雙語暢銷書《我是馬拉拉》第3章5:同事

One of my father’s colleagues at the school was his friend Mohammad Naeem Khan. He and my father had studied for their bachelors and masters degrees in English together and were both passionate about education. They were also both frustrated as the school was very strict and unimaginative. Neither the students nor the teachers were supposed to have their own opinions, and the owners’ control was so tight they even frowned upon friendship between teachers. My father longed for the freedom that would come with running his own school. He wanted to encourage independent thought and hated the way the school he was at rewarded obedience above open-mindedness and creativity. So when Naeem lost his job after a dispute with the college administration, they decided to start their own school.

父親在那所學校裏的一個同事，同時也是他在大學念英文學士和碩士時期的同窗--穆罕默德.納伊姆.汗，和父親一樣，都對教育充滿熱忱。他們對學校的嚴格與死板感到失望。這所學校的創辦者對一切都實行嚴厲控制。學校裏無論老師還是學生都不允許有自己的想法，甚至對老師之間的友誼也進行管控。父親一直嚮往自己開辦學校，開創自由的風氣。他希望鼓勵學生獨立思考，憎恨這所大學偏好順從、對開放的心胸和創意的態度進行壓制的風氣。所以，當納伊姆因爲與大學裏的一個行政人員發生衝突而丟了工作的時候，他們決定開辦一所自己的學校。

Their original plan was to open a school in my father’s village of Shahpur, where there was a desperate need: ‘Like a shop in a community where there are no shops, ’ he said. But when they went there to look for a building, there were banners everywhere advertising a school opening – someone had beaten them to it. So they decided to set up an English-language school in Mingora, thinking that since Swat was a tourist destination there would be a demand for learning in English.

他們最初的想法是在父親的村子夏波村辦學，因爲村子裏有這個需求。“就像是在一個沒有商店的地方開一間店。”父親說。但當他們到了村裏，開始尋找辦校地點時，卻看見到處都貼滿了一個新學校的廣告--有人搶先一步。於是，他們決定在明戈拉開一所英文學校。他們認爲，既然斯瓦特是觀光勝地，一定會有學英文的需求。

As my father was still teaching, Naeem wandered the streets looking for somewhere to rent. One day he called my father excitedly to say he’d found the ideal place. It was the ground floor of a two-storey building in a well-off area called Landikas with a walled courtyard where students could gather. The previous tenants had also run a school – the Ramada School. The owner had called it that because he had once been to Turkey and seen a Ramada Hotel! But the school had gone bankrupt, which perhaps should have made them think twice. Also the building was on the banks of a river where people threw their rubbish and it smelt foul in hot weather.

父親仍然在教書，納伊姆到處尋找可以承租的地點。有天，他興奮地打電話告訴父親，已經找到了理想的地點。那是位於較富裕的蘭蒂卡斯的一棟兩層小樓，一樓空了出來，還有一個院子可以供學生們使用。前一位承租者也是一所學校--華美達學校。創辦人爲學校取名“華美達”，是因爲他在一次土耳其之旅中見到過有名的華美達酒店！但華美達學校後來破產了，這個現實讓父親和他的朋友對此地點有些猶豫。而且這棟建築就在河岸邊，大家都把垃圾丟進河裏，天氣熱的時候，味道十分難聞。