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South & south east Asia/Indonesia 14/05

Slices of life of tsunami survivors

Wounded inside and out: Profile of a tsunami survivor in Tanah Pasir

Basriadi is an internally displaced person from Mantang Baru, Tanah Pasir, in the Province of North Aceh. He is 20 years old and now lives in the Lapang Barracks, in Tanah Pasir, No. 8 D. He is the third of six children, and he finished fifth grade at the Matang Baroh primary school. He has two older siblings, one of whom is already married and no longer lives in the same home. His younger siblings are aged 1 and a half, 3 and 7. His mother, whom he loved very much, died in the tsunami. His father is still living and lives in the same barracks with him, but is not very active because he has difficulty walking and struggles with illness. Basriadi, together with five of his family members, lives in one barrack quarters.

Basriadi faces many limitations in the barracks. Before the tsunami, he was able to be quite active because his home was near the sea, and his basic experiences and knowledge were formed by the sea. Therefore, his core activities were at sea, sailing with his friends on a ship owned by his older brother. Now he rarely sails because his boat vanished with the tsunami. His inactivity is also supported by his physical condition that doesn’t allow him to engage in those activities anymore.

Basriadi is an eye witness of the tsunami. At the time of the event, according to his narrative, he was at home. The earthquake came, forcing him and his friends out of the house. They then witnessed the water withdraw, but it wasn’t long before a giant tidal wave appeared, causing him and his friends to run from it with all of their strength.

Even in his effort to avoid the wave, Basriadi still remembered his family. He grabbed his two younger siblings who were in front of the house. When he ran, he said he had strength that, in his opinion, was outside the realm of reality. When he encountered a ditch about seven meters wide, he was able to cross it with ease, after throwing his two siblings across. But unfortunately, he wasn’t able to save his beloved mother and his three nephews and nieces whose home was near his. He especially grieved his brother’s youngest child, only eight months old. To add to his grief, he watched his mother being carried away by the tsunami’s swift current that pummelled their village.

He also said that after the aforementioned event, he and his friends helped evacuate disaster survivors. They found about 200 bodies, but after a few days, he still had not found his mother’s body. Basriadi passed those first days with great grief in his heart and deep guilt because he hadn’t been able to save his mother. His feelings were supported by the fact that he hadn’t yet found his mother’s body. He felt like life no longer had meaning, and on the third day after the tsunami, he was no longer conscious of his existence because of the grief-filled thoughts that kept attacking him. Finally, four days after the tsunami, in his evacuation work, he found his mother.

The tsunami deeply wounded Basriadi’s heart because he lost 13 people close to him - his mother, his three nieces and nephews, three grandparents, and relatives of his parents. But what wounded him most, and what still deeply grieves him, is the loss of his mother and youngest niece and nephew.

Basriadi frequently experiences thoughts that grieve him, and these thoughts often cause him to weep. He also often feels restless and not at peace. These feelings also emerge in his sleep through nightmares. He feels strained when he hears about or is forced to remember the tsunami. This could be seen as he told his story. His facial expressions indicated his deep feelings of grief, and the telling also triggered painful breathing, indicated by his shortness of breath. His chest felt tight, and the pace of his heart sped up.

Basriadi also lives with great physical pain. He feels this pain on the left side of his chest, as if his heart or the top of his liver is working harder - like they are being kneaded. He also suffers from very bad headaches. Even though Basriadi wants to withstand his pain, when he isn’t embarrassed, he cries and screams. He has borne this pain for the last three months.

According to Basriadi, as he was trying to save himself from the tsunami, a very hard piece of wood collided with the left side of his chest and also hit his head between his eyebrows. He had been examined at the local government health clinic but only given medicine to temporarily alleviate the pain. Because he has not yet received a thorough examination, he himself does not understand what he is currently suffering from. He wants someone to help him detect what he is feeling, perhaps by providing a chest and head X-ray, so that he can better understand what he is suffering from.

His condition makes him unable to sleep at night because he can only try to withstand the pain in his chest and his head, and his legs frequently fall asleep. Only in the morning is he able to sleep, about three to four hours every day. The wounds of his soul add to his physical ailments. As a result of his condition, he can no longer go to sea.

Fortunately, he has a peer group of nine neighbors in the barracks who always raise his spirits and encourage him to face the long life that he has left to live. In the afternoons, he gathers with his friends of his own age, and they tell stories, play, and hang out until they decide where to go. This group is helping him to recover psychologically. But when he is alone, he finds himself tortured by his pain.

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