Khan Beg, a primary school teacher, surveys the magnificent view of the Kunarviker valley that rolls out in splendour from the front door of his house.
The father of six children was forced to abandon his teaching duties more than two years ago when the Taliban captured his village of Shundar, which nestles in the Kashmund mountains about 30 kilometres from Jalalabad.
Mr Khan, who had command of around 40 men, hid in the treacherous hills, and fought a brutal guerrilla war with the Taliban enemy.
Three times they almost regained control. But three times they were pushed back by Taliban forces.
Last week, Mr Khan got the radio call he had been waiting for. The Taliban had gone and he and his men were finally able to go home.
On returning to the village they captured 10 Taliban, along with two vehicles. They are now in custody in Jalalabad awaiting their fate.
Mr Khan's family are considered well off by other villagers because they have land. The Taliban took over his home when he was in the mountains. Yesterday he proudly showed me the rocket launcher they left behind in his front yard.
On a wall near by were bullet marks, the result of a battle between Mr Khan's men and Taliban forces.
Mr Khan is one of Hasarat Ali's commanders. Ali is a local warlord who this week was appointed head of security for the new East Afghanistan government, which is led by Hadji Khadir.
The commander, who was headmaster in the local primary school, does not know when it will reopen. "The situation is still unreliable. We will have to wait until the people are disarmed and there is control in the province," he said.
Girls will be allowed in his school when the time comes. "There were no girls in the Taliban time or in the Northern Alliance time. But here in the Eastern Province they will be educated."
When they were hiding in the mountains the former Northern Alliance leader, Gen Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was murdered two days before the September 11th terrorist attack, had supplies airlifted by helicopter to various anti-Taliban units hiding in the Dar-e-nu district.
"We also had men who smuggled supplies to us from the village and from Jalalabad," he said.
He does not know what the future will hold, but wants to settle back to normal life and work his land.
"I want peace. We all want peace. We have been through rough times in the last 25 years.
"I have lived here all my life, and I will die here. This is a good village. The land is good. There is plenty of fruit. I learned here."
There is virtually no road from Jalalabad to Shundar. The 30-kilometre journey, which took 11/2 hours, is over a stony track.
En route, it was impossible not to be intoxicated by the Kashmund mountains.
It was hard to believe that the mountains were the battleground for control by the Taliban of the Dar-e-Nu district of this province in the last few years.
People live simply and are barely surviving. If they don't work, they don't eat. There is no electricity.
Farmers tilled fields yesterday with old-fashioned ploughs pulled by oxen. Camels ambled along the dirt road carrying supplies. Children played happily outside their mud houses. One little girl was clutching a bunch of red flowers.
Driving back down the mountain our car broke down. We had to transfer to the back of the pick-up truck, which carried our armed security, courtesy of Hasarat Ali.
One of our guards, 16-year-old Sohrab, proudly showed off his Kalashnikov rifle. It cost him all of $30. At his feet was a rocket launcher.
He told me he learned to shoot when he was 10, and that he made his first killing when he was 12, a relative, during a family feud.
Sohrab laughed when I asked him if some day Afghanistan would be rid of all its weapons.
I had momentarily forgotten he was born during the Soviet war, and never knew a time when his country was free of guns.