Greg Mortenson's School-Building Program in Central Asia Dates Back
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1208_Mortenson_final.qxp_1014:Feature 10/23/08 1:22 PM Page 72 Mortenson near his home in Bozeman, No Montana, July 2008 Bachcheh Left photograph by dan winters Behind Greg Mortenson’s school-building program in Central Asia dates back to 1993, when the banged-up K2 survivor made a pledge to the Himalayan villagers who took him in. Fifteen years and Three Cups of Tea later, it’s both a powerful example of a great idea and a chaotic, ongoing adventure. KEVIN FEDARKO hits the rough road with Mortenson in Afghanistan, where they roll with warlords and deliver {teacher pay the old-fashioned way: with a $100,000 bag of cash}. 1208_Mortenson_final.qxp_1014:Feature 10/23/08 1:22 PM Page 74 THE HABIB BANK OCCUPIES a four-story can mutters. “You know, we should probably building in Kabul’s Shahr-i-Nau district, a call and find out—” neighborhood that features an outdoor photo “—what Wakil is up to?” says the Pakistani, exhibit of Afghan land-mine amputees, an In - completing the thought. He punches the cell- ternet café that was blown up by a suicide phone code for Wakil Karimi, their Pashtun ac - bomber in 2005, and a man holding a trained complice in this morning’s operation. Three monkey on a chain. At five minutes to nine on a seconds into Wakil’s woefully unacceptable re - TSaturday morning, the monkey’s eyes dart to - port, the Pakistani’s face darkens with anger. ward the bank’s entrance as two men in combat “What the hell are you doing sitting down vests come charging out through the doors. drinking chai?! This is not an episode from The figure in front, a hulking six-foot- Three Cups of Tea ! Get your butt outside the four American, is wearing a pair of size-15 airport—now!” Merrell clogs and a shalwar kameez, the pa - As the taxi weaves through donkey carts and jama-style robes favored by men throughout battered minivans, the shouting continues. Afghanistan. Behind him is a former Pak - “Have our tickets ready! Have a porter stand - istani commando whose right hand is frozen ing by! Tell security to let us through!” into a kind of claw. In it, he clutches a plastic The men brace as the cab screeches to a bag just given to him by the lady who brings stop at the airport entrance, and there stands fresh-baked bread to the bank’s employees poor Wakil, with his Areeba flip unit glued to every morning. The bag now holds 23 bricks his ear, enduring the novel misery of finding of cash totaling $100,000. The cash is dust - himself excoriated in person and over the ed with flour, and both men are running as if phone at the same time. the devil himself were after them. “You know, some people say that we’re just They jump into a cab that plunges into the totally winging things over here in this part of morning traffic, speeding past tea shops and the world, but that’s not really fair,” the Amer - Indian video stores and into the Wazir Akbar ican remarks, somewhat defensively, as he Khan roundabout, where the driver unwisely shuffles toward the gate, where it is now being opts for a shortcut that involves entering the announced that the flight has been delayed thing in the wrong direction. for three hours. Oops. Before completing the arc of an argument A policeman blocks the vehicle and slams his whose abundant illogic has escaped his notice, fists on the hood. Then he reaches through the he pats his pockets to make sure he hasn’t open window and starts shaking the driver by dropped a stray wad of cash that will cover the his lapels while unleashing a blast of enraged annual salaries of 20 schoolteachers working in Dari, the language spoken throughout half of the mountains of northern Afghanistan. Afghanistan. From the backseat, the retired “It’s true, of course, that back in the early commando calmly vise-grips the driver’s neck days we may have been flying by the seat of and barks a one-word command: “ Burro!” our pants a bit. But, believe me, we are much Rough translation: “Floor it.” more organized now.” The driver rams the accelerator, leaving the Mortenson greeting cop kicking the side of the cab as it resumes its THE PROVENANCE OF THAT hundred thou - students in the race toward Kabul International Airport, where sand dollars, which was assembled through Baltistan region the men’s plane was scheduled to start board - small and large donations from every corner of of Pakistan ing at 8:40 A.M. the U.S., was as diverse as America itself. It had “Hey, what time is it?” the American won - come from Muslims and Hindus, Christians ders as he stuffs cash into his vest. and Jews, Buddhists and atheists, and maybe “Nine-o-five,” the Pakistani grunts. “Too even a Wiccan or two. Some of it was sent by a bad we cannot ring up Mr. Siddiqqi.” Baptist youth group in Alabama; some came Mr. Siddiqqi would be a big help right now. fromaNorthCarolinachapterofFutureTeach - He ran the control tower at Kabul’s airport ers of America ; and some was a gift from vet - for 38 years—a period spanning the Soviet er ans of the 82nd Airborne Division. From ters of the Central Asia Institute (CAI), an op - her 23rd birthday. After exhausting himself by with no teacher in sight. One of them was a girl schools—literally one cent at a time, beginning occupation of Afghanistan, from 1979 to Massachusetts, a 12-year-old girl named eration created to honor a promise made in taking part in the successful high-altitude res - named Chocho, who made Mortenson promise with a school in Wisconsin where the kids filled 1989; the anarchic civil war that followed; Gabby contributed $50 that she’d earned 1993. That was the year Greg Mortenson—the cue of another climber, he was forced to turn tocomebacksomedayandbuildthemaschool. two 40-gallon trash cans with 62,345 pennies. and the country’s seven-year imprisonment babysitting. Lorraine, a single mother from fellow now catching his breath inside the con - back 2,000 feet shy of the summit. Then, while The fulfillment of that pledge—the subse - When the book was published, in March under the Taliban, from 1996 until the U.S.- Simi Valley, California, sent in a box of pennies verted shipping container that serves as our trekking down the 39-mile Baltoro Glacier, quent chain of events through which a lost 2006, it debuted at number 14 on The New led invasion following September 11. Back worth $7.47, followed later by a check for $25. departure lounge inside the Kabul airport— Mortenson got separated from his Balti porter mountaineer found his life’s calling by pro - York Times ’ nonfiction bestseller list before then, anyone who had taken the trouble to From San Diego, an 82-year-old woman named attempted to climb K2, the world’s second- and wound up staggering into a village called moting literacy in the impoverished Muslim dropping off. Then, starting last year, sales pay a visit to the tower and have a cup of tea Hannah, retired and living on a shoestring, highest mountain. He did so while wearing a Korphe, a place so destitute that roughly one in villages of the eastern Himalayas —is a story began to explode. Driven by a surge of inter - with Siddiqqi needed only to give him a ring wrote to say she wanted to help with what little shalwar kameez, taking on this killer peak every three children perished before the age of that, by now, a lot of people have heard. Two est from women’s book clubs and churches, if they were running late, and he’d hold their she could spare. She gave $100. with a group of 12 underequipped climbers one. It was in Korphe that he was offered shel - years ago, with the help of co-author David the book climbed to the top of the paperback plane. Unfortunately, Siddiqqi’s recent re - Regardless of where the money originated, who were known as the Rejects. ter, food, tea, and a bed. And it was in Korphe, Oliver Relin, Mortenson, now 50, laid out his list, where at press time it had spent more tirement has now created the possibility of all of it had been funneled through a three- Mortenson had launched the climb in mem - one afternoon during his recuperation, that he unusual saga in Three Cups of Tea, a book that than 27 weeks at number one. As of October, something unthinkable. story office building at the east end of Main ory of his younger sister Christa, who’d suf - came across 82 children sitting outside writing tells the tale of how he sold his car and his Three Cups of Tea had sold 2.1 million copies, “We’re about to miss this plane,” the Ameri - Street in Bozeman, Montana, the headquar - fered from epilepsy and had died of a seizure on their school lessons with sticks in the dirt— climbing gear and started raising money for been printed in 19 languages, and spawned a 74 Outside Photograph by Teru Kuwayama OUTSIDEONLINE.COM Outside 75 1208_Mortenson_final.qxp_1014:Feature 10/23/08 1:22 PM Page 76 sequel—due out next fall—that will complete Through it all, Mortenson has struck a South Korea, China, and Rwanda. the dirtbag-to-rock-star chronicle of a chord with groups that don’t usually see eye Mortenson’s visibility, however, has put him mountaineer who, by all reasonable expecta - to eye.