Last year about 350 people died when Mount Merapi, one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes, erupted.
Now, with 70 per cent of the volcanic material yet to be expelled from Merapi, many residents in villages affected by the volcanic material are either still waiting for government relocation assistance or have refused the services because of the geographic distance it would create between families.
In order to survive, many of the residents, whose fruit crops were destroyed by volcanic ash, are turning to the sand, rock, and even souvenir T-shirts left in the eruption's wake for an income.
For many though, they make more from the remnant of Merapi's destructive power than they ever did from their traditional sources of income.
Al Jazeera's Step Vaessen reports from Merapi.
