Library on wheels brings joy of books to kids in embattled Kabul

KABUL - The children of Kabul love the blue bus - they rush toward it every time it pulls into their street, eager to come onboard, their young eyes brimming with excitement.

But it's no ordinary bus. Its name is Charmaghz, the Dari word for Walnut, and it's a library on wheels - the first such enterprise in Afghanistan's war-battered capital.

Inside the bus are rows of neatly stacked books for children, hundreds of them in both Dari and Pashto, the country's two main languages. And small tables and stools for the kids to sit on as they discover the joys of reading.