Expecting mother finds miracle in Aceh<\/p>\n
Tomi Soetjipto, Reuters, Banda Aceh<\/p>\n
In this Indonesian city of misery and despair, heavily pregnant
\nHaiwati tells a story of survival that shows miracles can happen.<\/p>\n
Due to give birth any day, Haiwati, 38, was at home with two
\nof her four sons when a massive earthquake unleashed a killer
\ntsunami on Banda Aceh on Dec. 26.<\/p>\n
At one point, Haiwati prepared for death. Having sought
\nsanctuary in a nearby mosque after terrified residents exhorted
\npeople to flee, water poured in.<\/p>\n
Unable to get out, she put one of her sons on her shoulders.
\nWater rose to her neck. Exhaustion set in.<\/p>\n
A week later, Haiwati cannot believe she escaped with her life
\nfrom the destruction that killed some 94,000 Acehnese.<\/p>\n
She has found her entire family, even her husband, who was
\nworking in Calang, a town on the obliterated west coast of Aceh
\nprovince, where officials say only 30 percent of people survived.<\/p>\n
Haiwati has also taken under her wing a distant cousin she
\nfound in a refugee camp. The girl, 16, cannot find her parents.<\/p>\n
\"I just ran and ran with my two sons,\" Haiwati said, feeling
\nher bulging belly inside a traditional red maternity dress as she
\nspoke inside the camp in this devastated city.<\/p>\n
\"I stopped outside the mosque and said to my sister, who ran
\nwith me, 'please take my sons'. Leave me here. I'm tired.'\"<\/p>\n
Haiwati's sister urged her to keep going.<\/p>\n
As panic around them grew, her sister grabbed Haiwati's 10-
\nyear-old son and fled. Haiwati started running again with her
\nterrified seven-year old boy, Sikno, but she was too weak and
\nbecame separated from her sister. Seconds later the water caught
\nup, washing her into the Lamteneung mosque.<\/p>\n
She saw dozens of people clinging to the roof of the wooden
\nvillage hall.<\/p>\n
As the water rose, she lifted Sikno onto her shoulders.<\/p>\n
\"Then I thought, 'okay, if I die at least I'll die with my
\nboy,\" Haiwati said, Sikno standing shyly beside her.<\/p>\n
At that moment, she said, a jerry can washed in through one of
\nthe mosque's windows and floated toward her.<\/p>\n
\"I had no energy left. I just stood there looking at it. Then
\nI held onto it, with my son,\" she said.<\/p>\n
\"I guess yes, that was a miracle.\"<\/p>\n
Slowly, the water began to recede and Haiwati was able to go
\noutside. A group of men helped her and Sikno climb on to the
\nroof. Her entire suburb was virtually destroyed.<\/p>\n
Through sheer luck, she found her sister and her 10-year-old
\nson at another mosque, where they had taken refuge.<\/p>\n
Hungry and afraid, they all headed for a makeshift refugee
\ncamp inside the compound of the state television broadcaster,
\nTVRI.<\/p>\n
Two days later, her husband, who had traveled by boat from
\nCalang, turned up and found her. He had gone to the mosque where
\nHaiwati had her escape from death. Residents there, remembering
\nthe expectant mother, told him where she had gone.<\/p>\n
Then her eldest son, 17, arrived. He had escaped the waves on
\nmotorbikes with his friends. Haiwati's fourth son was in the
\nNorth Sumatran city of Medan at the time of the tsunami.<\/p>\n
Having found her entire family, Haiwati said her heart went
\nout to her distant niece, Muardah, 16, a student at an Islamic
\nboarding school who lost her parents to the waves.<\/p>\n
\"She can come with me now,\" said Haiwati.<\/p>\n
Quiet and still visibly shaken, Muardah, wearing a blue
\nheadscarf, said she wanted to become a doctor, although she was
\nunsure how she would pay for her schooling.<\/p>\n
\"We will help her, although I just don't know how,\" Haiwati
\nsaid, adding she was now just counting the days to seeing her
\nfifth child.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/expecting-mother-finds-miracle-in-aceh-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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