Ali, the Shopkeeper

I was in Dara-e-Noor dis­trict of Nan­garhar province with my map­ping team last month. I met Ali. He is about 4 years old boy with light skin, blue eyes, and blond hair. Ali’s father is a shop­keep­er run­ning a lit­tle con­ve­nience store in this very remote area in the mid­dle of moun­tains. Ali keeps the shop and sells some small items that he knows the prices of when his father goes to Jalal­abad for replen­ish­ing the store. That’s how Ali helps with their lit­tle fam­i­ly busi­ness. I asked Ali if he wants to go to school. “My father won’t buy me a back­pack”, he said. Ali’s father said that nobody had had any edu­ca­tion in their fam­i­ly but he will let him go to school. I gave Ali his first les­son to count to ten and I promised him to bring him a back­pack next time I come to their village.