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.