[line ringing]
Hello?
I am on my way to school.
I am cold.
Are you enjoying yourself there?
[vehicle engine whirring]
I am in the car. Don't you hear the sound of the car?
My nose is cold. Do you remember when my nose was cold?
-It's Mina's first day of school in Virginia,
but she is thinking of her old life in Afghanistan.
When it would snow when I was walking back home from school,
my nose was always cold.
We're here at the school. Let me show you the school.
-8-year-old Mina and 13-year-old Faisal
arrived several months ago from Kabul.
-Of course, the first week of the school was hard for them
because of the language and the new place, new people.
They are trying to adjust,
and they're learning so fast English, especial Mina.
She's very engaged in the class.
Yes, Mina?
Chair
A chair, yea. Thinking about a chair.
-Yes, Sophia?
-For Faisal, it's always hard
because he is in seventh grade.
-They're living with their Aunt Ferishta in Alexandria,
but their mother and father are not here with them.
-On the 26th of August, the explosion
that happened in Kabul Airport destroyed our family.
-After Kabul fell to the Taliban,
Mina, Faisal, and their older brother Masi,
went with their parents to Hamid Karzai International Airport
hoping to find seats on an evacuation flight.
At one of the gates, a suicide bomber was waiting.
-Eventually my oldest nephew, Masi,
who is 15 years old, he called me,
and he said that there was an explosion at Kabul Airport,
and he couldn't find his family.
And the phone went dead.
-In the chaos, the youngest children
were separated from the rest of the family.
But they weren't alone.
The family's neighbor, Emran,
had gone to the airport with them
to help them carry their belongings.
When we were at the entrance, Masi's mom,
who I called Mom, too,
crossed the entrance with Mina and Faisal.
Suddenly we heard a blast.
As I looked around me, I saw dead bodies
and wounded people around me.
-Mina and Faisal's mother, Zakya, was killed in the blast.
Their father, Wali, was wounded.
Emran knew he had to act quickly.
I saw Faisal on some stones unconscious,
I told an American soldier he was injured.
The soldier took Faisal in his hands
and took us inside the entrance at a safe area.
Later I heard sounds of Mina there inside the clinic,
as I went inside, I saw Mina there, too.
-Not wanting them to be alone,
Emran told the soldiers he was their older brother.
Soon after, they were sent to Germany and then to the U.S.,
where the children continued receiving treatment
for their injuries at Walter Reed.
Here, Ferishta was finally able to see them.
-I was so excited and happy,
and also I was so sad
because the first question they asked me,
it was about their mothers.
They were asking, "Aunt, why our mother is not talking to us?
Where our mother is?"
So that was so hard to --
I couldn't tell anything to them.
-With their father and older brother in hiding,
afraid the Taliban will come for them,
it was up to Ferishta to break the news
that their mother was gone.
-Our decision was that their dad will come
and then we will tell them.
But as this takes so longer,
and then I convinced their dad that we can't keep anymore this.
We have to tell.
And also, I talked with so many professional counselors,
as well, and they also advised us that we should talk to them.
It was so hard for me to keep this from them.
But now I'm happy that they knew about this.
-Oh, I really used computer.
-Mina and Faisal don't know
when they'll see their father or brother again.
For example, I learned the password of the computer.
-For now, they can only talk to them over the phone.
-Hi.
Mwah.
My kids are there, the two of us are here.
We lost our house, our place and everything.
[There] isn't a job or work to do.
I am just sitting here at home from morning until evening.
-Eight.
-8. And this.
-Okay.
One, two, three, four, five, six.
-Six.
-As she waits for her brother,
Ferishta tries to give the children everything they need.
But there's a hole she cannot fill.
-Mm. -Thank you.
-During the daytime, she always show me her mom's pictures,
like, old pictures.
At nighttime, these days,
she starts crying till she will go to sleep.
Of course, she's missing too much.
-[speaking native language]