Acehnese students look ahead to uncertain future

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."