Customer Reviews

Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan

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In his latest book, Greg Mortenson hosts the reader as a valuable and welcomed traveling companion as he retraces his steps through the most remote areas of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier areas and the formidable terrain of Afghanistan holding a mirror to our humanity. Mortenson introduces us to his trusted companions t...urned employees of Central Asia Institute, the so-called "Dirty Dozen", who truly embody the virtues of goodwill and perseverance in the name of literacy and, of course, God.

In short, Greg Mortenson's work makes Anthony Bordain's exotic travel look like a visit to Epcot Center.

Mortenson's committment to cross-cultural understanding beyond the borders of Pakistan and Afghanistan is rivaled only by his determination to educate the under-served girls in the most remote areas of these countries. Stones Into Schools is a suspenseful, heart-breaking as it is heart-warming, true account of a life well lived and a people well-served. Mortenson is an honor to the human race and diplomat for world peace. About now, Greg Mortenson would do well to take his own advice and sit for a month under a walnut tree to recuperate.

I read Three Cups of Tea was was incredibly inspired by Greg Mortenson. His second book is even better in my opinion. Teaching people that they have the power to change themselves is so simple but sometimes takes incredibale amounts of work by other people. Greg and his team have performed incredible acts of bravery, endurance, and dedication to the noble cause of providing education to the girls of Pakistan and Afghanistan. You will not be able to put this book down. You also learn firsthand accounts of the success of many of the first girls to go through Greg's schools.
Read this book for an incredible account of an individual who has changed the world for so many people,

I tend to collect mostly management books on my Kindle, so I have been looking forward to Greg Mortensen's latest report on his activities in his remote part of the world (also where my son works every day). I don't think the world has two more opposite places than Burnet County and Kunar Province. Since 2003, we've built a nice high school here in Burnet for our 1000+ kids, and later on a playground (stadium). Greg's outfit has built and staffed 129 schools, and innumerable civic improvements, such as bridges and water systems, to supply educational services to a previously unserved populace, at a cost of $1-3/student. I think their whole budget for the six years is less than the cost of one Tomahawk missile, with guidance and delivery (and spare parts). On the other hand General Motors, working in the most car consuming section of Planet Earth, with significant manufacturing infrastructure worldwide, has a hard time making ends meet. In short, Greg's book is now at the top of my list for 2009 management books.
Mother Teresa, in response to an interview question about the best way to go about changing the world, said 'Reach out to the nearest one.' Greg, in response to the same question, would probably say 'Go to the Last Best Place.' Both of these people have found a way to impact their world, and improve conditions more than a thousand-fold by their efforts.
Three cups of Tea has become required reading for the US Counterintelligence school at West point; I would hope this book gets added to the curriculum quickly.

Not a sequel to Mortenson's THREE CUPS OF TEA, STONES INTO SCHOOLS is a saga of Mortenson's ten year struggle to keep a promise to Commandhan Abdul Rashid Khan, chief of the Kirghiz, to build a school for his tribe at "the roof of the world" in the village of Bozai Gumbaz, 12,480 feet up in the Pamir Mountains of northern Afghanistan. It was this promise that caused Mortenson and the Central Asia Institute (CAI) to expand its operations beyond its original stomping grounds in the remoter villages of Pakistan.
During their struggle, jihad if you will, Greg Mortenson and his Afghan and Pakistani comrades, AKA "The Dirty Dozen," enjoy as, Safraz Khan, one of the many heroes in this story, describes it, "much success" as the Central Asia Institute build a chain of schools, scholarship programs, and literacy centers in war-torn Afghanistan and quake-stricken Pakistan.
Mortenson describes an Afghan people who are tired of and traumatized by thirty years of war. Still, they have not given up on life or a better future for their children. He details the slow, if enjoyable, process of building relationships with local leadership in countless villages in Afghanistan and Pakistan (AFPAK) during his many journeys. Important to note, Mortenson does not attempt to inflict American missionary culture and values on AFPAK villagers. I gather from reading Mortenson that every one of the 131 schools he and the CAI built in AFPAK was built at the request of local villagers and with the blessing of local leadership. He did not go village to village selling education as a good thing; villagers sought him out as word spread that he helped build schools.
Key to the success of CAI is local ownership of the schools it builds. In each case, CAI requires the local villagers to provide the land and supply unskilled labor to help build the school. CAI provides funds for raw materials and skilled labor to build the school as well as money for school supplies and to pay the teaching staff for up to five years. Mortenson writes of one village where the Taliban nailed a "night letter" to the door of a new CAI school and delivered another one to the home of one of the teachers. In these letters, the Taliban threatened to burn down the school if any girls attended it. They also promised violence to the families of any girls over the age of fourteen who attended school. The villagers responded by naming one of their three mullahs as headmaster for the school. He met with local Taliban and informed them that the actions they proposed in their letters were clearly wrong and against the teachings of the Koran. No more "night letters" were delivered in that village and girls were allowed to attend the school.
Along with "much success" there are setbacks. Mortenson writes of a Pakistani girl who was prevented from accepting a CAI scholarship by a jealous brother-in-law. He tells of an Afghan shepherd boy who is killed by a Soviet land mine while grazing his flocks close to a CAI school that is being built in his village. (The boy's father later trains to become a humanitarian de-miner and returns to his village to remove thirty land mines from the areas surrounding the school.) He describes the anguish (seen through Safraz Khan's eyes) of the hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis made homeless by an earthquake in 2005. He tells of weathering mob violence in Afghanistan after Newsweek printed false claims that American soldiers had attempted to flush a Koran down a toilet at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
Mortenson speaks at length about his relationship with the military. Like most non-governmental organizations (NGOs), CAI strives to maintain strict neutrality. CAI takes no money from the United States Department of Defense or the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and relies totally on donations and book sales (Buy this book!) to fund its operations. Mortenson notes that his initial support for Operation ENDURING FREEDOM quickly waned when he read of civilian casualties from the American bombing campaign against the Taliban. He recounts a lecture on Afghan tribal culture he gave a group of officers at the Pentagon in 2002. He explained that before one tribe made war on another tribe, "the warring parties hold a jirga before joining in battle to discuss how many losses each side is willing to accept in light of the fact that the victors will be willing to care for the widows and orphans of the rivals they have vanquished." He went on to tell the officers "the worst thing that you can do is what we're doing - ignoring the victims by calling them `collateral damage' and not even trying to count the numbers of the dead. . . For that, we will not be forgiven."
Mortenson began to see the United States military in a far different light later on. In 2003 he published an article about CAI in Parade Magazine. As a result of this article, CAI began to receive a flood of donations. One of his staffers informed him that a disproportionate number of donations came from military communities. Later that same year he received a letter from an officer who had fought in Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division. The officer wrote "CAI's projects provide a good alternative to the education offered in many of the radicalized madrassas from where the Taliban sprung forth . . . The Central Asia Institute is now my charity of choice." Mortenson goes on to write of an e-mail he received from then lieutenant colonel Christopher Kolenda in September, 2007. Kolenda wrote:
I am the Commander of Task Force Saber which serves the 190,000 people in northern Kunar and eastern Nuristan Provinces in Afghanistan. Our primary goal in this counterinsurgency is to provide hope for the good people of Afghanistan, particularly the children. Building schools is one of my top development priorities . . . The conflict here will not be won with bombs but with books and ideas. . . We have delivered a wealth of school supplies, but there is never enough. . . Reading Three Cups of Tea has inspired me even further to pursue the development of Afghan schools and education. I am not sure if the CAI can help these schools in any way. . .
Kolenda had delivered an indirect challenge to the CAI to come to his "humanitarian space" and build schools that would help ensure the "next generation grows up to be educated patriots," not "illiterate fighters." Mortenson and "the Dirty Dozen" could not resist the challenge. In the end, CAI's AFPAK staff devises a plan to build a chain of girls' schools through Taliban territory, to include one in Mullah Omar's home town of De Rawod.
Many NGOs may feel at this point that Mortenson and CAI have forsaken neutrality for the sake of convenience, but that is not the case. CAI takes no "blood money" from the United States government and relies on the goodwill of local Afghans and Pakistanis for its security, not armed escorts by United States or coalition military. If CAI has forsaken its neutrality, it has done so not for the sake of convenience, but for the sake of conscience. CAI realizes that it cannot morally remain neutral in a world where "men with Kalashnikovs . . . help to sustain the grotesque lie that flinging battery acid into the face of a girl who longs to study arithmetic is somehow in keeping with the teachings of the Koran."

The last chapter of this book before the Epilogue is called "The Last Best School". Mortenson calls it that because, due to circumstances, he had to step away and leave Afghanistan, compelling the Kirghiz people in the remote Wakhan corridor to build the school themselves, which they did, in record time. There was some assistance of supplies and skilled labor from the Central Asian Institute, and supervision from Safraz Khan (Mortenson's substantial partner and guide), but the Kirghiz, a people who had essentially been abandoned by everyone including the central Afghan government, completed the school themselves. They had asked for assistance using US Military helicopters but due to the distance, altitude, and inability to re-fuel, it was not granted.

This was the most important message that I found in this book. This school was built ten years after a request was made to Mortenson by Kirghiz men who rode on horseback for a week or so to deliver it to him. I read his first book "Three Cups of Tea" last summer, and it seems as if Mortenson's message has changed a little to encorporate the following: 1) listen to the Afghan (Pakistani,Kashmir, fill in the blank) people, 2) let them tell you what they want to accomplish, 3) ask them what they need to accomplish it, 4) then say (in the words of Baba Ram Dass) "How can I Help?".

Another part of the book described how a conflict was solved via communication between a respected mullah who became the headmaster of a girls' school and the local Taliban fighters who were threatening the girls who were attending it. Without committing any violence, he was able to convince them to leave the girls alone. Violence (i.e.,war) should always be a last resort, after all other options have been exhausted. Education is the key to ensuring peace. Let's hope.

PRAISE:

I read this whole book in one sitting. A bit slow in some portions, but overall I couldn't put it down.

Having lived a portion of my childhood in Kashmir and then having spent time with other rural cultures and regions in the world, I can say with confidence that what these guys are doing out there is incredibly courageous and amazing. What really stands out about Greg's work is that he basically "taught them how to fish" rather than just "present them with fish". I like how the book captures the viral trend Greg has imparted in Afghanistan when it comes to schools for girls and especially, the woman's vocational centers. He even inspired a local women's NGO in Kabul. From reading this story one also gets a sense of the creative (quirky) and passionate ways of Greg and his team that get the job done in a manner that is not quite matched by others. Given the current chaotic state of affairs in that region, this Indiana Jones style is possibly the best approach since they need to change and flow as needed to meet the demands of their environment. I will look forward to Greg and the Dirty Dozen getting the Nobel peace prize sometime soon. I'll also look forward to part three as the story unfolds.

MINOR CRITICISMS:

1) This first edition is laden with numerous spelling errors, typos and is in need of some word-smithing. However, the story is so wonderful that it is not worth getting hung up on these points. I imagine they were in a hurry to get this out before Christmas.

2) There are errors on the maps in the front. For instance, just across the border from Lahore, in India, you don't have the "Rajasthan Desert" but rather Punjab. Another thing that might be helpful to an organization that promotes secularism and open-mindedess is to not present a politically biased map of Pakistan and India. For instance the disputed region of Kashmir is not labeled but is rather shown as a part of Pakistan. Any reader familiar with the complexities of the region cannot help by wonder if this has something to do with the politics of Greg Mortenson trying to stay on tab with the Pakistani government, which recently recognized Mr. Mortenson with their highest civilian honor. This may or maynot be the case of course. I think Greg's work and book would gain a wider audience and bridge more gaps if he presented this particular issue with a bit more sensitivity (as in Three Cups of Tea) and more matter-of-factly.

3) Pako-centricism: This is sort of a continuation of the previous point. Firstly, the book sort of makes it seem like Afghanistan and Pakistan are cultural islands. However the cultural "dial" turns very smoothly across Asia and the boundaries and national borders are only recent creations. For instance, although Delhi and Islamabad may have beef, the people of the Punjab and the Kashmir regions are quite sympathetic and welcoming of each other across the border. There in north-western India, just as in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and also in the other central Asian countries, the "three cups of tea" ritual has equal significance. Secondly, there are numerous people in the high Himalayas who are not Islamic (some of whom they do mention, such as the Kafirs of Nuristan... who by the way were there way before Alexander the Great, but MAY HAVE intermarried with his soldiers; these latest anthropological findings are incorrect in the book. Also some thousands still remain pagan). I kind of felt that though they were promoting a secular education, they were quite biased in wanting to focus only on the muslim communities, which are certainly the majority. Of course, this may simply be due to the fact that their relationship chain just worked out that way. However, there was a huge emphasis in the book on Islam... perhaps this is meant for the American audience, the majority of whom have some pretty negative preconceived notions about Islam.

I do feel that if some of these seeming biases are corrected in a third book, or other presentations by Greg Mortentson and the other writers, his cause would gain a wider audience and more sympathetic response globally. It could also be a financial gain and advocate peace if for instance they also gained the South Asian market with this book (i.e. India and so on). It may be a turn off for those markets in it's current form which will certainly be perceived as careless and thus loose some credibility. Perhaps the next edition of this book will take this into account.

All this said, I am still in admiration of their work, and fully support it by giving Mr. Mortenson's books as gifts and I am a financial supporter of CAI. You are doing an amazing job Dr. Greg and Khan Sahib and the rest of the Dozen!

In the follow up book to Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson's story comes full circle from his original promise to build a school in Korphe, Pakistan, to the decade-long fulfillment of another promise to build a school for the Kirghiz horsemen of the Wakhan Corridor, Afghanistan. The first part of the book fills in some of the details of events from the latter part of Three Cups of Tea.

As the story continues, we meet earthquake survivors in Kashmir like headmistress Saida Shabir who became so frustrated with empty promises from her government, relief agencies, and NGOs that she nearly turned down an offer of help from Mortenson's right hand man, Sarfraz Khan. Khan led Central Asia Institute's effort to raise the bar by building earthquake-resistant schools only after listening to the concerns of the local people and taking their needs into account. Gundi Piran, Shabir's new school, was unique in that it was built around the grave of seven girls killed when their school collapsed during the earthquake. With an open-air classroom around them, the girls were laid to rest with their heads facing the blackboard so that their desire for education was honored.

We are also introduced to Faisal Mohammed and his family in Lalander, Afghanistan. As CAI began building a demonstration school there, Faisal's only living son, 14-year-old Gulmarjan, anxiously awaited the completion of the school so that he could attend. Unfortunately, while walking nearby to observe the progress of the construction, he stepped on a land mine and died in transit to a medical center hours away in Kabul. Although Gulmarjan never got to study in the school he was so excited to attend, his sister, Saida, is a top student with the dream of someday becoming the first woman doctor in Lalander, and his father also went to school to study demining.

Finally, the third part of the book details the challenges of building "the school on the roof of the world" that ultimately fulfilled Greg's promise to the Kirghiz horsemen. As the winter snows approached and delays mounted, the school was completed only when the Kirghiz banded together and literally took matters into their own hands.

As an American public school teacher, Mortenson's story inspires and humbles me. I am inspired to share with my own students how fortunate we are in America to have free, public education and how we must seize the opportunities we have been given. When I read of the sacrifices and even deaths of some who never fulfilled their dreams of being literate, I am grateful for my own education. I am also humbled by Greg Mortenson and CAI's relentless work and astounding progress at making a difference in an area of the world torn apart by wars, earthquakes, and poverty.

Rather than focusing on the news of fighting and terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan, read Mortenson's book to learn how education is changing the lives of the young generation and empowering them to choose peace.

I saw that Greg Mortensen had written Stone Into Schools when I traveled through the Salt Lake City airport. I could not wait to get home and order it through Amazon. After reading Three Cups of Tea, I wanted to know what happened afterwards. I wasn't disappointed.

Please Buy this book, and if you haven't read Three Cups of Tea, buy it and read it first Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time. Stones Into Schools begins where Three Cups of Tea leaves off. Mortensen has helped numerous villages in Himalayan Pakistan build schools.(See my review Three Cups of Tea). He is approached by tribesmen from a literal ends-of-the-earth place in Afghanistan to build them a school so their children can have hope for the future. As what Greg has done filters through the rural areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, more and more tribal elders approach him and his colleagues to build secular schools throughout the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan where the central governments have all but forgotten the population. (The only education is through Taliban Madrassas.) The elders want their daughters as well as their sons to go to school and don't like the Taliban message. It is clear these people don't want a hand out; they want a hand up. ("Give me a fish, and I eat for a day; teach me to fish, and I eat for a lifetime.")

This exceptionally well written page turner follows Mortensen's adventures as he and his Afghani colleagues build schools in Pakistan, Afghanistan and in Pakistani Kashmir after the devastating earthquake; places in the world that are hot beds of fundamentalism, war and hatred. The work expands to forming women's centers where women learn skills. His approach points out a new, but very old way of making peace in the world. Listen to others, help them build what they think they need, not what we think they need to have. Live with them, honor them relate to them one person at a time on day at a time. Sit down and have tea. We too have much to learn from them.

Mortensen's work comes to the attention of the American military. They finally get the message and under Petraeus command long needed changes start to happen.

The lessons of these books are profound and simple. The book touches one's heart and soul. They are lessons we all need to learn. One man can make a difference one moment at a time, one person at a time; failure can bring success of immense proportions. And more.This book is also about Greg's imperfections and about being human.

We are living in difficult times where fear and anger and ignorance are causing us and our children to become depressed and disenfranchised. Gandhi said," My life is my message." Mortensen's life is his message. It is a message we sorely need to hear and our children need to learn.

Buy this book and after you buy this book buy Three Cups of Tea and the young adult's edition of Three Cups of Tea Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Journey to Change the World... One Child at a Time ( The Young Reader's Edition)8 and Listen to the Wind Listen to the Windfor your children. Talk to your children about their observations and understanding of these books. Help them find ways that they can help not only Greg and the peoples of Pakistan and Afghanistan, but in their own neighborhoods and cities. Then maybe, just maybe we can become better human beings and change then world.

Talk with your friends get them to buy the books and have a book club discussion. Better still go to the Three Cups of Tea website ([...]) and click the link that take you to Amazon.com so more contributions can be made and schools can be built. Then get your mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers and their friends to buy this book. Just by buying this book each of us can make a difference and have a great reading experience.

As a postscript a year and 1/2 ago I was traveling alone in rural Kashmir on the highway that skirts the Pakistani Indian border . There were Indian troops stationed 50 yards apart on the hilltop that skirted the highway. As a photographer I frequently got out and walked and took photos. One that was particularly compelling was of 2 Kashmiri women walking. One had a bag on her head, and she showed me her book that she was reading with great happiness. It was the Koran which had previously been only the province of men to read. I learned first hand the thirst for learning of these women.

addendum: Greg has recently come under great scrutiny due to the unkept finances of Central Asian Institute.I have no idea of the truth of this matter, but hopefully the message this book gives will not be lost in the mayhem that is sure to follow.

Greg Mortenson is one of the select very few who poses a combination of being human with capital H, finds right focus in helping people in great need and writes inspirational books from this. His mission began after failed K2 attempt in 1993 where his life was saved by villagers of Korphe and where he promised them something they missed the most: school. This was very well told in his Three Cups of Tea and this book starts where the first ends. If Korphe, in Baltistan region in northern Pakistan was remote, now schools are being built on even more unthinkable places: in war torn Afghanistan and in post-earthquake Azad Kashmir, that was off-limits for foreigners before earthquake in October 2005. Most surprising were his (and his Central Asia Institute organization) successes in two parts of Afghanistan: one is, where Taliban insurgency is quite high and the other is godforsaken Wakhan corridor. Key ingredients are listening to wishes of local population, ensuring their buy-in, later their participation in building (at least donation of land) and focus on girls' education.
If US and allies would implement something like this following military successes in 2001, plus curb corruption and stop opium trade, today Afghanistan would be much happier place (and for much less money).
What's interesting is that he and his NGO Central Asia Institute are so successful despite great odds: working in islam countries, in years after 9/11 and in time of great financial crisis. This shows that ordinary people are willing to donate money for just and passionately argued cause.
Title comes from the words of local security commander and former mujahadeen: " ... each rock and every boulder you see represents a mujahadeen who died fighting either the Russians or the Taliban. .. it's time .. to take up the stones and start turning them into schools."
Book is really pleasure to read because is so well written, in structure and style. Credit goes to two anonymous writers who spent many houres with Greg.

Anyone who looks carefully at a map of Afghanistan must wonder about that long narrow sliver of land that sticks out like a pointing finger from the country's eastern edge. What purpose can such a strange, seemingly absurd boundary serve? This is the Wakhan Corridor, home to a varied assortment of wandering nomadic peoples, farmers and villagers who are hemmed in on all sides by some of the world's most forbidding mountain ranges: the Pamir, the Hindu Kush and the Karakoram. There is no industry there or any roads in its eastern third.

The corridor was originally created as a geopolitical artifice so that Russia and China would not have a common border in that part of the world. Yet this primitive wilderness is a main theater of operations for Greg Mortenson and his brainchild, the Central Asia Institute, whose mission is to bring education to this area by building schoolhouses. All residents are welcome, but the main thrust is the education of women, which Mortenson sees as the best means of rescuing the area from destitution and eventually defeating the Taliban, to whom the idea of educating women is, of course, anathema.

The Wakhan is central to Mortenson's story because it took him a full decade to fulfill a promise he made to a delegation from a small village at the extreme end of the corridor. They sought him out in Pakistan and asked him to build them a school. He agreed, knowing full well that nothing in war-torn, politically unstable and largely primitive Afghanistan is simple. The book ends with the construction of that school in the village of Bozai Gumbaz, and you can almost hear the cheers and trumpet fanfares sounding from inside the book's final pages.

Mortenson's story, however, ranges well beyond the Wakhan, embracing many other towns and provinces in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. He outmaneuvers insensitive government bureaucrats in Kabul, uncooperative family members who actually do not want their daughters educated, murderous Taliban goon squads, a horrendous earthquake, snows that render whole regions isolated for months, shipping delays, financial constraints, his own bouts of exhaustion, and all sorts of other impediments. But the schools get built --- 131 of them --- and all without a dime of U.S. government funding.

This region where Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, China and Tajikistan collide in a sort of geographical, ethnic and religious stew will be as unfamiliar to most American readers as the landscape of Uranus. Fortunately, the book includes excellent maps and a kind of cast listing up front, plus a useful glossary at the back to help one keep nations, languages, religions and peoples sorted out. Mortenson gives due credit to his on-scene staffers and brings them engagingly to life --- notably his chief lieutenant, Sarfraz Khan, a Pakistani who seems to be everywhere at once, performing miracles of organization and logistics. Mortenson admits that he himself had to spend long periods back in the U.S. making book-tour appearances, raising money and shuffling papers. You get the impression that those grueling lecture tours were more of a trial for him than anything he did in the Asian mountains.

In THREE CUPS OF TEA, Mortenson had dismissed the U.S. military as unsympathetic and obstructive, but in this book he completely reverses himself, lavishing praise on uniformed officers, many of whom had made his earlier title required reading for their troops. He taught them his main lesson: listen to the local people, get to know them, find out what they want, and build up trust with them; do not simply march in and start issuing orders that do not take their lives into account. It is a lesson that military minds very often ignore, but to their credit they seem to have listened to this quiet and unassuming fellow from Montana.

STONES INTO SCHOOLS is an unashamed promotional tract for the Central Asia Institute. It comes fully equipped with talking points, suggestions for promoting the book, website listings, e-mail addresses, and even telephone numbers and postal mail addresses. Ordinarily, this kind of baggage might seem tacky, but Mortenson's cause is so obviously right and his pursuit of it so well organized that those objections seen churlish. This man has accomplished something splendid and desperately important.

--- Reviewed by Robert Finn