Tengku Hamdam Hasyim (60, left) who was then the village chief of the coastal village of Lampuuk tells of his experience when the tsunami swept away every building there, except the sturdy mosque that became a symbol of the disaster (last slide). “First I felt the earthquake - too strong for me to stand - then I heard three loud bangs in the distance and then someone shouted: The sea level is rising!”
Tengku ran home to warn his wife and two children, but the water washed him into a house on the way. “I held on to a window frame and saw the 70-year-old resident disappear under the water”. ‘Uncle!’, shouted a boy of about 4 and I grabbed his hand.
Unfortunately, a floating palm tree broke the boy’s body, and at that time Tengku had only one of the boy’s arms in his hands. The village chief never saw his wife and son again.
Unfortunately, a floating palm tree broke the boy’s body, and at that time Tengku had only one of the boy’s arms in his hands. The village chief never saw his wife and son again.
A few kilometers away, in Banda Aceh, 68-year-old midwife Erni Munir (slide 8, top) says she fled into the neighborhood with her husband and three daughters after the earthquake. “They were swept away by the water before my eyes, I never saw them again.”
She herself got stuck in a tree. “For three days I walked from mosque to mosque to look at damaged corpses. I was physically and mentally empty.” In a refugee camp, a psychologist picked Munir out of the group. “I was so depressed, I wanted to die.” The psychologist said: “God spared you for a reason. He wants you to live on, he has a special plan for you.”
She herself got stuck in a tree. “For three days I walked from mosque to mosque to look at damaged corpses. I was physically and mentally empty.” In a refugee camp, a psychologist picked Munir out of the group. “I was so depressed, I wanted to die.” The psychologist said: “God spared you for a reason. He wants you to live on, he has a special plan for you.”
According to Munir, this gave her strength again. She opened her own maternity clinic 44 days after the tsunami. On the wall of the waiting room hangs a yellowed photo of her missing husband and daughters.
Story written by Noël van Bemmel for de Volkskrant