Banda Aceh university students continue studies in tents
Banda Aceh university students continue studies in tents
Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post/Banda Aceh
It's a quiet Sunday morning at the Syiah Kuala University's
School of Chemical Engineering in Banda Aceh, with only a handful
of students to be seen sitting outside tents in their shorts in
front of the university building. Someone could be heard playing
a guitar in the distance.
"On weekdays, we'd be fully dressed at this hour," said Isra
Maharani, a 25-year-old student who was living in the tent camp.
"It'll be embarrassing to be seen by the girls before having a
shower," he quipped, grinning from ear to ear.
Unlike most refugee camps, which are crowded and not well-
organized, the 21 white tents provided by the United Nations High
Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) were lined up neatly in a single
row.
"The tents can accommodate up to 110 students," said Heri
Afriadi, a member of the camp's organizing committee. Some 50
students -- all male -- and two of the teaching staff are
currently living there.
The students' boarding houses in nearby areas were swept away
by the wall of water that hit the city in December last year.
About 100 students out of some 500 registered with the department
were either killed or went missing during the catastrophe.
Getting replacement rooms proved to be difficult for the
students as their families had also suffered in the tsunami. In
addition, house rents in Banda Aceh have gone through the roof
with less houses available and foreigners, with dollars to spend,
pouring in to lease them.
"A room costing Rp 1 million (US$107) a year used to be very
presentable," said Heri. "Now, even at double the price, the room
will be just average."
Other prices have also gone up. Charges for photocopying -- a
vital necessity for university students -- have gone up by 50
percent to Rp 150 per page, not to mention the price of a package
of rice and some side dishes, which has almost doubled.
The students make the best of living in the four by two
meter tents by cooking together, going early to the bathroom to
avoid long queues and staying in the cool of the campus corridors
in the day time when the heat is unbearable.
Living on the campus does, of course, has its advantages,
especially for the more than 15 camp residents who are doing
their theses.
The computer lab on the upper floor of the building and the
library are open from morning to late in the evening -- the
caretaker lives on site and is a friend of the students.
Isra lost all his research data on waste management as his
computer crashed after water flooded his rented room in Lamprit,
not far from the campus.
Luckily he kept a copy of his thesis, which had already
approved by his lecturer, on a high shelf in his room.
"It is a bit muddy, but I can still copy it," he said.
On March 26, the day marking three months since the calamity
that took over 220,000 lives, Isra will present and defend his
thesis in front of his lecturers.
"I chose that day to commemorate the tsunami," he said.