Acehnese students look ahead to uncertain future
Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta
"Ass wrwb Haikal ini ma2mak Bgmn sehat Klga kita Alhamdulillah sehat2 smua Minggu kmren di rmh kita kenduri anak yatim Bpk2 80 org Ekal kapan ujian Mak selalu berdoa mudah2an Haikal dpt IP bagus."
(Peace be to you and also Allah's mercy and blessings Haikal. This is mother. How are you? Praise God our family is fine. Last Sunday we held an thanksgiving for orphans at home 80 men attended. When will you have your exam? Mother always prays that you have a good grade point average)
These were the last words that Acehnese student Rahmat Haikal received from his beloved mother Aktiah Usman before the devastating earthquake and tsunami swept Aceh and North Sumatra coastal regions on Dec. 26 last year.
"I can't help crying every time I read this," said the 18-year-old student, who is currently studying at Yogyakarta's National Development University (UPN), trying to hold back tears.
His eyes never left his cell phone, as if waiting for another incoming text message from his mother in Jeulingke village in Banda Aceh.
He could not even read out the last message from his mother, letting The Jakarta Post look at it in his cell phone. The message was sent on Dec. 25, the day before the tidal waves struck the region.
Haikal, who has been in the city only for a semester, learned about the tsunami on Sunday afternoon, Dec. 26, from television. But only the following day he knew for sure that his hometown was one of the tsunami-hit areas.
Feeling completely helpless, he made countless calls but got no response. He also visited every information post of the tsunami victims he knew but still, there was no information about his village or the whereabouts of his parents and four siblings.
At night, when he finally came back to his boarding house in Condongcatur village, exhausted, he could hardly sleep, lost in his grief.
In the morning, he would start all over again, searching from one information post to another.
Finally, news from home came on Jan. 8.
"I finally heard my father's voice on Saturday (Jan. 8) at about 2 a.m., telling me that two of my sisters survived but my mother, my five-year-old brother and another sister of mine are still missing," he sobbed.
"Deep down in my heart I still hope they are alive and we will be together again at last. But if we can't, I'll accept it with my heart and soul. I'll accept it as Allah's will. My father comforted me by saying that we were not alone in the disaster. Many had also lost their families back home."
His father, Adnan Ibrahim, a civil servant at the provincial Public Works Office in Banda Aceh, asked him not to rush home and to finish his examinations.
"There is nothing you can do back here. If you love and respect me you have to finish your exams first. Then you can come here. That's the best you can do to help your family right now," Haikal quoted his father as saying by phone from the refugee camp at Ulee Kareng Mosque in Banda Aceh.
Respecting his father's wish, Haikal planned to go to Banda Aceh after Jan. 20 after finishing all his examinations this semester. For the trip, he did not have to worry about the cost since his father had deposited money as part of his one-year budget.
Other students, like Rizka Andriani, are not as lucky.
When the tsunami hit, Rizka, a student at Gadjah Mada University School of Cultural Studies, was suppose to receive money from her parents in Drien Rampak in Meulaboh for her living costs in January.
Upon learning about the disaster, she was not just shocked about the fate of her parents and sister, but also her own future and studies.
"My uncle told me on the phone that my family survived but I wonder whether it's true. I do hope they survived but I haven't heard from my father until now.
"My uncle told me that it's impossible for my father to tell me himself on the phone because of communication problems, but I suspect my uncle was just trying to comfort me, especially because Meulaboh has been reported as one of the hardest-hit areas," said the 20-year-old Rizka.
Rizka was told not to go home until she was asked, making her even more concerned over the fate of her family.
But Rizka could not do much, especially as she is running out of money.
"Thank God I have generous roommates here in the dormitory. And I've also been given a sum of money by the school where I'm studying. It's not much, but it does help," said Rizka.
The university announcement to exempt Acehnese students from paying this semester's tuition fee and to provide them with January's living costs also cheered her up a bit.
"I know life will be harder for me in the coming years but I also know that I have to go on with my life... I'll do what my uncle has told me, to place everything in God's hands."