Three Cups of Tea
Has very little to do with tea, exceept that tea is always there. A must read for any interested in the war in Afghanistan, in the state of the world in general. The copy I have was handed to me by Jody Wilson so I have to give it back but I have ordered five more copies.
Joyce, it is as gripping as Middlesex.
For example, imagine stumbling into a place so remote that the only way to reach it is to get into a rickety crate or box suspended on a yak hair rope and pull it across a raging river gorge by hand. (Or by getting lost descending K2) And then there you find about 80 children sitting on the ground intently practicing their multiplication table by writing in the dirt! On a day that the parttime teacher isn't even there?
Jody thought we would enjoy it since we were familiar with the territory. And yes we went up the Karakoam highway as far as we were allowed to go and looked across a valley at the road to Skardu, a narrow groove in a rock face with occasional spots where poles were driven into a crevass, some dirt thrown over the five feet which extended and decided flatlanders in a little Datsun did not need to go there. Okay, so ten years later, in the book, they are driving Bedford trucks loaded with cement and building supplies for a school (after they build a bridege) over it, maybe it was wider than five feet as everything else rings true. The nobility found among the poor, the chicanery found in many of the moneyed class.
No wonder the book is now required reading in many universities and agencies having to do with international development.
There is a second book out which deals with Afghanistan since 2003, but the first one is a must.
Back to Oklahoma. Vern and Jo are here on their way to Arizona. The Neosho river was only marginally out of its bank during the last rains. In advance we noted the lake level was lowered several feet. And it worked. The road around the fairgrounds was closed but no homes were flooded.
We hope the grass won't need mowing anymore for a while.
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