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     Greg Mortenson, coauthor of the book Three Cups of Tea enthusiastically described his projects in Afghanistan and Pakistan and the condition of the children living there to a standing room-only audience in Pierce Hall Friday morning.

     Mortenson wanted to educate the children of Afghanistan and Pakistan after seeing them so eager to learn that they were scratching in the dirt with sticks without a teacher - because they could not afford to pay $1 a day for school.

     "I had to raise $12,000 to build a school in Pakistan," said Mortenson.  To do this, he contacted celebrities and movie stars, asking them for donations.  The only person to send him money was Tom Brocaw, the newscaster, who donated $100.  Mortenson had to sell his car, climbing gear and other belongings.  He then visited Westside School where he raised 62,340 pennies from children's donations.  He was touched by "children reaching out to children halfway around the world," he said.  A penny is worth a lot he said, because a pencil in Pakistan is worth a penny.

     As part of his presentation, a DVD narrated by his daughter was played that described the value of a penny in building schools in different countries.

     Mortenson was mainly interested in educating girls because an educated girl was so rare in Pakistan.  When all 64 schools were built, they had 25,000 students and 14,000 of them were girls.  Before that, there were 800,000 students in Pakistan and none of them were girls.  Mortenson said, "If you educate a boy you educate an individual, if you educate a girl, you educate the whole community," because educated boys usually leave the community, but the girls stay.

     Mortenson's motivation to build schools actually began with his sister Christa's death.  She had epilepsy and it took her two hours to get ready for school but she always remained positive, Mortenson said.  When she died, he climbed K2, a mountain in Pakistan, with Christa's amber necklace to put on top of the mountain in her memory.  But he failed.  "I had to walk five days back to the nearest village.  On the way home I made a mistake and ended up in a village called Korphe," he said.  There he was fed and taken care of by the people.  They showed him such kindness that he wanted to repay them, which led to his first school project.

     Freshman Kim Faiella said, "I really enjoyed the opportunity that was given to us to see Greg Mortenson.  We read about him during the summer and just seeing him and listening to him made his story more concrete."

     Political Science professor Robin Marra said, "I've been trying to get him here since early June."  Marra had pushed for his book to be read by the incoming freshmen. 

     When it was learned that Mortenson was going to Bellows Falls, Vermont this week Associate Director of Admissions Linda Quimby invited Mortenson to come.

     Marra said that Mortenson would like to come back in the end of February "to reach more people."  He would like it to be hosted in the Field House and advertise it so people from all over could come.