Self Storage

In chapter four of Three Cups of Tea, the reader learns a lot about Greg Mortenson's background from the contents of his storage unit. What features from Mortenson's background helps him fulfill his promise to the people of Korphe--his promise to build a school for the village children.

Comments

  1. CaragurlSeptember 3, 2009 at 2:36 AM

    Helping the people of Korphe seemed to be a better way for Mortenson to achieve what he wanted for his sister, to help other people in the biggest way he can. In order for Mortenson to build this school he would have to spend the next few years away from his family but the people he did bring with him to help build this school made it all worth while. His sister would have wanted nothing but this, Mortenson knew that this, if anything, would be a much better way to reach out and give something back to his little sister rather than climing K2 and leaving a necklace on the very top.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownSeptember 6, 2009 at 9:59 AM

    One thing about Mortenson's background that might have helped him to build a school in Korphe is the fact that he was born and raised in a country (kenya) that is very similar to Korphe in many respects. It is geographically isolated from the developed world, economically poor to the developed world, and socially very hospitable unlike the developed world. On that level Mortenson might feel a much deeper bond with the people of Korphe and a great appreciation for the difficulty of their situation. I'm also going to agree with Caragurl and say that Mortenson might very well feel that as far as means of honoring his sister go, building a school for girls in a place very similar to where they grew up would seem to fit the bill. Also there is again the fact that the people of Korphe were very hospitable to Mortenson in his time of need, and he would naturally feel the desire to thank them appropriately. Building a school would, again, fit the bill.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Martha GunawanSeptember 8, 2009 at 3:53 PM

    Mortenson's family background has encouraged him to take a brief decision, to build a school for the people of Korphe. He has witnessed how the people in Africa lived under the poverty line since he was a kid. His parents once had a missionaries teaching in Africa. His father himself had ever built a hospital for the Tanzanian people. This fact had forced him to do great things just like his father did. Moreover, building a school for the people of Korphe could be an honor to his sister, Christa

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is Your Social Networking Feed an Addiction?

Image
Over at Live Science "A new study found that the brains of people who report compulsive urges to use social networking sites show some brain patterns similar to those found in drug addicts." Yikes, that's saying something. One of the problems seems to be that we all love the positive reinforcement we get from social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Tumblr. Another may be that most people don't see social networking as a harmful addiction. After all it's not like huffing cocaine or mainlining heroin. But are our beliefs true? There's no harm? What about body image? Seriously, who posts a picture when they look like something a dog just vomited on the floor? We see fabulous pics of our fabulous looking friends doing fabulous things. How does that affect our self-image? And what about being left out when your friends post party pics? There's even an an acronym for that--FOMO (fear of missing out) leaving one feeling depr...
Read more

The Top Ten Things you Should Have in your Backpack

Image
No. 1 is pretty easy...CASH! Maybe not $100, but enough to buy a BART or bus ticket if your car breaks down, a scantron or blue book, or maybe even something to eat. Do NOT walk out of the house with air in your wallet, make sure you have a couple of bucks. So what else does Top Ten Online Universities recommend? No. 2 - A Phone charger. No. 3 - Ear plugs for power naps. Not ear buds to ignore your professor's lecture. No. 4 - First aid kit. They make little tiny ones just for backpacks that contain band aids, aspirin, and antibiotic ointment for those massive blisters you get from your brand new "back-to-school" shoes. No. 5 - Umbrella? Obviously this author is NOT a California sun worshiper. But for those couple of weeks in the winter, it's probably not a bad idea. No. 6 - Energy bar. Yes, indeed. Don't go all hypoglycemic during class - that's a bad thing. No. 7 - Disposable camera. I'm not sure if I agree with this one. It s...
Read more

Feeling Stressed? Good! But Stay Calm

Image
Stress is a necessary evil.  While we don't want to walk around feeling stressed all the time, it does help get successful results. We want to be in the middle of that bell curve when stress leads to increased attention and interest, but right before it causes strong anxiety. As you climb toward optimal performance, you have to stay calm because once you lose your cool, well, that can quickly lead to a "complete meltdown."  So what do successful people do to stay cool? Travis Bradberry over at Forbes.com  offers us some insight about how successful people stay calm. Appreciate what you have. "Taking time to contemplate what you’re grateful for isn't merely the 'right' thing to do. It also improves your mood, because it reduces the stress hormone cortisol by 23%." Remember, 99 percent of the world's population, alive or dead, would love to be a college student in the San Francisco Bay Area. Avoid asking what if? "Calm people kno...
Read more