Greg Mortenson was born in Minnesota, and soon after moved to Africa so his parents could teach at an all girls school in the country Tanzania because they needed teachers for the students so they could get a somewhat proper education compared to Americans and the rest of the world. I think this is important because this tells about Greg's up bringing and how he became who he is today. Greg said " The older I get, the more I appreciate my childhood. It was paradise." This shows that he is a grateful man.
The next thing that I think is the most important is when his father got sick with cancer and it said that he went back home while being in college so he could spend time with him before he passed away. It says " Grag mad a six hour drive home to Minnesota every other weekend to spend time with his father carrying him outside so he could sit in a lawn chair in the sun." This shows that Greg cares the most about his family and that he would do anything for his family to make them happy and see them smile.
The third thing that I think is most important is when his father passed away and he decided to start climbing to make himself happy, he deserves the happiness after everything he has done. The book says, "He wanted to climb mountains. With just a few thousand dollars in his savings account, Greg packed up his car and headed out to California." Greg deserves to be doing what he enjoys after what he has gone through so far. Greg's sister passes away at the same time that he is climbing a mountain and falls 800 feet.
Chapter 3- "Progress and Perfection" and Chapter 4- Self Storage
One of the most important scenes in chapter 3 is when Greg asks to visit Korphe's school with Haji Ali. Instead, Greg is taken to an open ledge where eighty two children sit on the ground and draw in the dirt. He is told that Korphe has no school and that they can't afford to pay a teacher's salary of $1 a day so they share a teacher with a neighboring village and the kids are left alone while the teacher is away. Greg is so upset and surprised that the Pakistani government can't even provide a teacher for these people that he promises to build them a school.
This scene is extremely important because it is a new beginning in Greg's life. The construction of the Korphe school is only the first of many. From here through the rest of the book, Greg becomes a humanitarian worker and eventually becomes the director of the CAI. Not only is this the start of his humanitarian work, but it is the beginning of a new life for the people of Korphe as well.
Another important scene in chapter 4 is when Greg talks about his childhood in Africa. His parents relocated their family to Tanzania when he was only three months old and worked there as missionaries and teachers. Greg's dad, Dempsey, founded the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center which was Tanzania's first teaching hospital. Jerene, Greg's mother established the Moshi International School where Greg attended. At this school, there were twenty eight different nationalities, and Greg grew up celebrating different cultures. He learned and perfected Swahili, and competed in an all-African dance troupe, and summited Kilimanjaro the tallest mountain in Africa.
This was an important scene also, because it proved that Greg had the background to get the job done. He had grown up in an sea of cultures and was accepting to others regardless of their race or religion. He also had learned to be a hard worker by watching his parents overcome obstacles as they completed their lives work. Climbing Kilimanjaro also reinforced this lesson. In the book, Greg even says, "He taught me, he taught all of us, that if you believe in yourself, you can accomplish anything."
In the beginning of Chapter 3, Greg is on a journey that involves letting go of his old assumptions and recognizing the realities of his life through his experiences in Korphe. For example, when Sakina prepares him a breakfast with sweetened tea, he does not realize that the village is giving him things they have little of, such as sugar in this case. In slaughtering a ram for food, the village sacrifices one of its most precious items, and when Greg sees them devour it, he realizes how hungry they actually are. This is an important scene because it shows what kind of lifestyle the people or Korphe live, it is very different to the American culture Greg is accustomed too.
After watching the children try to teach themselves, he becomes aware that they have been abandoned by their government. At this point, Mortenson recognizes that political issues in Pakistan have prevented villages like Korphe from having any opportunities for education and improvement. This is an important scene because it explains the reason why Greg set out to build schools in Pakistan for the underprivileged children that live there.
He does experience a personal turning point in Korphe and makes a commitment to help the people there, but even this worthy objective is, in many ways, just another new obsession. He neglects his family-like relationship with Marina and her daughters to focus his life on getting back to Pakistan. Mortenson is also still sleeping in his car at age 36. Even though he now has a goal, his life at this point has not changed significantly from what it was before his experience in Korphe. This scene in the book shows the determination Greg has to build the school in Korphe. He even goes to an extent of living in his car so he can save as much money as possible to go toward the fund for building the school.
An important part of the book is the time that Greg spends in Korphe while he is recovering from his failure to climb K2. As he spent time there, he noticed the poverty that the people of Korphe lived in. As his condition improved he saw that the Balti struggled daily to survive. Greg learned that the children had ginger colored hair due to a type of malnutrition called kwashiorkor, that one in every three children died before their first birthday, and that at least one person from every household had goiters of cataracts. He also learned that sugar was a scarcity to the Balti and that big meals were also very rare; huger was always a part of their lives. He became a asset to the people of Korphe when he began to medically treat them after learning that the closest doctor was a weeks walk away.
This is very important because it is the reason why Greg felt so attached to the people of Korphe. He felt that he needed to help them and repay them for the food and housing that they had provided to him, and it made him realize how lucky he was to survive in a place as dangerous as the Karakoram. These displays of poverty were also what caused him to ask Haji Ali to see Korphe's school. When he learned that they didn't have one, he began a new part of his life. This was also the time that Greg realized he had a greater way to remember Christa. The children of Korphe reminded him of his little sister Christa because their everyday lives were a struggle and they fought just as hard as Christa had.
I'm Going to Build You a School
Chapter 4 "Growing Up"-
Greg Mortenson was born in Minnesota, and soon after moved to Africa so his parents could teach at an all girls school in the country Tanzania because they needed teachers for the students so they could get a somewhat proper education compared to Americans and the rest of the world. I think this is important because this tells about Greg's up bringing and how he became who he is today. Greg said " The older I get, the more I appreciate my childhood. It was paradise." This shows that he is a grateful man.The next thing that I think is the most important is when his father got sick with cancer and it said that he went back home while being in college so he could spend time with him before he passed away. It says " Grag mad a six hour drive home to Minnesota every other weekend to spend time with his father carrying him outside so he could sit in a lawn chair in the sun." This shows that Greg cares the most about his family and that he would do anything for his family to make them happy and see them smile.
The third thing that I think is most important is when his father passed away and he decided to start climbing to make himself happy, he deserves the happiness after everything he has done. The book says, "He wanted to climb mountains. With just a few thousand dollars in his savings account, Greg packed up his car and headed out to California." Greg deserves to be doing what he enjoys after what he has gone through so far. Greg's sister passes away at the same time that he is climbing a mountain and falls 800 feet.
Chapter 3- "Progress and Perfection" and Chapter 4- Self Storage
One of the most important scenes in chapter 3 is when Greg asks to visit Korphe's school with Haji Ali. Instead, Greg is taken to an open ledge where eighty two children sit on the ground and draw in the dirt. He is told that Korphe has no school and that they can't afford to pay a teacher's salary of $1 a day so they share a teacher with a neighboring village and the kids are left alone while the teacher is away. Greg is so upset and surprised that the Pakistani government can't even provide a teacher for these people that he promises to build them a school.
This scene is extremely important because it is a new beginning in Greg's life. The construction of the Korphe school is only the first of many. From here through the rest of the book, Greg becomes a humanitarian worker and eventually becomes the director of the CAI. Not only is this the start of his humanitarian work, but it is the beginning of a new life for the people of Korphe as well.
Another important scene in chapter 4 is when Greg talks about his childhood in Africa. His parents relocated their family to Tanzania when he was only three months old and worked there as missionaries and teachers. Greg's dad, Dempsey, founded the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center which was Tanzania's first teaching hospital. Jerene, Greg's mother established the Moshi International School where Greg attended. At this school, there were twenty eight different nationalities, and Greg grew up celebrating different cultures. He learned and perfected Swahili, and competed in an all-African dance troupe, and summited Kilimanjaro the tallest mountain in Africa.
This was an important scene also, because it proved that Greg had the background to get the job done. He had grown up in an sea of cultures and was accepting to others regardless of their race or religion. He also had learned to be a hard worker by watching his parents overcome obstacles as they completed their lives work. Climbing Kilimanjaro also reinforced this lesson. In the book, Greg even says, "He taught me, he taught all of us, that if you believe in yourself, you can accomplish anything."
In the beginning of Chapter 3, Greg is on a journey that involves letting go of his old assumptions and recognizing the realities of his life through his experiences in Korphe. For example, when Sakina prepares him a breakfast with sweetened tea, he does not realize that the village is giving him things they have little of, such as sugar in this case. In slaughtering a ram for food, the village sacrifices one of its most precious items, and when Greg sees them devour it, he realizes how hungry they actually are. This is an important scene because it shows what kind of lifestyle the people or Korphe live, it is very different to the American culture Greg is accustomed too.
After watching the children try to teach themselves, he becomes aware that they have been abandoned by their government. At this point, Mortenson recognizes that political issues in Pakistan have prevented villages like Korphe from having any opportunities for education and improvement. This is an important scene because it explains the reason why Greg set out to build schools in Pakistan for the underprivileged children that live there.
He does experience a personal turning point in Korphe and makes a commitment to help the people there, but even this worthy objective is, in many ways, just another new obsession. He neglects his family-like relationship with Marina and her daughters to focus his life on getting back to Pakistan. Mortenson is also still sleeping in his car at age 36. Even though he now has a goal, his life at this point has not changed significantly from what it was before his experience in Korphe. This scene in the book shows the determination Greg has to build the school in Korphe. He even goes to an extent of living in his car so he can save as much money as possible to go toward the fund for building the school.
An important part of the book is the time that Greg spends in Korphe while he is recovering from his failure to climb K2. As he spent time there, he noticed the poverty that the people of Korphe lived in. As his condition improved he saw that the Balti struggled daily to survive. Greg learned that the children had ginger colored hair due to a type of malnutrition called kwashiorkor, that one in every three children died before their first birthday, and that at least one person from every household had goiters of cataracts. He also learned that sugar was a scarcity to the Balti and that big meals were also very rare; huger was always a part of their lives. He became a asset to the people of Korphe when he began to medically treat them after learning that the closest doctor was a weeks walk away.
This is very important because it is the reason why Greg felt so attached to the people of Korphe. He felt that he needed to help them and repay them for the food and housing that they had provided to him, and it made him realize how lucky he was to survive in a place as dangerous as the Karakoram. These displays of poverty were also what caused him to ask Haji Ali to see Korphe's school. When he learned that they didn't have one, he began a new part of his life. This was also the time that Greg realized he had a greater way to remember Christa. The children of Korphe reminded him of his little sister Christa because their everyday lives were a struggle and they fought just as hard as Christa had.