From morning to mourning Indonesia: 'This is a very bad dream ...' Adi Arisnadi, 32, was enjoying Sunday morning at home in Ulee Lheue, a village on the outskirts of Banda Aceh, in Aceh, Indonesia. His 4-year-old son was playing on the beach when the earthquake struck. His wife, Melinda, 31, screamed for him to fetch the child, which he did. Then he went to the nearby harbor where he worked to check on any damages. Seeing none, he returned home and ate breakfast. Counselors from Church World Service, an ELCA partner, try to help victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami come to terms with what has happened. The survivors receive food and emergency supplies from ELCA partner Action by Churches Together International. Photo by Orla Clinton.Busy watching their 9-month-old daughter, his wife asked Arisnadi if he could go buy some goods. When he was a couple of hundred yards from home, he saw people staring toward the sea. The next thing he knew, they were running. That was when he saw the huge, black waves. Arisnadi tried to get his wife but was trapped by water. Clinging to a coconut tree, he started to pray. "I thought it was the end of the world," he says. "All the dead were floating around me. I prayed my family had been saved but realized there was little chance." He lost them and seven other relatives. Now Arisnadi sits with a counselor in Blang Cut, one of thousands of shelters for displaced people. The Church World Service therapist gently embraces him. CWS is a partner of the ELCA in Action By Churches Together International. To work with survivors, the agency dispatched a medical team with at least three psychologists. "Physically people may look all right, but most people here are in shock," says Julia Suryantan, a CWS doctor. "I met a 3-year-old boy who lost both his parents and is now staying with an uncle. He thinks his parents have left him." From Arisnadi's village, there are only a few survivors to scavenge for belongings. Once whole families enjoyed Sunday mornings here. Now they lie wrapped in plastic, most with no living relatives to offer them a proper burial. "My life has stopped," Arisnadi says. "I believe this is a punishment for all our corruption and injustice here." In another part of the shelter, a counselor talks with Ama Bisalamah. She weeps quietly. Bisalamah had been showering but ran outside when the tsunami came. She instantly thought of her daughters, 10 and 13, at her mother's house. "I ran there but saw from a distance that the house was covered in water, and I knew they were all dead," she says. "This disaster is a very bad dream. I cannot just accept it, and I don't understand why it has happened. If I keep thinking of it, I will go mad." People here have lost their families, their livelihoods and their hope for the future. But people are also gathering strength from each other, bolstered by a tremendous faith that keeps them going. (See page 57.) Sumiyah lost her husband in the tsunami. Her daughter, Fatimah, lost her husband and all eight of her children. The two say they are angry at God. Photo by Orla Clinton.Picking up the pieces At presstime, the Indonesian government put the death toll at 116,000, but that figure will rise as more areas become accessible. Banda Aceh and Meulaboh bore the brunt of the earthquake and tidalwaves. The situation in Meulaboh remains unclear, although access is improving as debris and bodies are cleared away. ELCA partner CWS works with local partners to identify displaced people and provide food and medical care. They still don't have enough blankets, health kits and other non-food items. Although air transport is still the most prevalent way to distribute food, fuel supplies are low. But they receive water and sanitary help from Norwegian Church Aid, another ACT partner. It will be a long time before any sense of normalcy returns. Rows and rows of rotting corpses covered in black plastic line the roads in Banda Aceh. Volunteers from throughout Indonesia continue to arrive, to help clear the dead and support survivors. Temporary shelters and emergency relief have been set up for many of Banda Aceh's 100,000 newly homeless people. But in other areas, desperate people wait for the sound of a helicopter and risk life and limb to get packets thrown from American aircraft. |
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