mortenson a true American Hero? What do you see in his future? How do the events in this chapter exemplify his character? Do you still believe it is the individual creating history or the history creating the individual? How have the people Mortenson influenced changed? How has Mortenson changed throughout this journey? Do you consider his goals successful?