After being stopped for the night at a bridge by a band of bandits having a standoff with the Pakistani army, due to a claim of having been wronged by a contractor,Mortenson and crew headed back up the road towards Korphe. They began traveling up the highest paved road surrounded on one side by a jagged ridge and on the other by a sheer cliff that drops straight into a river thousands of feet below. Mortenson had been asked about what "danger he faced in the region from terrorists." He would always answer, 'If i die in Pakistan , it'll be because of a traffic accident , not a bomb or bullet, ...The real danger is on the road'(81).
This quote stuck out to me because during the post 9/11 period there was all the hype and heavy media coverage of nothing but violence in all these areas and so many people believe exactly what the news tells you and this is showing that in reality outside of the news media the real dangers over here are not from the radicals and terrorists as they are labeled, but from driving along the roads because of the natural hazards that can occur at any moment unexpectedly. Mortenson dealt with the everyday people of Pakistan and not just the terrorists which are a minority of the people actually inhabiting the country.