Indonesia Is Crying

"I pray to God that one day I can see my two sisters and my father," said five-year-old Mauswatun Haira, with her playmates fanned around her, eager to talk, eager to be in the pictures.

"My two younger sisters, one two years old, the other two months old, are in hospital in Banda Aceh. I miss them but I cannot visit them because I am too young and my auntie has no money," said Mauswatun with broken teeth.

The skinny little girl lost her mother when the December 26 earthquake-triggered tsunami dealt its heaviest death toll and destruction in her city Lhoknga, about 15 kilometers from Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh Province.

Her father is still missing, two weeks after massive tidal waves that were touched off by a powerful earthquake off Indonesia's Sumatra Island ravaged the coastlines of a dozen countries in Asia and Africa, claiming the lives of over 145,000 people so far.

Mauswatun, in white T-shirt and red shorts, is living in a refugee camp with her aunt, praying every day for her beloved father to come back as she knew very well that from now on she has to survive without her mother.

The girl, fragile as she is, told her story with determination in her eyes that does not match her age at all. She has to take what others find it difficult to cope with at the age of five.

"Here, we have water, food and clothes, but no toys," she said through interpreter Ihsan Burhanuddin, who came to Banda Aceh from Jakarta to visit his uncle's family who luckily were not affected by the disaster.

Inside one of the camps, a toy with her head and body torn apart has been the favorite of several kids whose life was also turned upside down when the catastrophe struck their communities on December 26, 2004.

"Indonesia is crying!"

"Help the people!"

Scrolls carrying such appealing words fence another refugee camp, to the entrance of which a Jakarta doctor is treating a four-year-old boy for coughing under a tent.

Kids, too young to remember the pains, are playing volleyball, cat-and-mouse, carrying "home" drinking water from a couple of water tanks connected to water purifiers brought here by French doctors and volunteers.

"I keep myself busy so that I have no time to think about my sorrow," said coordinator Fauzi Ali Amin who lost 32 relatives in the killer tsunami.

The reception room of a university has now become an emergency treatment center that accommodates injured people brought here afar. On the walls, there are appeals for help to find the missing.

The 5,000-student university, which was closed after the tsunami, now opens its doors to tsunami victims, volunteers and aid supplies.

"We do not have enough equipment to evacuate the dead bodies from the ruins and we do not have enough bags for the dead bodies," said Fauzi, with sadness in his eyes and fatigue on his face.

"We do not have enough medical stuff such as bandages and crutches to offer first-aid before sending those injured to field hospitals," he said.

"And our major task is to collect the children, many of them orphaned, and comfort them and make them happy," he said.

On the doorway, a young mother is holding tight her traumatized baby daughter who is crying.

"After Bali, this is the second beautiful city in Indonesia," said 23-year-old interpreter Ihsan who was born here.

"I always begged my father to take me to Lhoknga when I was a kid. I would cry if he said no to me. But, now, you see, nothing left!"

This is the Ground Zero with no sign of life after the massive tidal waves leveled the once beautiful and prosperous beach city.

The city mosque is the only building left intact after the devastating tsunami tore the communities apart and changed the life of thousands of people. A few delicately decorated villas, still standing among piles of debris, are vacant as the tsunami left behind nothing but a dead city.

"I am back to clean what was left in my shop," said Chinese-Indonesian Xie Maoxin who was born in Banda Aceh in 1951.

"Even my 87-year-old father has never seen this before," said Xie whose three relatives are still missing.

"That day, I saw 12-meter-high waves bring here boats from the beach which is at least one kilometer away. Luckily my family ran and we survived," said Xie.

"I and my family can not live here anymore. I will open a small business in Medan as I lost my truck and my shop here."

Just around the corner, cranes are cleaning piles of debris from which dead bodies are still being recovered with choking stinks filling in the air.

"Life is coming back bit by bit," said coordinator Fauzi.

In a local market on the road from Lhoknga to downtown Banda Aceh, vendors are busy selling bananas, oranges, pepper, tomatoes, chickens, fish and a few shops and restaurants are open to both local residents and visitors who were rarely seen here before the tsunami.

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