Reading Abdul Salam Zaeef: My Life with the Taliban:

When we arrived there, some 75 kilometres west of Quetta, we found nothing but wilderness. The sun was already setting when the truck finally came to a stop at the end of a small dirt track. We tried our best to improvise for the night. In these first days everyone was busy cutting down trees and clearing the ground, building small huts and a mosque out of wood. We set up the tents we had brought with us and tried to settle down as best we could. Around our makeshift huts we laid fences made of osh murghai, a type of thorn bush.

The land was dry and the weather as hot as in Nushki. We found nests of scorpions, snakes and tarantulas everywhere. Every night when we lit the small kerosene lamp in our tent three or four scorpions would come out of the dark, scuttling towards us. There was no water and during the first days we were forced to ration what we had brought in buckets and canisters. We even used earth and sand for our ablutions before prayer.

The nearest wells were several kilometres away from the camp at a local village. I was sent to fetch water along with the other children. Each morning we would go to the well with our buckets. By the time we returned it was already time for the afternoon prayer. It was a long way and the buckets were heavy. We were usually exhausted when we we reached the camp.
…
Some of the children from our camp attended classes there and I also took the admissions exam and passed for entry to the sixth grade.

We went there every morning to study. The school was far away and we had to get up at six in the morning, walking for over an hour to reach it. In the afternoons we would gather together in a small assembly with Mawlawi Hanifa Saheb who attended to our religious studies. I was one of a group of seven from Panjpayi camp who attended the madrassa. I studied hard at school and passed the sixth and seventh grades. I still remember that I received 480 points in the final examination of the seventh grade, the best result of the entire class. For the eighth grade, I was appointed class captain.

I liked my time at school and enjoyed studying. My instructors were happy with me, and in turn I was happy with them. I followed their advice and instructions and behaved well in class. My love of learning never deserted me, even when I was fighting the Russians.