Greg Mortenson visits Bigfork schools

By ALEX STRICKLAND/Bigfork Eagle

A gymnasium full of elementary school kids opened up a new front in the global War on Terrorism last Friday, as they presented more than $1,000 to Greg Mortenson to help fund his organization's education initiatives in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Mortenson, who has received global renown for his Central Asia Institute thanks to his best-selling book, "Three Cups of Tea," spoke to the students about the power of education and what a difference it can make against the sway of religious extremism and poverty.

"The Taliban are more afraid of a pen than a bullet," he said.

Students in Bigfork raised the money for Mortenson through a program he started called "Pennies for Peace." It began in the mid-90s, when Mortenson's mother, a principal at a school in Wisconsin, urged him to come in and talk about a promise he'd made. The students were so moved by his story, that they broke into their piggy banks and donated about $600 in pennies.

In 1993, Mortenson was in Pakistan attempting to climb K2, the second highest mountain on earth and one that is widely considered to be the most difficult. He was there as a way to honor his sister, who had died at 23 the year before due to an epileptic seizure.

He came up short in his bid for the summit and became lost on his way back out of the Karakoram mountains. Exhausted, he stumbled into a village called Korphe and changed his life forever.

After being taken in by the village and cared for, he noticed students in an outdoor classroom scratching their lessons in the dirt with sticks. He promised to build them a school and returned to the United States needing to raise $12,000 and no idea how to do it.

Today, Mortenson's Central Asia Institute has built or assisted building 64 schools in the most remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, especially schools for girls, along with a number of vocational centers, training centers and water and health facilities.

"I think this is one of the most important things we can do in the world today," he said.

During his talk, Mortenson introduced the school kids to a small sampling of Central Asian culture, including the tradition of taking off one's shoes when in a school, a very popular idea among Bigfork's youth.

"Do you know what respect is?" Mortenson asked the crowd. "Children over there have so much respect for education that they take off their shoes when they go into a school."

Mortenson, an Army veteran himself, sees the work towards education as a fundamental part of changing the regions volatile geopolitical entanglements. He told the students that since 2007, 459 schools had been bombed or shut down by the Taliban or al-Queida. The majority of those have been schools for girls, he said.

Mortenson said the extremist groups are particularly afraid of — and repressive toward — women because mothers are usually the ones who object or prevent their sons from joining their causes.

But even with the setbacks cause by the region's unstable politics, Mortenson said the number of students being educated in Pakistan has risen seven-fold in seven years, one of the greatest increases in school attendance in any country's history.

Mortenson left the assembled Bigfork kids with a challenge. He asked them to each write a letter, perhaps with an attached postcard of the area, and introduce themselves and encourage a child their own age to continue with their education.

Mortenson promised to deliver the letters to a village himself, owing to the regions lack of any form of postal service.

"When these kids get the letters, it will be the first present they've gotten in their whole lives," he said. "You'll be a role model to them."

To make a donation to Mortenson and the Central Asia Institute, visit their Web site at www.ikat.org.