Traditional fishing boats in the bay of Layeun.
Kids on the new Banda Aceh sea wall facing Pulau Weh
This fishing boat saved the lives of 59 people. It is being kept as a memorial.
The beautiful interior of the Main Mosque in Banda Aceh; Mesjid Raya Baiturrahman.
Most of us have forgotten – as one does with catastrophic events the other side of the world – about the December 2004 Tsunami that killed over 160,000 people in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. However, I have had a lot of remembering of this event in the last few weeks.
We have returned from a short trip to Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia, which was very close to the epicentre of the earthquake. For the people of Aceh it was a short time between the earthquake and the tsunami, a matter of minutes.
The city has recovered with an huge amount of rebuilding made possible by the billions of dollars of aid that poured in. The people of Aceh are generous and welcoming. When you talk about the tsunami, all were effected in some way, noone was unscathed.
Whether you survived or not was a random matter – were you in town that day? Were you working driving a client into the hills, were you on a study tour overseas, were you on the ferry to the nearby islands? Then you escaped but came back to a town that was devasted; to find close family members gone.
We travelled to a small fishing village, called Layeun, down the west coast, even closer to the epicentre. The village was in a wide beautiful bay. The shape of the land caused the tsunami wave to increase in height to over 30 meters. The population was about 900 people and the homes were close to the beach. The village was flattened, amazingly about 600 people survived, but women, children and older people did not. I spoke to one mother who lost 4 daughters, another, 2 of her 4 daughters and all but one of her grandchildren. People who stopped to help others were swept away. Now the village is rebuilt far away from the beach against the mountains. People are reclaiming their lives but sadness remains throughout the community.
We have returned from a short trip to Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia, which was very close to the epicentre of the earthquake. For the people of Aceh it was a short time between the earthquake and the tsunami, a matter of minutes.
The city has recovered with an huge amount of rebuilding made possible by the billions of dollars of aid that poured in. The people of Aceh are generous and welcoming. When you talk about the tsunami, all were effected in some way, noone was unscathed.
Whether you survived or not was a random matter – were you in town that day? Were you working driving a client into the hills, were you on a study tour overseas, were you on the ferry to the nearby islands? Then you escaped but came back to a town that was devasted; to find close family members gone.
We travelled to a small fishing village, called Layeun, down the west coast, even closer to the epicentre. The village was in a wide beautiful bay. The shape of the land caused the tsunami wave to increase in height to over 30 meters. The population was about 900 people and the homes were close to the beach. The village was flattened, amazingly about 600 people survived, but women, children and older people did not. I spoke to one mother who lost 4 daughters, another, 2 of her 4 daughters and all but one of her grandchildren. People who stopped to help others were swept away. Now the village is rebuilt far away from the beach against the mountains. People are reclaiming their lives but sadness remains throughout the community.
The new Tsunami museum interior.
"It's been designed so that future generations will never forget the day the tsunami hit"
Aceh is well worth visiting for many reasons. I hope that people will visit the country to see if for themselves.
