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.