Photo 5

This is Usman. He lost his wife in the tsunami, and his house was destroyed. Three years on. With assistance from the Caritas network he is rebuilding his life.

After the tsunami Usman married his new wife (pictured), who had lost her husband in the disaster. They met in the temporary housing barracks.

Usman lives in Suak Seukee village, his new house is built on the site of his original home. Suak Seukee is close to the ocean, and the only road in the village runs parallel to the ocean. When the tsunami came there was no way to escape to higher ground, and more than four hundred people, over half the village’s population, perished.

When the earthquake struck, Usman was at his home working. He went outside and saw that the ocean had receded. “I raced back to my wife, who was suffering from heart problems, and took her out to the road with the help of my sons. When I went back to the house, the water came. I had to climb up a palm tree to escape. I was holding my wife and the power of the water swept us off the tree as the water pulled it out of the ground. I had to grab the next tree. This happened about ten times before I could hold on to one. Unfortunately I lost the grip on my wife. While I was up in the tree I saw the body of my wife in the water below. I saw many bodies.”

When the water receded Usman went to the mosque to look for his children, the force of the water had ripped all his clothes from his body and he had to pick up scraps of material from the ground to cover himself. He jokes about having to wear a dress for the first few days, typical of the Acehnese spirit in always looking for a joke. At the mosque Usman found his children, but when he returned to his house later that day he found that “everything was gone, every house in the village was destroyed.”

Usman is happy with his new house. “After the tsunami we could have asked for everything. We had nothing left. Now we are so grateful for anything. I am so grateful for people’s support because otherwise I would have no place to live.”

In Suak Seukee many people earn money from tapping rubber, fishing, trading and farming , but since the disaster they have been unable to plant due to much of the agricultural land being under water and the reaminder suffering from increased salinity from the influx of sea water. “We are thankful for what we have been given but we need more support for our livelihoods, to replant our rubber plantations and to give us an income when all the aid is finished.”

Top: Usman and his wife inside their new home

Bottom; Suak Suekee is not far from the sea where the impact of the tsunami is clearly visible with once grand houses just appearing above the altered coastline.