At Guldahar high school, Class eight is having a geography lesson. The walls are black from the fires the Taliban lit -- fuelled by desks, chairs and books -- for heat when they used the school as a command post.
"They were based here for six months, and when we came back everything was burned. There were homeless people here as well -- they burned the desks in the winter. We have blackboards and we have chalk -- nothing else," said the headteacher, Mullah Ahmed.
PHOTO: WORLD FOOD PROGRAM
The words "By the name of God who created man and gave man knowledge" hang over the charred front door of the school. There is no glass in the windows.
The children are desperate to learn. "Pen, Mrs, pen, pen, pen," they beg from journalists in the street.
"I would like to go to Paris," said Shari, 15. "To learn something, and we heard that the weather is good and that the people are kind."
Arif carries three crumpled copybooks tied with red ribbon: English, biology, Dari. He wants to go to Japan because he heard life is good there. He wants to study computers but has never seen one.
His friend, who wants to be a doctor, saw a computer in Kabul in an aid agency. "I heard there was a thing called the Internet but I don't know what it is," said Arif.
Lala Shermain, 15, said: "I get up at 5:30am and go to prayers. After that I go to my English class until 7:00 and then I go to school. I want to be a translator."
"George Bush is the king of America and he is bombing us to catch bin Laden. They want to capture our country because Afghanistan has good weather."
All their fathers are jobless. The children who can afford private English classes sell diesel smuggled across the mountain on a six day journey.
They are educated separately -- boys in the morning, girls in the afternoon. There are 70 children in a class.
Outside, the boys play football: none has heard of Arsenal, Inter Milan, Real Madrid or Manchester United.
Have they heard of Madonna? "Yes, I have heard of him," says Arif, who sells rolls of cotton in his father's shop.
Mirwais, 14, said: "I want to be something to help my country like a doctor or something else. If I will get an education everything will be possible. If I become a beggar because of the Taliban then we will fight against them and bring our country back to life."
Fausia is 16 and she wants to see the end of the Taliban. "They are Muslims but they are also terrorists," she said. "They don't want women to get educated. We have a good chance now to make our country if the Taliban go."
Abdul Rafe, 18, added: "It's good George Bush wants to give a dollar to the Afghan children. Send the bombs to the Taliban and the dollars to the children."
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