BootsnAll Travel Community

Someone mentioned this in the books thread, and I thought it made sense to discuss it here as well.

I read it and loved it. First, more than once, the locals ask if Mortenson (author/guy who builds the schools) is Bosnian, and in a good way!

Seriously though, I think it is a great read for people interested in volunteering and/or working in development abroad.

On his webpage, he makes the point that his organization does not take volunteers, because they spent a long time building relationships and (in my own words) don't want to sacrifice that in order to bring untrained people in for a week or two.

I also thought it was cool because his experience really illustrated some of the problems with these large international initiatives ... he learned not just to appear and decide to build a school somewhere, but to trust people who lived there and use their advice and help. He also included a great quote to the effect of "development doesn't have just one direction".

Also though, it was inspiring to me because he was just one person, and really only came to the situation by chance, but aside from the number of schools built, he has really been involved in some positive things as far as just relationships between people. He made mistakes, but he also learned from them.

Has anyone else read this? What did you like about it?

Read it. Loved it. Passed it on.