You may have met Greg Mortenson, founder of the Central Asia Institute, in his previous book, Three Cups of Tea. The sequel, Stones into Schools, is the ongoing saga of building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, an adventure in which Mortenson is not main protagonist but storyteller. As narrator, he describes unforgettable characters, incredible obstacles, and spectacular local color.
What you discover in Stones into Schools is that Mortenson is an astute judge of individual character. When he meets Sarfras Kahn, “the man with the broken hand”, Mortenson recognizes enormous potential in a high school graduate who knows seven languages. Then, as you follow Sarfras on missions in earthquake torn Kashmir and the remote Wakhan Corridor, you realize that this man’s life experiences have made him a quick study on cultural nuance and a mastermind with logistical puzzles. Possessing a stamina that puts athletes to shame, Sarfras modestly offers gratitude that Central Asia Institute (CAI) has allowed him to become something other than a merchant of yak butter.
In contrast, an inn-keeper when he first meets Mortenson, Wakil Karimi is a product of twenty-three years in a refugee camp. Wakil becomes something of a pest about wanting a school in the town of his birth, 30 miles southwest of Kabul. However, his persistence pays off and he is brought on board as CAI’s Afghanistan director. Wakil turns out to be a visionary who starts a regional movement of women’s literacy groups and has the patience to untangle an unworkable bureaucracy.
Meanwhile, high up in the Wakhan Corridor, an area that is isolated for six months of the year by snow too deep to traverse, lives Abdul Rashid Kahn. A dedicated tribal elder, Abdul goes to enormous lengths to find and bring opportunities to his people. Having exhausted all his resources, Abdul finds in his imminent death a way to rally his people around a project that represents a new future for them.
Mortenson brings to light the heroism of these and other descendants of peoples who were once at the apex of Silk Road trade. These individuals are at the forefront because Mortenson is forced to concentrate on the fund raising opportunity presented by the popularity of Three Cups of Tea. He obviously misses the on-the-ground experience of directly enabling the building of schools and describes himself as nothing more than a “one-man yak train faithfully transporting the donations of ordinary Americans to the far side of the world.” The love and support of his wife Tara and his two children enable him to go from one stretch of 115 presentations to another of 118, then another and another ad infinitum.
Threaded throughout Stones into Schools are stories of individual girls/women who benefit from CAI’s network of schools. Mortenson shows both the enormous difficulties women face in Central Asia, but also their strength and perseverance. Stones into Schools is a delightful and inspiring way to learn about the geography, history, and culture of Central Asia. When laying it down, the reader experiences hope that this geographic region so plagued by war and poverty might actually tap into the DNA of its ancient intellectual primacy and play a new role on the international stage.
What you discover in Stones into Schools is that Mortenson is an astute judge of individual character. When he meets Sarfras Kahn, “the man with the broken hand”, Mortenson recognizes enormous potential in a high school graduate who knows seven languages. Then, as you follow Sarfras on missions in earthquake torn Kashmir and the remote Wakhan Corridor, you realize that this man’s life experiences have made him a quick study on cultural nuance and a mastermind with logistical puzzles. Possessing a stamina that puts athletes to shame, Sarfras modestly offers gratitude that Central Asia Institute (CAI) has allowed him to become something other than a merchant of yak butter.
In contrast, an inn-keeper when he first meets Mortenson, Wakil Karimi is a product of twenty-three years in a refugee camp. Wakil becomes something of a pest about wanting a school in the town of his birth, 30 miles southwest of Kabul. However, his persistence pays off and he is brought on board as CAI’s Afghanistan director. Wakil turns out to be a visionary who starts a regional movement of women’s literacy groups and has the patience to untangle an unworkable bureaucracy.
Meanwhile, high up in the Wakhan Corridor, an area that is isolated for six months of the year by snow too deep to traverse, lives Abdul Rashid Kahn. A dedicated tribal elder, Abdul goes to enormous lengths to find and bring opportunities to his people. Having exhausted all his resources, Abdul finds in his imminent death a way to rally his people around a project that represents a new future for them.
Mortenson brings to light the heroism of these and other descendants of peoples who were once at the apex of Silk Road trade. These individuals are at the forefront because Mortenson is forced to concentrate on the fund raising opportunity presented by the popularity of Three Cups of Tea. He obviously misses the on-the-ground experience of directly enabling the building of schools and describes himself as nothing more than a “one-man yak train faithfully transporting the donations of ordinary Americans to the far side of the world.” The love and support of his wife Tara and his two children enable him to go from one stretch of 115 presentations to another of 118, then another and another ad infinitum.
Threaded throughout Stones into Schools are stories of individual girls/women who benefit from CAI’s network of schools. Mortenson shows both the enormous difficulties women face in Central Asia, but also their strength and perseverance. Stones into Schools is a delightful and inspiring way to learn about the geography, history, and culture of Central Asia. When laying it down, the reader experiences hope that this geographic region so plagued by war and poverty might actually tap into the DNA of its ancient intellectual primacy and play a new role on the international stage.
