When the porcelain bowls of scalding butter tea steamed in their hands, Haji Ali spoke. "If you want to thrive in Baltisan, you must respect our ways," Haji Ali said, blowing on his bowl. "The first time you share tea with a Balti, you area a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything, even die," he said, laying his hand warmly on Mortenson's own. "Doctor Greg, you must make time to share three cups of tea. We may be uneducated. But we are not stupid. We have lived and survived here for a long time.
"That day, Haji Ali taught me the most important lesson I've ever learned in my life," Mortenson says, "We Americans think you have to accomplish everything quickly. We're the country of thirty-minute power lunches and two-minute football drills. Our leaders thought their 'shock and awe' campaign could end the war in Iraq before it ever started. Haji Ali taught me to share three cups of tea, to slow down, to make building relationships as important as building projects. He taught me that I had more to learn from the people I work with than I could ever hope to teach them."
I'm still reading this book but on this day in particular I felt it was worth taking special note. If our leaders could stop spending so much money and effort on bombing and trying to control these people and instead spent as much money and effort in builiding up communities in this poverty-stricken part of the world with clean running water, schools, vocational centers, and started buidling real relationships with these people maybe we would have an end to the war on terrorism. The terrorist are not the majority. The majority of these people are good and want to improve their lives. They don't want to kill or be killed. Empower the good people and good will triumph over evil. This book has been a little bit of a challenge for me as it is not my usual read (it was a gift), but it's been a moving experience to read and is giving me a real education on this region. The more I read and considering current events I'm starting to think it should be required reading for everyone!
http://www.threecupsoftea.com/
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