Fixing a School

Deh Qadzi ("Place of the Judge") was a bit of a problem area for us. The HIG (Hezb-i-Islami Gulbuddin) had been whispering to the folks there that the Americans didn't like them because they were devout Muslims, they have never done anything for you, etc. We had been shot at from the area more than once too. One time when we asked the Parwan Provincal governor if he had a project in mind, he surprised us. The governor told us that rather than do something for him or his city of Charikar, that we should repair the school at Deh Qadzi.
The school had been built in 1994 by a wealthy donor from the United Arab Emirates. When the Taliban fought their way up the Dasht-e-Bagram, they got to the school and promptly ruined it. The villagers managed to scavenge the remains of the roof and ended up using it for firewood. All that remained were the walls - the roof, floor and furniture were all gone.

The watchman of Deh Qadzi school

I took some trusty fellows from the 3/116th INF (VA ARNG) and trudged up to the school. We met the watchman, took some photos of the foundation, walls and the like for our engineers to examine. Despite the outward bad looks, the structure was basically sound.

We found an Afghan contractor who could rebuild the roof, put in a floor, desks and the like and wrung out enough CERP (Commanders Emergency Response Program) money to make it happen. The people of Deh Qadzi were startled, and more than a little happy. The governor proved to be a clever man too. No more rockets came arcing out of Deh Qadzi.

That was a good, hard headed result to achieve. It sure was a lot nicer seeing a bunch of kids in Deh Qadzi that would actually have a roof over their heads and classrooms to use...