The leader of Korphe, the village in Pakistan where Greg plans to build the first school. Haji is a wise man and soon takes Greg in as he would a son, welcoming him on each of his arrivals as he would a son. Haji is very wise in the ways of people and realizes that Greg has to find a way to fit in among the people rather than trying to make the people fit into his plans for building a school. It is Haji who tells Greg that he has to slow down and take time to drink "three cups of tea." The message is that Greg was not accepted into the village because he had taken time to have a single cup of tea with them and that he was not going to accomplish a school without investing that same kind of time with the people. Greg takes Haji's message to heart and admits that he is relegated from crew foreman to spectator because of it. Haji's commitment to the school is every bit as real as Greg's. While Greg has sacrificed and worked to raise the money to build the school, Haji is willing to do the same. When a man comes to the village demanding a bribe in order to allow the school to be completed, Haji pays, though the price is exorbitant and makes a tremendous dent in the wealth of the village overall. He later tells Greg that he is illiterate and that he will pay any price to ensure that the children of the village—boys and girls—will not be.
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