Matriarch in Aceh sees great-great-granddaughter born<\/p>\n
Margie Mason, Associated Press\/Banda Aceh<\/p>\n
Khatijah's eyes dance as she coos and tickles her 3-month-old
\ngreat-great-granddaughter.<\/p>\n
Six months ago, baby Manda Nisrina was still in the womb and
\n105-year-old Khatijah was praying for God to save her family when
\nthe earth rattled and the sea stood up and chased them out of
\ntheir Indonesian village.<\/p>\n
The walls of black water swallowed more than 131,000 people in
\nnorthern Sumatra that day, leaving nearly every survivor with a
\ntale of pain and loss. But as the room around Khatijah comes
\nalive with chattering children and grandchildren, this family is
\namong the few who beat the odds. All five generations lived to
\npass their tsunami stories down.<\/p>\n
But the family did not escape unscathed. One of Khatijah's
\ngrandsons died fighting the waves.<\/p>\n
\"This is all God's will,\" said Khatijah's 70-year-old
\ndaughter, Asiyah, mother of the dead Marzuki. \"He can take life
\nwhenever he likes.\"<\/p>\n
The matriarch, her face a spider web of lines, gestures wildly
\nas she recalls the morning of Dec. 26 in her native Acehnese
\ntongue. She was sitting under a coconut tree feeding the family's
\nchickens when the magnitude 9.0 earthquake rumbled. Moments
\nlater, throngs of people sprinted past her screaming, \"Water!
\nWater!\"<\/p>\n
Khatijah couldn't see the ocean's fury, but she knew what was
\nhappening. From her childhood, she remembered witnessing the same
\npanicked scene when the sea sucked back and threatened to unleash
\nits power on her village. But that time, the sea calmed as
\nquickly as it swelled, the waves went flat, and their lives were
\nspared.<\/p>\n
\"When it happened the first time, all the villagers could see
\nit and so we prayed and the water stopped,\" Khatijah said in a
\nfrail, quivering voice. \"But this time, I didn't see the water,
\nand I didn't hear the call to pray from the mosque.\"<\/p>\n
Knowing she couldn't outrun the waves, Khatijah sat and waited
\nto be rescued.<\/p>\n
Her 75-year-old son Musa Abdullah rushed in from working at a
\ncoconut plantation soon after the earthquake and hoisted her onto
\na motorbike. The two sped into a chaotic crowd of cars and people
\nrunning for their lives. They drove to a nearby hill, safe from
\nthe angry torrent.<\/p>\n
\"I was very scared,\" Khatijah recalled, wiping tears from her
\ncloudy eyes. \"When I was on the motorbike, I prayed to God. I
\nkept praying all the way, reciting God's name.\"<\/p>\n
After the water receded, bodies and wreckage from flattened
\nhouses littered the village where Khatijah grew up. She was
\nheartbroken to learn of her grandson's death, but the coming
\nmonths continued to test her strength.<\/p>\n
The family's house had been badly damaged and flooded with mud
\nand debris, and they were forced to move into two tents set up in
\ntheir village, Lampaya, which is part of the Banda Aceh
\nmunicipality. It was rough living.<\/p>\n
\"It's not good at all to sleep on the ground. Who would like
\nto sleep on the ground?\" said Khatijah, who still walks unaided
\nafter a lifetime of hardship.<\/p>\n
Although she does not have a birth certificate, she says she
\nhas lived more than 100 years, and her family insists she's 105.<\/p>\n
She struggles to hear and see, but she remembers Dutch
\nsoldiers occupying Aceh in the early 1900s, then the brutal
\nJapanese occupation in World War II.<\/p>\n
Indonesia declared independence from 300 years of colonial
\nrule in 1945, and Achenese separatists have been fighting the
\ncentral government in Jakarta since 1976.<\/p>\n
After surviving all that, Khatijah remains tough. She stayed
\nhealthy in the refugee camp and persevered through the difficult
\nconditions there, including having to use a crude public toilet.<\/p>\n
During that time, baby Manda was born, on March 28, and then a
\nmonth later, the family moved into a breezy, tile-floored house
\nthat belongs to one of Khatijah's granddaughters. It took four
\nmonths to clean the water, filth and bodies from the rooms.<\/p>\n
A two-meter-high water mark remains above the door frame to
\nremind the family how lucky they are to still be together.<\/p>\n
Even with the family's one death, comes life.<\/p>\n
Any day now, there will be another little one to rock when her
\nlate grandson's widow, Nurlela, gives birth to Khatijah's 17th
\ngreat-grandchild.<\/p>\n
GetAP 1.00 -- JUN 25, 2005 08:54:08<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/matriarch-in-aceh-sees-great-great-granddaughter-born-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }