Greg Mortenson

Greg Mortenson

In writing this essay I tried to think of a good way to capture the essence of Greg Mortenson. Of course he is generous and caring, but isn’t every hero? I guess it came down to why is my hero unique? I’m going to try to answer that question.

We’ll start with the basics, Greg Mortenson was born on December 27, 1957. He is spending his adult life as an American humanitarian, professional speaker, writer and former mountaineer. He co-founded the non-profit Central Asia Institute,the mission of which is to promote education and literacy, especially for girls, in remote mountain regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. He also founded the educational charity Pennies for Peace. He co-authored the New York Times Bestsellers Three cups of Tea and is the author of Stones into School : Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

What he did with all that? Let me tell you... Mortenson wrote many books and as described in his first book, Three Cups of Tea, Mortenson explains his adventures as he travelled to northern Pakistan in 1993 in order to climb the world's second highest mountain, K2, as a memorial to honor his sister Christa's memory. After more than 70 days on the mountain, Mortenson and three other climbers spent 75 hours saving the life of a fifth climber. The time and energy devoted to this rescue prevented Mortenson from trying to reach the top. After the rescue, he began his journey downwards off the mountain, and set out to the nearest city.

Greg teaching kids to read

According to the book Three Cups of Tea, Mortenson wrote he took a wrong turn on the trail and ended up in the small village of Korphe. Physically exhausted, ill, and alone when he arrived, Mortenson was taken care by some of Korphe's villagers while he recovered. As a gesture of gratitude to the town for their help, Mortenson said he would build a school for the village after he noticed local students going to school in an outside, open walled building and writing their lessons in the dirt. Mortenson has since explained in a 2011 interview that the timing in the Korphe account in Three Cups of Tea is incorrect and that the events actually took place over a longer period of time and during separate trips. Also, in error to what is written in Three Cups of Tea, Mortenson had initially promised to build a school in Khane village, but was convinced to build a school in Korphe by the village leaders.

Since then Greg has spent, and is spending, most of his life devoted to helping others. I guess what would make Greg unique is that his project was stumbled upon and not brought to him. He did not sit down one day and say to himself ‘I’m passionate about people in Pakistan, I’m going to climb this mountain and find these people to help and he didn’t have a stranger come up to him and say “help this village we are desperate”. The villagers, who had nothing, spent the energy and resources, to help this stranger, and he returned the favor. I believe that Greg is a very good example of a hero.