"It was a Sunday evening in late August when Hayat Khan returned to his home in the tiny village of Aurak Dandila. The 55-year-old farmer had been celebrating a wedding at a neighbour's house one of just nine stone homes built into the mountainside. Partially concealed behind corn stalks and tall grass deep in the mountains of Afghanistan's Kunar province, Aurak Dandila overlooks a patchwork of small farms, where the villagers grow corn and beans, walnuts and apricots."
"Everyone in the village belonged to one extended family and thought of their quiet, peaceful spot overlooking the valley as a little piece of heaven. The only way out was via a treacherous, unpaved road that snaked around a mountain but most villagers survived off the land and had no need to leave. Those who did went in search of work in Afghanistan's cities or neighbouring Pakistan and sent money home to those who stayed behind."
Hayat Khan, 55, lost four members of his family during a magnitude 6 earthquake. He returned one Sunday evening in late August to Aurak Dandila after celebrating a wedding at a neighbour's house. Aurak Dandila is one of nine stone homes built into the mountainside, partially concealed behind corn stalks and tall grass in Kunar province. The village overlooks small farms that grow corn, beans, walnuts and apricots and is bisected by a stream with children who jumped from boulders. Everyone belonged to one extended family and relied on subsistence farming, with a treacherous unpaved road the only way out. Hayat had fled to Lahore six years earlier during fighting, sold street food there, and returned three years ago when Pakistani authorities cracked down on undocumented migrants. He was back and happy with his life in the village, surrounded by his six sons.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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