I've always wanted to write about this book in a while. I picked up this book at Walmart last 2 winter. Haha, I know, it has been years ago & not a place that you will go to find a good book at the first place! At that time I was broke and staying up at State College while all my roommates went to West Coast. It was sad but I kill my time at home with XBox & this book.


Well, this book is about Greg Mortenson, an avid American mountaineer who lost his way at K2 (the second highest peak in the world & the most dangerous of all!) and being saved by villagers high up in the Pakistan Karakoram region. Korphe (the village name) was a peaceful-islamic village but desperately poor. Even with their poor status, they treat Mr. Mortenson the best they could with clothing and foods. One day, after his condition improves, he walked around the village to see what he can do to pay them back. He stumbled upon group of kids, sitting on pile of stones, holding sticks in their hands and scribbling on the dirt. When he approached them, he was brought down to tears as the kids was actually revising what they had learned a day before and the place they were seating on is actually their classroom. The teacher didn't come that day because it wasn't the teacher's turn to come and teach in Korphe. Korphe shares the teacher with other villages nearby as they don't have enough money to pay the teacher. From that moment on, Mr. Mortenson vow to built a formal school for them.

His first hurdled was; Greg Mortenson was only a male nurse! He wasn't rich man. He didn't even have an apartment because he usually bunked at the hospital's locker room. However, he had made a promise to people in Korphe that he will come back and built a school for them. He stick to it. He wrote hundreds of letters (with typewriter because he was computer illiterate!) to raise funds for the school. No one trust him. But he never give up. He saved his own money and keep on reaching people in America to help him built a school in Pakistan. One day, he managed to convince a fellow mountaineer to fund his project. Since then, he never look back and to-date his Central Asia Institute had built 130 schools in Pakistan & Afghanistan higher regions!

There were many conflicts involve in his quest. But he never backed down. He determine to help those poor people even though he didn't have anything on his own! He built the school totally free of charge and change the community's life forever. Now they could have regular school days, physicians to take care of their health, more vibrant economic activities and the best of all, spread education to lessen extremism views in that region! His school is independently govern by the community and it teaches local syllabus (including Islamic subjects; Quran recitations, Islamic Laws/Values & such!)

Greg Mortenson hasn't embrace Islam yet. However, his values & effort does portray positive signs. He respects Islam. He even perform the 5 a-day prayer with the community (once in while though). His intention never wanting to spread bad influence or converting people to any religion. His goal is clear; to educate and improves people's life through education. What a noble individual!

He is the living example that with correct mind-set, anything is possible. He has the motivation to make it happen. He built a very powerful organization from scratch (literally! because he himself has no money/assets to start with) which now has more than 130 schools in the region. I wish I have that determination.

Browse on to learn more about his story.
Central Asia Institute
Greg Mortenson Biography

**He has a new book! "Stones Into Schools" Will review once I've finish reading it. Just ordered through Amazon.com today! Haha :-P