The orphanage
The orphanage in Kabul, run by the gentle and resourceful director Zaman, serves as a critical sanctuary for Aziza during the depths of the Taliban-era famine and later transforms into a site of renewal and hope when Laila returns to teach there. It is a place of stark contrasts: a refuge from starvation and a site of profound loss, where the resilience of its director and the dedication of its volunteers slowly rebuild lives shattered by war.
Description and Setting
The orphanage is a squat, barracks-style building in the Karteh-Seh district of Kabul. When Laila first brings Aziza there in April 2001, the building has a splintered façade, a sagging roof, and planks of wood nailed across frames with missing windows. Inside, the hallways are poorly lit, and the rooms are bare, with windows covered by sheets of plastic. The yard is a weedy lot with a rickety swing set, old tires, and a deflated basketball. The children who live there have disheveled hair or shaved scalps, and wear sweaters with frayed sleeves and ragged jeans. The orphanage is chronically underfunded, receiving little or no support from the Taliban, and Zaman runs it on the honor system, accepting children without questioning the stories of their parents' deaths.
Zaman's Leadership and Secret Lessons
Zaman is a stooping, narrow-chested man with a pleasantly lined face, a balding head, a shaggy beard, and eyes like peas. He wears a skullcap and has a chipped lens in his eyeglasses. Despite the dire conditions, Zaman is gently proprietary with the orphans, patting their heads and speaking cordially to them. He secretly teaches the children reading, writing, geography, history, and science, but keeps curtains drawn and knitting needles ready in case of a Taliban inspection. Aziza tells Laila that Kaka Zaman makes it a point to teach them something every day, and that they put the books away and pretend to knit when the Taliban come. Zaman's clandestine lessons are a quiet act of defiance against the regime's ban on girls' education.
Aziza's Time at the Orphanage
Aziza is brought to the orphanage by Laila and Mariam during the severe drought and famine of 2001, when Rasheed's shop has burned down and the family can no longer afford to feed her. The parting is traumatic: Aziza panics, kicking and screaming as Zaman pries her loose from Laila. During her stay, Aziza learns about tectonic plates, transpiration, and the scattering of blue light by oxygen atoms. She develops a stutter, which Mariam notices is more pronounced with words that begin with 'l'. Laila visits as often as she can, enduring beatings from the Taliban for walking alone, and finds Aziza increasingly anxious, filling silences with nervous chatter and a new, brittle laugh. Aziza's nightmares persist even after she is reunited with her family.
Renovation and Transformation
After the fall of the Taliban, Laila, Tariq, and Zaman work together to renovate the orphanage. They repaint both the exterior and interior, repair all roof leaks, patch the walls, replace the windows, and carpet the rooms where the children sleep and play. Laila buys beds, pillows, proper wool blankets, and installs cast-iron stoves for the winter. The playground gains a row of apple saplings along the east-facing wall, a new swing set, new monkey bars, and a jungle gym. The hallway walls are covered with posters of dinosaurs, cartoon characters, the Buddhas of Bamiyan, and displays of artwork by the orphans, many of which depict tanks, AK-47s, and refugee camp tents. Anis, one of Kabul's newspapers, runs a story on the renovation, featuring a photo of Zaman, Tariq, Laila, and an attendant standing behind the children.
Laila's Role as Teacher
Laila becomes a teacher at the orphanage, instructing the children in Farsi. The classroom is built by knocking down the wall between two adjacent rooms; the floor is still badly cracked and covered with tarpaulin, but Tariq has promised to lay down carpeting soon. Above the classroom doorway, Zaman has nailed a board with four lines of poetry from Hafez, his answer to those who grumble about the slow pace of rebuilding: "Joseph shall return to Canaan, grieve not, / Hovels shall turn to rose gardens, grieve not. / If a flood should arrive, to drown all that's alive, / Noah is your guide in the typhoon's eye, grieve not." When the children spot Laila, they come running at full tilt, calling her "Mother," and she does not correct them. Laila finds that Mariam is never far from her here—she is in the walls they've repainted, the trees they've planted, the blankets that keep the children warm, and in the verses Aziza recites.
