Tsunami couple's cafe helps family cope<\/p>\n
Tiarma Siboro and Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh<\/p>\n
Everyone deals with grief differently. Some block out painful
\nepisodes, while others choose to relive their personal traumas to
\nget their grief out.<\/p>\n
An Acehnese couple Maimun (28) and his wife Desi (26) have
\nmemorialized the place they lost their three-year-old daughter,
\nMunira Rizkina, by setting up a modest coffee shop there named
\nthe \"Tsunami Cafe.\"<\/p>\n
The couple set up the shop just a week after the calamity in a
\nbid to help bring back a sense of normality to the area.<\/p>\n
The cafe, or warung kopi, is located in a ruined Lamdingin
\nhousing complex in Banda Aceh -- a place where around 1,800
\npeople from a total population of 2,000 perished on Dec. 26.<\/p>\n
\"I lost my daughter...I thought I lost my wife, too. I
\ncouldn't believe my eyes when I saw my wife among thousands of
\nrefugees at a camp located in the local council compound. It was
\ntwo days after the tsunami. All we could do afterwards was just
\ncry and cry until we realized that tears won't bring back our
\ndaughter,\" Maimun said.<\/p>\n
\"My wife told me that Munira slipped from her hands when the
\ngiant wave came and swept through our housing area. The water
\nalso swept away my wife, but she survived when some young people
\nreached out to her and pulled her from the torrent,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"We will never forget our misery and the pain of countless
\nothers. I saw volunteers helping the victims. Bodies were
\ncounted. I came to this area and saw hundreds of my neighbors had
\nperished. I couldn't find my baby and I knew that she had died,\"
\nMaimun said.<\/p>\n
Learning that the volunteers and foreign troops might be tired
\nafter working day and night in the heat, Maimun decided with his
\nwife to set up a coffee shop along with his elder brother,
\nSulaiman, 30, and his wife who also lost their daughter.<\/p>\n
Determined to continue on with life they moved out of the
\nrefugee camp and set up a tent in front of their ruined house.<\/p>\n
Maimun was previously a farmer but the plot of land he tended
\nis now ruined by mud and seawater.<\/p>\n
To set up the shop, the couples borrowed money from their
\nrelatives and collected around Rp 300,000 (about US$33) in
\nstarting capital. Since their houses were badly damaged, they
\nused a partly ruined two-story house abandoned by their neighbor
\nas its location.<\/p>\n
They needed no additional funds to purchase furniture, they
\nsaid, as they recovered chairs and desks collected from piles of
\ndebris.<\/p>\n
\"While our wives were preparing coffee and other supplementary
\ndrinks for our customers, me and my brother helped volunteers
\npick up the bodies lying in front of our cafe,\" Maimun said.<\/p>\n
The shop, in the shell of a house without a roof and still
\nsurrounded by debris, has proved popular. Besides providing cups
\nof Acehnese coffee, it also offers breakfast and lunch.<\/p>\n
Each cup of coffee is priced at Rp 1,000, higher than the
\nusual price of around Rp 700.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, prices of meals range from Rp 3,000 to Rp 5,000.
\nThe couples cook the meals in their tents and serve it in wrapped
\npaper.<\/p>\n
Some of the volunteers also wanted supplementary energy drinks
\nand traditional snacks, such as fried tempeh and banana, and
\nIndonesian soldiers and foreign troops have become regular
\ncustomers.<\/p>\n
The couples have to close the shop when night comes because
\nthere is still no power in the area.<\/p>\n
During the first days after the shop opened, the couples were
\nable to collect around Rp 1 million a day. But as the volunteers,
\nsoldiers and foreign troops gradually left the province, revenue
\nreduced to about Rp 600,000.<\/p>\n
However, the Maimun and his wife say they are happy. Their
\ncafe has become a social center, a meeting place for survivors
\nwho discuss many things, including what they should do now, after
\nthe disaster.<\/p>\n
\"It is good for us. All benefit -- the volunteers, the
\ntroops, me, my brother and our wives,\" Maimun said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/tsunami-couples-cafe-helps-family-cope-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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