As The Polygon Turns: What's Going On (Episode 21)

“So you guys want to hear what’s going on?”
“Yeah, tell us.”
“All right so President Obama’s speech about the AF-PK strategy is getting rolled out at 10:30… “
“– you mean the one we read yesterday morning & started 7 minutes ago?”
“Yeah, that one… and … at 1330 Greg Mortenson will be speaking in the conference room, there are two seats available, you guys interested?”
“Really??? Can we? Are you serious?”
“Yeah, I will tell Captain Krunch that you will fill them.” (Captain Krunch is not his real name, by the way.)

Holy crow! My speechwriter-partner Bill and I were so excited! We reminded ourselves of someone whom we had met a few weeks ago when our principal was going to speak to his organization. This man's name was Josh (no I am not kidding) and ever since that event, Bill and I periodically joke about how that guy always seemed like he was about to wet himself with excitement. Now we felt like Josh.

For those of you who aren’t familiar, Greg Mortenson is the author of Three Cups of Tea – well, the co-author. The important part is that he is the main character in this book that demonstrates the tremendous difference one man can make towards spreading peace through education in Pakistan and Afghanistan, one school at a time.

Most of the action in the book transpires in the mid to late 90s through post 9-11, and one can extrapolate that the work of Greg and CAI continues to flourish today. But in the circles that I work and I would even argue that in the regular stories that one reads about or hears in the news, one seldom finds word or even signs of progress and hope in that area of the world.

So we got up to the conference room a little early and had our pick of seats – people in this building always run late. It was your basic conference room: a single large mahogany table with about a dozen leather chairs and laptops and another 15 or so more chairs lining three walls within two feet of the table. At the far end of the room, at the foot of the table, was a big screen display for presentations or video teleconferences; and above that was displayed the time of day in Local, Zulu, Bagdad, Stuttgart, Kabul, Hawaii, San Diego, etc..

Eventually nearly all of the seats were filled by people in the building, some of whom I recognized, all of whom I wondered if they had read Three Cups of Tea and were as excited as Bill and I were. If we’d been kids, dogs, or Rain Man, we would have been unable to sit still to save our lives.

The conference room door was open and Greg came strolling in with Captain Krunch in tow. He was beaming his characteristically big smile that I had seen in the pictures of his book – a smile that looked like the smile kids draw on Mr. Sun, a smile that you think people only put on for pictures. For Greg, this was how he was, how he is, how he approaches people, how he talks about his work, and how he instantly puts everyone at ease, makes everyone a believer. At this moment I vowed to myself that I would smile more often – whenever I get the chance. His smile made me feel great! I want to make people around me feel great too.

The local time on the clock was 1333, the time in Kabul 2233. Greg had flown here from Afghanistan that morning and wanted to give us an update about the situation over there from his eyes, familiarize us with his story, and take any questions people had. What I have since realized – actually I just figured out when I was putting links into this blog – is that during this recent trip in the region there was a ceremony in Islamabad where the government of Pakistan conferred upon Greg their country’s highest civil award, Sitara-e-Pakistan (“Star of Pakistan”) for his courage and humanitarian effort to promote education, and literacy in rural areas for the last fifteen years. Hmmmn.

So anyway, he gave his quick "elevator speech" about how he got into doing what he was doing and why he believes in it. He quoted to us a proverb that says if you educate a boy you educate one man, if you educate a girl you educate a village -- because boys will eventually leave or work for themselves, but women are centers of the home and the community.

"Do you want to hear the good news or the bad news?" he asked us. I was sitting about three feet from where he was standing talking to us from the head of the table. I couldn't stop smiling a big goofy grin. I just kept thinking 'This guy is great!'

"The Bad news," I excitedly responded. I don't think that anyone else had an opinion.

"Okay," he smiled at me, "I'll tell you the bad news first." I rubbed my hands together in a 'this is going to be good' fashion. "The bad news is that since the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, over 600 schools in Afghanistan and over 200 in the tribal areas of Pakistan have been bombed or destroyed." A collective feeling of crappiness came over us, we all sort of nodded and held our heads steady, accepting this consequence of our actions.

"But the good news is... The good news is... is there anyone from the press here?" Greg asked looking around.
"No, they were not invited," CAPT Krunch offered.
"Well, okay. Good. But here is a statistic that you never hear in the press -- and it is a great statistic: good news. In 2000, at the height of the Taliban, 7,000 students, all boys attended school. Now, at the end of 2008 anyway, 7.2 million students, boys and girls, attend school in Afghanistan and the FATA area of Pakistan! Isn't that great?! That is the largest percentage rise in student attendance of any area of the world! So we're doing it. There is success! You are doing good things. I do not want you guys to despair."

Over the course of the next 45 min to an hour he talked to us about the importance of relationships, drinking tea, listening to the people, but also making them earn everything that you give them. For example if CAI is going to build a 2,500 sqft school for a village, they will provide materials, skilled labor, and lunch for the workers every day they work; the village has to provide 2,000 hrs of manual labor. He says he gets a lot of grumbling at first, but the only way the village is going to have a vested interest in protecting that school from the Taliban, from letting it be turned into a madrassa, is if the village people have put in sweat equity. He encouraged us to drive hard bargains and not to give out charity. He reminded us to not only think of ourselves as leaders, but as teachers. And don't forget, never forget it is all about the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan. That is who all of this is for. What we are doing, the relationships we are building, the schools, the training of security forces... it is for generations, not something determined by or that could be measured by one, two, five or ten year budget cycles; it is a generational commitment. That is how the enemy, the violent extremists think about it.

It was such a treat to listen to a man with such wisdom, such humility. He really made us feel like he was part of our team, telling us what we've been doing right, helping to steer us towards what he has seen could be the right thing for the future, sharing with us his failures and frustrations... just helping to pull us along given what is going on.