Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with books, not bombs in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Greg Mortenson

Many people have read Three Cups of Tea and are familiar with Mortenson’s mission to build schools in Pakistan.  In this book Mortenson continues to build schools in Pakistan (with some new challenges) and begins to to build schools in post 9/11 Afghanistan.

As you can imagine, building schools in Afghanistan after 9/11 is no easy task.  And after the earthquake in Pakistan in 2005, Mortenson and the CAI had to change the way they built schools in Pakistan.  Add to all that that the CAI’s policy is to build schools in the most remote areas first and then work their way towards the more populated regions.  Mortenson has some amazing people working for him that don’t seem to ever let anything get in their way when it comes to moving forward with these schools.  It’s really inspiring to read about the school building process and the people in the villages where the schools are being built.  (Above: Sitara School, Afghanistan)

I was very impressed with the writing and the way the story was told.  It’s entertaining and engaging and Mortenson told the story that was cohesive and had good flow.  The only complaint I have is that there were some editing problems, missing or wrong words, and some typos.  But the book contains events from as late as September of 2009 and the book was published in early December 2009 so I’ll cut them some slack in the editing department!  If you enjoyed Three Cups of Tea, you will definitely enjoy this one.  If you haven’t read Three Cups of Tea you should probably start there before picking up this one.  I think both books are definitely worth reading.

All images courtesy Central Asia Institute.