#9 Three Cups of Tea

After many, many set backs, Greg Mortenson has finally gotten started on building his school. But he is way behind where he ever believed he would be. Upon returning to Korphe the year prior, he was informed that it was almost winter and too late in the year to build a school. In addition, the people of Korphe had decided that they would first need to build a bridge across the raging river that separated Korphe from the rest of the world. It was a necessary set back: in addition to helping the people generally, it would also make it a lot easier for Mortenson to transport all the supplies. The second delay was Mortenson's marriage. Although the wedding itself was extremely quick, Greg and Tara kept postponing the date of his return to Pakistan in order to spend more time with each other as newlyweds. When he finally did come back, the construction had not come along as fast as he had hoped. The stone had been cut from its quarry, but not much else. They barely had time to set the foundation before winter came again. And of course the people of Korphe made a big deal about blessing it and feasting, so not much was done before Mortenson had to leave once again.
This homecoming trip was particularly important. That Thanksgiving, Jean Hoerni offered to help Mortenson make a career off of building schools in the east by endowing a foundation called the Central Asia Institute and making Motenson the Director. For the first time in a long time, Mortenson had a job, which paid him almost $22,000 a year. And Motrenson would need it. That winter, his wife Tara became pregnant. They got a house in Bozeman, Montana and Mortenson was on he way to a fairly stable lifestyle.