Aceh pilgrims wait for familiar faces
Aceh pilgrims wait for familiar faces
Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh
"Hajjah Salbiah ... Anyone picking her up?" shouted a member of a
haj committee through a loudspeaker at Iskandar Muda Airport in
Banda Aceh.
He was referring to an Acehnese woman who had just performed
the haj pilgrimage to Mecca and was returning home to Banda Aceh.
After a while, a woman among the crowd of waiting relatives
called back. "Yes, there is", and she rushed toward Salbiah. The
two broke into tears, hugging each other.
Trembling, Salbiah asked the question that had been foremost
in her mind since she learned about the tsunamis: Whether her
family survived. Then, in a hushed voice, came the wonderful
reply, "All survived, Kak (sister). Survived...." and fresh tears
filled their eyes.
Such a night, when relatives welcome their loved ones home
from the haj, is usually a time of joy and thanksgiving.
Haji Ramli, a guide, had known that no one would pick him up
at the airport that night. Most of his family members did not
survive the disaster and his house was destroyed.
"I will just go by bus to the haj dormitory," said Ramli
before he broke into tears. His wife and two children died in the
disaster, and only his eldest daughter, Shafwah, is alive.
Apart from Ramli, some 80 haj pilgrims would spend the night
in the haj dormitory as none of their relatives were present at
the airport to pick them up.
The haj committee has prepared around 350 beds at the
dormitory, which can be used by the returning pilgrims before
they are moved to camps.
Aceh sent 5,600 people in 16 batches to Mecca for the
pilgrimage. Ten groups left from Banda Aceh and the remaining six
from Medan.
Of the 5,600 pilgrims, 714 lost their family members when
earthquake-triggered tsunamis swept the region on Dec. 26.
Of the first group of 323 pilgrims, who left Aceh on Dec. 18,
154 have lost family members and their homes.
"We learned about the earthquake and tsunamis from the
newspaper, after that nothing was the same," Muhammad Hasan bin
Ibrahim said, wiping away his tears.
Muhammad first thought that only a few people had fallen
victim to the disaster. But further news confirmed the worst,
that the disaster had destroyed almost half of Banda Aceh city.
The pilgrims became desperate for contact with their families.
Soon their money ran out, spent on calls to home.
Hajjah Atun, one of the returning pilgrims, expressed his
gratitude that Saudi Arabian King Fahd had provided free meals
for Indonesian pilgrims. Without this, "we would have gone
hungry," said the woman who lost her two siblings and business.
At the airport, as the night grew darker, less people were
around. Those pilgrims who had been met by relatives left the
airport. Those who stayed behind waited inside for the bus to
take them to the dormitory.
"Haji Sulaiman... Anyone picking him up?" the committee member
continued to shout, while, inside, the remaining pilgrims clung
to the hope that somebody would come for them.