Three Cups of Deceit: How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way (15 page)

The cause of the latter problem, says Callahan, was that villages had
“
learned to game the system.
”
They understood that if they told Sarfraz or Dr. Greg a woeful story and begged for a school, CAI might build one for them.
“
The effect was school-building willy-nilly,
”
Callahan explains. The location of existing government schools wasn
’
t taken into consideration.
“
It was just kind of, build a school here,
build
a school there. Nobody objected. Everyone was willing to grab any kind of development with both hands.
”

Acting on the complaints he
’
d received, in September 2007 Callahan emailed a message to Mortenson:

At the risk of sounding like I
’
m meddling in CAI business (in truth, I
’
m busy enough with my own affairs but this keeps coming up), I thought I
’
d offer some friendly advice and suggest that you plan a trip to the Wakhan at the earliest opportunity. What goodwill you and CAI enjoy is ebbing fast, with the problems in Sarhad and, now, Kret, and I
’
ve been hearing a lot of grumbling and criticism, plus unflattering rumors, about CAI. A visit from you would go a long way towards settling things.

I mention this not because it
’
s any concern of mine but because people know that (in theory) I can contact you and they often ask that I do. Specifically, Ghial Beg, the headman of Kret, is very keen to hear from you, as he
’
s very upset with the status of the school (built but not open, since the MoE [Ministry of Education] won
’
t certify it or whatever).
 

I
’
m now living up with Abdul Rashid [Khan] (though on a short break here in Kabul to deal with visa issues). Although I don
’
t want to get involved in the school you
’
re planning to try and build at Mulk Ali in the Little Pamir [the Bozai project], I might be able to provide information if you need any.

Mortenson responded by sending a sarcastic email to Sarfraz suggesting that Callahan was trying to discredit CAI out of spite, or that the complaints he forwarded were based on false rumors planted by the Aga Khan Development Network, a highly regarded foundation that had been establishing successful development projects in the Wakhan long before CAI arrived on the scene, and that Mortenson considered a rival.

*
*
*

There is no evidence that the Kyrgyz actually considered such an exodus, however. A more plausible reason for the urgency Mortenson felt to get the school finished by October was that his publisher had promised bookstores that
Stones into Schools
would be on their shelves by December 1, in time for the last few weeks of the holiday shopping season. The Bozai
school
was the heart and soul of the book. By September 10, when a dozen yaks arrived in Bozai with the first load of building materials, the publisher had already received most of the manuscript. All that remained was the final chapter
—
which couldn
’
t be written until the school was completed. Anxiety over whether a happy ending would take place in time for
Stones
to arrive at bookstores before Christmas created considerable suspense in the offices of Viking Penguin.

To generate suspense on the page, Mortenson injected the failing health of Abdul Rashid Khan into the narrative. The Kyrgyz leader, who was almost seventy-two years old, was in fact terminally ill. But Mortenson took great liberties when he suggested that Abdul Rashid
’
s final aspiration was to finish the school before his life came to an end:

As word of his illness spread, men and women all across the Pamir had dropped whatever they were doing and begun walking or riding toward Kara Jilga in order to pay their respects and offer their support. The impulse behind this convergence was touching and appreciated, but it meant that manpower was being drained from Bozai Gumbaz precisely when the need for it was greatest
…
.
“
This is no time to sit around watching an old man die,
”
[Abdul Rashid] railed at his well-wishers
…
.
“
It is worthless for you to be here when you could be helping to build our future
!...
This school is our priority
…
.
Inshallah
, we are going to finish what we have started.
”

In Mortenson
’
s rendering of Abdul Rashid
’
s last days, nothing mattered to him more than the Bozai
school
.
“
Abdul Rashid Khan would have been amused to learn that his dying wish was to see this school completed,
”
notes Callahan, who knew the man well.
“
He had a wry sense of humor.
”

Nevertheless, according to Mortenson, when Abdul Rashid implored his people to get the job done before he expired, his exhortations incited them to charge out and win one for the Gipper. More than sixty men, Mortenson wrote,

rushed
to Bozai Gumbaz and flung themselves into the task of assisting the eight [CAI] masons from [Pakistan] who were directing operations. They worked fourteen hours
a day
hauling water, mixing cement, and roughing out the roof frame.

A week later, the phone rang in Mortenson
’
s Bozeman home. It was Sarfraz calling from Bozai on his satellite phone:

“
No problem sir
—
the school is finished.
”…
It was Monday, September 28. Nearly a decade after the original promise had been made to Abdul Rashid Khan
’
s
horsemen,
the covenant had finally been fulfilled.

*
*
*

the
school is still trying to fill its classrooms. Kyrgyz parents prefer that their children herd livestock, said Sarfraz Khan, [CAI
’
s] regional manager.
“
We need to convince the people to send their children to school,
”
he said.

No classes have been held in Bozai. Furthermore, if the school was built to fulfill some sort of covenant between Mortenson and the Kyrgyz, the Kyrgyz aren
’
t aware of it. Before readers get carried away by the rousing conclusion of
Stones into Schools
, Callahan warns, they should bear in mind that
“
Greg met Abdul Rashid Khan once, several years earlier in Baharak. He never spoke to him again. He
’
s never been to Bozai or anywhere else in the Pamir. He has no firsthand knowledge of any of the things he wrote about.
”

Callahan spent the better part of a year living in the Pamir with Abdul Rashid Khan and his son, Roshan Khan, the horseman with whom Mortenson purports to have made his sacred pledge.
“
Roshan was one of my best friends up there,
”
says Callahan,
“
and he never, ever mentioned Greg or the school during the months we spent together, never mentioned a sacred promise. The school was just an afterthought to the Kyrgyz.
”

Callahan doesn
’
t doubt that at some point Mortenson met Roshan Khan in Zuudkhan, just over the mountains from Bozai on the Pakistan side of the border.
“
But the way Greg tells it,
”
Callahan says,
“
Abdul Rashid Khan heard that Greg was in Zuudkhan, so he dispatched his son Roshan to plead for a school. That
’
s utter bullshit.
”