After Greg Mortenson, an experience climber, fails to climb K2 in honor of his sister Christa, he wonders accidentally off the trail to the Pakistani town of Korphe, an impoverished, isolated, rural village, where he meets an unlikely fate. The village’s elder and leader, Haji Ali welcomed him to his home and took care of Greg while he recovered from such an exhausting exhibition. Haji Ali gave Greg a tour of his village, which opened Greg’s eyes to the poverty and misfortunes the children of Korphe were enduring. During his stay, he treated Muslims all over the town of their minor injuries and sicknesses, thus earning the nickname Dr. Greg. He promised the villagers of Korphe that he come back and would build a school for the children. When …show more content…
During the seminar, Greg also met his future wife, Tara Bishop, a climber who was fascinated with the charity work Greg was performing. They married six days later, and immediately following the wedding, Mortenson returns to Korphe to finish building his school. While looking for another site to construct another education center in Waziristan, he is kidnapped and held hostage for eight days, uninformed of his fate lying ahead. He was able to convince the Taliban leader Khan to let him free by lying and pleading, “My wife is about to give birth to our first child…a son.” (Mortenson and Relin 170) Although he was informed that his wife was giving birth to a female, he was able to deceive Khan because Greg had knowledge of the Islamic culture, and knew how important the birth of a first son is to the Islamic. The Taliban allowed him to return home to his wife, where she gave birth to their first child, Amira Eliana Mortenson. Greg Mortenson found out a few days later that Jean Hoerni was diagnosed with myelofibrosis, and went up to visit him. He premises Jean that he will take a picture of the finished …show more content…
In the United States, the CAI was not receiving much excellent attention from Americans. People from all over the country were writing hate mail at Mortenson for the statements he made about how the only way to defeat terrorism was not through solely weapons, but it was to defeat them using education. Mortenson gained followers at his speeches, and some donations that allowed the charity to continue with his work. When Mortenson took Kevin Fedarko, a journalist from the Outside magazine around Pakistan, Fedarko told his editor of the miracles and selfless actions Mortenson had been perfuming, and he put his story in the magazine Parade. This gained several donations and supporters of the CAI, which allowed Greg to visit Pakistan again to visit Haji Ali’s son Twaha, and his daughter Jahan, the first educated women of Korphe. Mortenson pays for her medical education, and finally, after a decade of hard, enduring working, his mission has finally paid off to see women become more educated and not intimated by the men of the village. Mortenson gave raises to all of his employees in Pakistan, doubling their