Snow Turns to Mush

I've included this picture from our deck to prove it snowed big, fluffy, white flakes on Christmas day. It even snowed a little amongst the rain yesterday afternoon. Now the snow is receding quickly. For today I've included a slide show of the ice festival in Harbin, Manchuria, China. The temperature in this northern China village stays below freezing for half the year. Makes our short week of low temperatures seem very insignificant. Here's slide show:

I've also finished Three Cups of Tea. The main point for me was also listed on the back cover. This quote found on page 150 is from Haji Ali, the chief of Korphe (the first village to have a school built by Greg Mortenson). "If you want to thrive in Baltistan, you must respect our ways. The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything, even die."

Then Mortenson responds, "That day, Haji Ali taught me the most important lesson I've ever learned in my life. We Americans think you have to accomplish everything quickly. We're the country of thirty-minute power lunches and two-minute football drills. Our leaders thought their 'shock and awe' campaign could end the war in Iraq before it even started. Haji Ali taught me to share three cups of tea, to slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects. He taught me that I had more to learn from the people I work with than I could ever hope to teach them."

I have more to learn from the people I work with than I could ever hope to teach them. I'm struck by the power of this sentence, and its influence on my upcoming trip to the Sudan, Lord willing.