the distance. fox didn't notice a thing. he was begging to be believed. wait, wait here it is. i am a fox, he said yes, yes. sometimes he could run. it doesn't matter what i think anymore. it doesn't matter anymore. you have sharp teeth and can run fast. by the way he is looking all over for you. if fox dashed towards the woods, not to worry, the hound dog knows who i am. i have been out running that old miserable mutt for years

like i told you i am a fox. i know. i know. she turned toward ms. viola's with a basket of eggs. i rewrote it and sent it back and it was 7 pages long. that was the beginning of our relationship. we have done many picture books together. i did randy and brother wind which was one of jerry [inaudible] honor books. i have done my dearest apron. the latest one is [inaudible]

the women of [inaudible] bend. these are about the women that made those wonderful quilts all over the world. alabama, the poorest county in the depression. the women made these quilts because they needed to keep her children warm and would stack them to make a mattress. they covered the tables with them, they used them for their children to crawl on when they would go outside and have picnics. they used the quilts for everything, small ones and large ones. now today, those quilts are going for 25,000 and more. it was my pleasure to go to g's

bend and had the opportunity to quilt with them. my next picture book, i will share this with you and it is called never gotten. i would like to share it because this is something that had been in the process for about 20 years. i have been asking every west african that i have met, did you miss us? what i meant by that was are there stories in your culture that talk about the ones who were taken away? did you tell stories? did you sing songs, poetry, any remnant of anything i could use

to tell a story that comes from that side over the year where you looked and longed for us the way we looked and longed? in all those years, i did not find one story, didn't find one song. i am sure they are there, but i was unable to find them. i said okay, instead of whining and wondering, i'll do it myself. it is reason in free verse and about black smith, west african black smith. they were thought to be magicians. 1725, oh molly in the west

africa. the drums -- be ware of sea birds, be ware of men that steal up the river through the great forest. and into the savannah lands. the moans and groans, hundreds, thousands stolen, we rarely speak the taken, i will this time because you have asked. come back, back, back, far edge of memory. we recall them and they are black smith, by all accounts a master craftsman, worthy of praise, honored as a powerful magician. one who could speak the old names of the mother elements,

earth, fire, water, wind. they would do as bidding, think. people sing praise songs. he was a gifted black smith. he is not remembered for that. he is best remembered for being a loving father. when his beloved wife died only after a year and embraced his newborn son, i will raise you myself. the elder women with argued against it saying you'll grow up wild without a gentle hand of a mother, a gentle hand to guide him. must divide by custom, take another wife or give the baby to a mother who is childless.

how will you feed the baby? you have no milk to give. dinka would not change his mind. the tortoise doesn't have milk to give but knows how to take care of its young. shamelessly he tied the baby on his back like a woman and headed for his forge at the place where 7 generations of his clan had once stood. he set his feet firmly on the ground and called to earth, takoma, thank you for yielding up the ore from your underground storehouse of treasure. he lit the fire in his porch and called to fire, tokumbi thank you for making the ore

plyable for i might shape it. thank you for setting the iron and making it strong. dinka fanned the bellows and the fire rows began and called to win, thank you for revising fire and keeping my brow cooled in the heat of the day and lifting his arms in praise, dinka cried come now elders behold my beloved son. mother earth appears first ageless and forever beautiful, she kissed the baby and spoke softly, see how he grabs my finger. already strong like my mountain son. i a woman leaped into the air

and swirled majestically in a flaming red. it is a sign he will be an inspired leader inspiring and courageous. she blew the child a warm kiss that made him cool. sang to the child in old lull hra byes. a boy has come and laughter has come. a son has come and beauty has come. then the child gurgled and replied even now i can hear the music in his voice. suddenly wind spirits swished in turning and made the baby

happily, we'll dance through the tall grass as you and i forever free. he is taken, he is taken aboard the ship and the elements go out and look for him and they do find him in, win finds him in south carolina in charleston, earth went looking for him. after earth fire, she could not get passed the fire. water follow it had ship and wind was able to go across and follow and find him. it was after many years that wind was able to find him. i'll read that last part. [inaudible] all living in the

americas, i saw the taken shackled to the land from sun up to sun down working tobacco, sugar cane and rice. i listen to them tell stories different but strangely familiar. now prayer rabbit. i stopped by kitchens and watched our women with cook yams, rice, oh kra and beans. our children had not forgotten. and i rejoice, led by the sound of a black smith's hammer, i travel to charleston, south carolina, john shannon, black smith. a large european with red hair,

comfortable. they were apprentices to all africans new and old, familiar yet fresh. i have sold another of your beautiful gape with the rice design, how did you learn to craft so well? a young man stepped into the light. i learned by reaching back with one hand and stretching forward with the other he said. people said you are a genius. my father dinka was the genius replied the apprentice. he taught me what 7 generations have learned, i am the 8th. i had bound [inaudible] who

answers to moses shannon. both mean safe water. he seems more confident now, wiser. playful mostafa. i had so much to tell him, he could not see me. he could not see me or hear me in this strange land. he touched the spotting smiles. [inaudible] with birds, flowers and animals inspired. i turned to someone tell moses, shannon is going to free you

one day. they can find joy, [inaudible] in my mind, i have always been free. free as the wind, thank you so much. [applause].

>> thank you. thank you. i have um... thank you and peace be with you. there's three mike's here so i don't know if i should put this down. um... before i start, i've had

the great honor to - i love to talk at schools. k through graduate school and one question i ask children in america is i ask them how many of you have talked great detail to your grandparents or elders or fore father's about world war ii or the depression or vietnam or civil rights movement, or perhaps if your parents or grandparents came from another country and settled here what it's like. only five to ten percent of the ands come up. if i asked that same question in afghanistan or pakistan or africa 90% of ands come up and i think the as great tragedy we've lost that oral tradition and a rich tradition about folklore and heritage and faith and heritage. to honor that today i'd like to share with you a little story.

it's a hard cover book that came out in march of 2006. anybody have a hard cover. wave it up here. you might not want it after i say this. i got to pick the title. three cups of tea but viking told me they would pick the subtitle and they picked one man mission to fight terrorism one school at a time. i objected because obviously there's- ways to fight tear riz m with education but i said i do this to promote peace and i started 8 years before 911 and this is about promoting peace through education. i've worked afghanistan and pakistan many years and i said we need to have a tribal council. i went to manhattan in the fall of 2005 and the big boss of the whole group, nancy shepherd and

carlin coburn in publicity. we met in a little room and i stated my case and they said, this is your first book so you need to listen to a few things here. first of all only 12 percent of nonfiction books make a profit and 2/3 are pre chosen by the publisher. we'd like to put our marketing arm behind us but your having to fight tear riz m to this. since i grew up in africa and worked pakistan for many years you never settle a deal without driving a hard bargain so i said if the hard cover doesn't do well, i'd like the subtitle changed later on for the paper back. julia and our other board relently pounded away month after month. i was in pakistan of december of

2006 and there was a new editor on the book and they said they decided to change the title to one man's mission to promote peace. the hard cover didn't do that well. sold 20,000 copies. while the paper back came out on january 30th of this year and since out it's been on the new york times best seller selling over 700,000 copies now. and it's one man's mission to promote peace. and they're still baffleed manhattan because they're scratching their heads the first month because there's only - well no big city book editor did it so to be a best seller you need new york times or the chronicle or boston globes to give you good book reviews. no national t.v. or, m pr so paul said what's going on out

there. i said, you know this is what i think it's about book clubs and women's groups, synagogues, mosques and churches and an incredible amount of book clubs here in the bay view area and about people yearning for piece and looking for the answers of peace. any ways it's been really incredible and aspire together see people from all walks of life i really think can re late to promoting peace one child at a time. we got some news last month that the pentagon purchased 5,000 copies. let me finish it. and it's for counter intelligence training, 101 and mandatory reading for they're course encounter intelligence. this is in tan sa any a.

i went there when i was three years old and my father founded a medical center and my mother started a school. it was a wonderful childhood. i went to school with children from two dozen countries. with jews and christians and hindus and for me that was the way the world was. finally it came time to come back to america. i was in high school and really looking forward to coming back to a place whether i heard about fourth of jewels lies anulies . i got beat up. they said you're not from america. it wasn't in africa that i learned about racism but here in united states. we were completely broke and i

did something real unpopular at the time. four days after high school i joind the united states army. not only to serve my country but to get the,gi bill to continue my education. then i saw young men and women from all across america. from farms and ranches and it matedm made me realize the strength in this country is not from commonality but our great diversity. i had a younger sister named gift of god and christa was a special girl because she suffered from severe epilepsy. she never once complained. she never said across word and it could or would take her an hour or two to line um... up her

clothes and do our homework and get her lunch b bag ready. i'm the five minutes bed to - bus kind of guy, you know? well krista saw the baseball movie called field of dreams. very inspiring movie that takes place in the corn field in iowa and decided for her 23rd birthday she wanted to go see that place. she was living in minneapolis and packed her bags to go to the field of dreams. when my mother went to wake her up on july 24th 1992 she had died in her sleep from a massive seizure and it was devastating for all of us. i was climbing quite a bit and roaming around quite a bit and every summer i would take a month and do something with her. every year we could go to disneyland and i took her to

yosemite. it was very special to do that with my sister. at the time i was climbing a lot, i thought i'm going to pick a big bad mountain to climb in honor of krista. she had an amber necklace she got on the indian ocean coast and i was going to take that and put it on top of,k 2. when i went to,k 2 to climb a mountain and instead a found affair greater mountain to climb. here's the world's second highest mountain. you can put 84, monthe horns here to fill it up. i hope there's no outdoor retailers. two season family camping tents from logan you at the this tenth is a french league on eres tenth

designed for the sahara. this came from north face prototype tenth called the wind tunnel. it was 20 years old when we took it to,k 2. here's our mottly crew of 12 climbers. the gentleman in the white shirt left after one week after he found out there's no alcohol in pakistan. i don't tell you anymore where he's from, but this is - what is this doug? deadly. avalanche. we call this the mother of all avalanches a year after desert storm. intense from spain and you can see the guys running out in their underwear. fortunately nobody was killed in this avalanche. this is the art memorial in honor of, art gillke.

we climbed a lot at night and these for tops of pots and pans that have been carved out in the names of climbers that died on this mountain. we climbed at night and it's difficult because you can only see ten feet for front of you and 6,000s of feet below we heard plates clanging against the rocks and i thought really is this a good way to honor my sister. finally 78 days later it was time to go home. i was weak, exhausted and emaciated but most of all i felt that neck la l necklace and i ft her down. anybody that read the book can you remember what the first chapter is called. it starts with an,f, failure. that's another thing they really objected to in manhattan. said you can't start a book with

the word failure. at least i won that argument. i said you know, our success is originally based in failure and you know what? all of us make mistakes and all of us sometimes fail. sometimes with relationships or investments or fail with jobs. um... i flunked my first driving test when i was 16 and totald the car while parallel parking and some student wills not get into college. really when you fail it's not the end of the road. it's more of an opportunity and away to find a different path. when i come to those moments in life, i think of the perz yen proverb that says when it's dark you can see the star. for those of you that have been there, i failed get a really good sunset picture on,k 2.

this is actually a volcano in mexico but i love this climbing photo to end the climing sequence. so, here's our dirt bag climbers. done with the climb and it's time for me to head back to berkley. i was very weak and fortunately, we were still alive. that year five of 12 climbers that ascending died during the descend. i had to walk five days back to the nearest village to catch a jeep back to civilization. as i got to the village a string of kids started grabbing on to me and as i got near there was a stout, gruff man with a silver grin and he looked at me and he said peace be with you and then he looked at me and shook his a

had had and said chiz l.a. i'm from the midwest and the best translation is what the heck. i was skruf if i and looked pretty bad and he said, son, i'd like you to come to our village but first, you need to take a bath. so, i went down to the river, very filthy, a washed up and we went for tea. in that sorry lame i learned many things. one out of three children there dies before the age of one. usually dehydration or diarrhea induced dehydration. many young men have left the villages to try and get jobs as dishwashers in the cities or work on construction crews or work for foreign climbers and they often have to pull they're resources and sell they're goats and land to bribe somebody. for who is left behind is th