provincial council.“ When the wood structure burned, the walls fell down. That was during heavy fighting time when Taliban came and destroyed everything in the district. Now the area is in control of local and border police and ANSF and all school teaching is in homes.”
Asked if the elders really believe they could protect a new school from a similar fate, Rashidi said,“ Yes.”
“ Nobody knows more about this area than us,” said Ghulam Allah, who grew up in Barge-Matal and finished his education there 36 years ago.“ We are from that place and we know the situation.
“ Also in Kamdesh, security no problem. Inside village where we build, government has control. There is a valley and across the river, that part is totally under control of the Taliban. Sometimes they put checkpoints on the road around Kamdesh, but not inside,” he said.
The need for a school in Kamdesh, south of Barg-e-Matal, is very real, said CAI advisor Christopher Kolenda. The village has no school at all, and the fighting all around the area is intense.
“ The majority of the population that turned against the local Taliban and their al Qaeda supporters in 2008 are still fighting them today— without any American and very little Afghan government support since October 2009,” Kolenda wrote in a July blogpost about the region.
Fighting, suicide bombings, and land mines have wiped out entire families.“ Their homes and crops have been devastated,” he
Abdul Hanan, a Nuristani businessman and elder, asks CAI representatives for a school for his village.
said.“ A recurring Taliban tactic is to close off the road in an effort to starve the population. The Afghan government efforts to address the problems are inadequate.” But it’ s the kind of project CAI excels at.“ I think we just have to find a way to do this,” Mortenson said.“ It won’ t be easy. It’ s going to cost quite a bit and it’ s going to take awhile to pull together, but this is what we do best. You can ask anyone. We’ ve been at this almost 20 years and nobody but CAI has the public and private relationships to pull this together. We are going to need financial help from supporters, and much help from the community side, but we can support the Nuristanis’ determination to build a better future for their children and grandchildren.”
LOCAL MATERIALS Because Taliban control the road, building materials can’ t be brought into Nuristan, Mortenson said,“ but the Nuristanis have beautiful and strong local construction style. They use more wood than anywhere else in Afghanistan, combined with stones and cement. Only roof sheet need to be flown in by heli. Their local style is high quality.”
Nuristani construction has been put to the test in recent years, Rashidi said.“ When many rockets fired, it will not destroy the building, only make a hole.”
The elders are working on blueprints that would be acceptable by the ministries that oversee school construction, and a proposed budget. CAI is working out whether it has the funds to invest in such a project.
And there’ s still the unresolved issue of exactly where a school or schools would be situated.
“ It would be better if someone from your office should go to Nuristan and you will know which area will be better for working,” Rashidi said.“ But you must go by helicopter. Even ISAF, they do attacks by air.”
“ When do you want to go? I will go with you,” he said. y the local population. That could explain similarities with ancient Greece in Nuristani customs, dress, and physical appearance.
People: Ethnically homogenous, about 300,000 people; also has a population of Kuchis( nomads), whose numbers vary in different seasons.
Language: Nuristani is spoken by 78 percent of the population; the second most common is Pashayi, spoken by 15 percent. However, due to the extreme isolation, a language spoken in one valley may be largely unintelligible to a near neighbor in another. None of these languages are written and the literacy rate in other languages is low. Oral traditions testify to longstanding interaction between groups through the centuries despite language barriers.
Infrastructure: Only 2 percent of households use safe drinking water; 62 percent of households have access to electricity, but there is no public electricity provision; little access to safe toilet facilities; and no roads in 73 percent of the province.
Economy: The entire population lives in rural areas. Main occupations are agriculture and animal husbandry. Wheat and corn is
grown in terraced plots because arable land is sparse. Women perform agricultural chores, often using primitive tools for cultivation. Men tend the goats and cattle. Some men are employed by logging or illicit gem mining enterprises. Gemstones( rubies, emeralds, lapis lazuli, and superior-quality tourmaline) are the region’ s primary resource. Some logging is legitimate, some not, but all gem extraction is illegal by government restriction. Both are transported through Pakistan, funded by outside entrepreneurs who, as suppliers of the necessary capital and machinery, reap huge profits that are not fairly shared with local laborers. Also make honey. Handicrafts are predominately rugs and carved wood furniture.
Education: In 2008, the overall literacy was 25 percent; 31 percent of men were literate, 19 percent of women. On average, 47 percent of children between 6 and 13 are enrolled in school; 59 percent are boys. Health: Clinics, but no hospitals.
Sources: U. S. Army; Nooristan Foundation, the Joshua Project
FA L L 2 0 1 4 Journey of Hope | 53