Three Cups of Tea::Three doses of agency

Deep in the Karakoram mountains, the inhabitants of an impoverished Pakistanian village were financially oppressed by the government. The leaders of Pakistan spent the money, which was meant to be spent on the education of the country's citizens, on bombs and other weapons. Without the means to build schools, buy supplies, or hire teachers, children were only able to have classes outside once a week. Trapped in a cycle of impoverishment and illiteracy, the inhabitants of the small village had little hope for their future.

However, in 1993 a mountaineer by the name of Greg Mortenson was taken to the village after a failed attempt to climb the K2. Stricken by the dire circumstances of the people in the village and touched by their genuine kindness and generosity to nurse him back to health, Mortenson promised to return and build a school. Over the next 10 years, Mortenson built fifty-five schools-especially for girls-in the forbidding terrain that gave birth to the Taliban. 

In a country where Americans are often feared and hated, the good deed of a single man was able to deliver and inspire agency among the citizens of the impoverished Pakistanian village. Although this act was not able to directly defy the oppression imposed onto the village, his influence of agency freed the villagers from relying on the government financially. Greg Mortenson's experience can be read about in his book "Three Cups of Tea." This amazing story 

of determination, good will, and humanitarianism shows what a powerful force agency can be.