Journey to Banda Aceh

From Singapore I arrived in Medan (Sumatra Island's capital city about 10hours from Aceh) on Dec 29, 2004. For the first four days after the calamity it was almost impossible to enter Banda Aceh (Capital of Aceh province)especially by land. This was due to the fact that some roads were badly broken by the earthquake, robbers along the way could hold us up and therewas also the threat of the muslim separatist movement who are actively fighting with the national government. So I stayed in Medan to finalize the relief plan with the local Dada and margiis as well as to collect some morefunds and goods to distribute in Banda Aceh. Any way at last we decided that we will bring our own goods by truck inspite of all the uncertainty that we will face along the way. We hired one truck and arrived in Banda Aceh in the afternoon of Dec 31, five days after the calamity.



Ours was one of the first trucks loaded with distribution goods to arrive in Banda Aceh. There were still many dead bodies along themain street, human bodies as well as animals. It shocked me in the beginningsince this is the first time that I saw with my own eyes so many deadbodies. In fact it was even my first time to see a dead body!

There were many mixed feeling inside me while seeing this, mostly pity. I felt theirfear, panic and confusion while running in many different directions, tryingto save their lives. Once I was able to speak with one person who survived but lost all of his family. He said he does not know what actually happened. He just saw that there were huge black waves like a huge cobra that came and swallowed everything. He thought that it was the end of the world just as the holy book of his religion said will come.

Dada Dinakara,

Banda Aceh, Indonesia