Three Cups of Tea

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS *** I’d like to thank Greg Mortenson, both for telling me one of the most remarkable stories I’ve ever heard, and then for inviting me to tell it to others. I’d also like to thank Tara, Amira, Khyber, and the entire ex- tended Mortenson/Bishop clan, for making my frequent visits to Boze- man such a family affair. Brigadier General Bashir Baz and Colonel Ilyas Mirza at Askari Aviation not only arranged for me to reach some of the most remote valleys of the Northern Areas, they also helped me reach at least a rudimentary understanding of the challenges currently facing Pak- istan’s military. Brigadier General Bhangoo flew me to the high-alti- tude treasures of the Karakoram and Hindu Kush in his trusty Alouette and entertained me late into the night with high-minded conversation about his country’s future. Suleman Minhas sped me past police barricades and into the most interesting areas of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, where, with great good humor, he helped an outsider to see more clearly. Ghulam Parvi worked tirelessly as both tutor and translator, making the rich culture of the Balti people bristle with life. Apo, Faisal, Nazir, and Sarfraz an- ticipated and catered to my every need as I traveled throughout the Northern Areas. Twaha, Jahan, and Tahira, along with the other rightly proud people of Korphe, helped me understand that isolation and poverty can’t prevent a determined community from achieving the goals it sets for its children. And, repeatedly, relentlessly, the peo- ple of Pakistan proved to me that there is no more hospitable country anywhere on earth. In Madrid, Ahmed Rashid was good enough to sneak away from the podium at the world summit on terrorism and treat me to a crash course in both the intricacies of Pakistan’s political system and the re- lation between the rise of the madrassas and extremism. Conrad Anker, Doug Chabot, Scott Darsney, Jon Krakauer, Jenny Lowe, Dan Mazur, and Charlie Shimanski each gave me meaningful glimpses into the high-wire world of mountaineering. Jim “Mapman” McMahon deserves kudos for both the professional job he did drawing the book’s maps and for his offer to mud wrestle anyone at Fox News who doesn’t like Three Cups of Tea’s message. I owe my old friend Lee Kravitz at Parade a debt for the day he 337

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS said, “There’s someone I think you should meet,” and for his wise counsel as the book came together. I’d like to thank him also for hav- ing the good sense to marry Elizabeth Kaplan, who gracefully shep- herded this book through the publishing process and educated a rube about the book business, all while simultaneously eating, walking, talking on her cell phone, and caring for her children. I’m grateful to Ray Roberts at Viking both for his erudition and his courtly attitude toward all the minor catastrophes involved in preparing this book for publication. I need to thank the Murphy-Goode Winery, for lubricating so much of the interview process. Thanks also to Victor Ichioka at Mountain Hardwear for outfitting our trips to the Northern Areas. And I’m grateful to the coffee shops of Portland, Oregon, some of the finest on earth, for allowing an overcaffeinated writer to mutter to himself throughout so many long afternoons. Finally, I want to thank Dawn, for far too many things to list here, but especially for the look on her lovely fire-lit face that evening in the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness when I read her the first few com- pleted chapters. —David Oliver Relin For more information contact: Central Asia Institute P.O. Box 7209 Bozeman, MT 59771 406-585-7841 www.ikat.org 338