Survivor lived on coconuts, prayers while drifting at sea<\/p>\n
Andy Wong, Associated Press\/Klang, Malaysia<\/p>\n
Tsunami survivor Ari Afrizal says he drifted on the Indian Ocean
\nfor two weeks, living on coconuts that he pried open with his
\nteeth while floating on pieces of wood, then a broken boat, and
\nfinally a fishing raft.<\/p>\n
And all the time, he prayed.<\/p>\n
His prayers were answered when a container ship, Al Yamamah,
\nspotted him on Sunday, hauled him aboard and brought him to
\nMalaysia on late Monday.<\/p>\n
Ari, 21, was working on a construction site in the Indonesian
\nprovince of Aceh on Dec. 26 when a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and
\nthe resulting tsunami swept him and his friends out to sea.<\/p>\n
\"The earthquake lasted about 15 minutes,\" Ari told reporters
\non late Monday after Al Yamamah docked at Port Klang near the
\ncapital Kuala Lumpur. \"Then the waves came, big, big waves that
\nslammed down hard on us.\"<\/p>\n
Ari, who appeared fit despite the ordeal, said he and his co-
\nworkers were swept out to sea and clung onto passing pieces of
\nwood.<\/p>\n
\"I recall seeing four of my friends hanging onto wood but we
\ndrifted away from each other as the waves rolled us out further
\ninto the sea,\" Ari said.<\/p>\n
Before being taken to a hospital on Monday night, Ari said he
\nsaw \"many bodies\" and debris floating around him.<\/p>\n
\"I prayed and prayed. I told God I don't want to die ... I
\nworried about my elderly parents and asked for a chance to take
\ncare of them,\" he said. \"As if my prayers were answered, a broken
\nsampan (boat) floated toward me a few days later.\"<\/p>\n
On the fifth day, he saw a huge fishing raft and swam out to
\nit, thinking he would be rescued. But the raft was unmanned. It
\ncontained, however, some bottles of fresh water. He ate coconuts
\nthat he found floating in the sea, husking the soft ones with his
\nteeth.<\/p>\n
He said many ships passed by without noticing him until the Al
\nYamamah came along. The ship's captain, John Kennedy of New
\nZealand, said he did not expect to find any survivors when his
\ncrew spotted the raft, because nearly two weeks had passed since
\nthe tsunami. The crew sounded a whistle anyway.<\/p>\n
\"To our surprise, a frail-looking man emerged,\" Kennedy said.<\/p>\n
He said Ari looked fine except for parched lips and even
\nmanaged to board the ship without help.<\/p>\n
As he was taken to a hospital for a checkup, Ari could only
\nthink of his parents.<\/p>\n
\"I pray that my family in Aceh is also as lucky as me and
\nsurvived the disaster.\"<\/p>\n
Ari is the third Indonesian tsunami survivor rescued from the
\nsea and brought to Malaysia.<\/p>\n
A Malaysian tuna ship rescued on Dec. 30 a pregnant woman who
\nheld on to a floating sago palm tree for five days. She was badly
\nsun burnt and bitten by fish, but her baby was safe.<\/p>\n
The second miracle survivor was a man from Aceh who drifted
\nfor eight days before being spotted by a Japanese-owned cargo
\nship. He clung to floating planks with scores of other people --
\nall of whom were eventually swallowed by the sea.<\/p>\n
Malaysian authorities have allowed him to stay and work in
\nMalaysia after he said the tragedy left him with nothing in his
\nhometown.<\/p>\n
Indonesia suffered more deaths from the tsunami than any other
\ncountry -- more than 100,000. In Malaysia, 68 were confirmed
\nkilled and more than 200 injured on its northwestern coast, which
\nis separated from Indonesia's worst-hit Sumatra island by a
\nnarrow strait.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/survivor-lived-on-coconuts-prayers-while-drifting-at-sea-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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