What is the significance of three cups of tea

This is one of the biggest disgraces a family can experience: not being able to offer their guests tea. It's like Starbucks being out of coffee, but so much worse. Parents Home Homeschool College Resources. Study Guide. Previous Next. What's Up With the Title? This custom is best described by Haji Ali in this quote: "You must respect our ways. Marina Villard Dr. What's Up With the Ending? Haji Ali explains to Mortenson the meaning of sharing tea for the Balti people in Chapter 12, as the two drink tea together.

Haji has just asked Mortenson to stop supervising the construction of the school because Mortenson is making everyone crazy by being in such a hurry. Doctor Greg, you must take time to share three cups of tea. We may be uneducated, but we are not stupid. We have lived and survived here a long time. Mortenson, however, has to relearn the lesson several times in the course of the book, when his impatient temperament leads him to push ahead rather than create connections.

As a result, the importance of building relationships becomes a constant theme throughout the work. He does not mean, for example, that just drinking three cups of tea with someone will make you like a member of the family. Still delirious, he vows to build a school, hoping to battle poverty in the region through education.

Mortenson returns to San Francisco to sell his few belongings and raise money for the Korphe school. He immediately faces his first setback in the ignorance and passivity that he encounters among the wealthy American population. Growing increasingly frustrated, he sits down to write letters to celebrities across the nation, in the hope of receiving the financial support needed to embark on his mission.

Once back in Korphe, Mortenson faces reality. No longer malnourished or feverish, he sees his utopia with new eyes-barred by corruption, poverty, and tribal warfare.

His conviction is further put on trial when he is abducted for eight days by renegades, but his determination to deliver grows stronger with each obstacle he encounters. Unaware of the complexity of his mission, Morteson embarks on a lifelong journey that will bring together two worlds over three cups of tea.

It is hard for us to understand the remoteness of the mountains of Pakistan. Nothing moves quickly, which is a real test for an American accustomed to doing business efficiently.