Expecting mother finds miracle in Aceh

Expecting mother finds miracle in Aceh

Tomi Soetjipto, Reuters, Banda Aceh

In this Indonesian city of misery and despair, heavily pregnant
Haiwati tells a story of survival that shows miracles can happen.

Due to give birth any day, Haiwati, 38, was at home with two
of her four sons when a massive earthquake unleashed a killer
tsunami on Banda Aceh on Dec. 26.

At one point, Haiwati prepared for death. Having sought
sanctuary in a nearby mosque after terrified residents exhorted
people to flee, water poured in.

Unable to get out, she put one of her sons on her shoulders.
Water rose to her neck. Exhaustion set in.

A week later, Haiwati cannot believe she escaped with her life
from the destruction that killed some 94,000 Acehnese.

She has found her entire family, even her husband, who was
working in Calang, a town on the obliterated west coast of Aceh
province, where officials say only 30 percent of people survived.

Haiwati has also taken under her wing a distant cousin she
found in a refugee camp. The girl, 16, cannot find her parents.

"I just ran and ran with my two sons," Haiwati said, feeling
her bulging belly inside a traditional red maternity dress as she
spoke inside the camp in this devastated city.

"I stopped outside the mosque and said to my sister, who ran
with me, 'please take my sons'. Leave me here. I'm tired.'"

Haiwati's sister urged her to keep going.

As panic around them grew, her sister grabbed Haiwati's 10-
year-old son and fled. Haiwati started running again with her
terrified seven-year old boy, Sikno, but she was too weak and
became separated from her sister. Seconds later the water caught
up, washing her into the Lamteneung mosque.

She saw dozens of people clinging to the roof of the wooden
village hall.

As the water rose, she lifted Sikno onto her shoulders.

"Then I thought, 'okay, if I die at least I'll die with my
boy," Haiwati said, Sikno standing shyly beside her.

At that moment, she said, a jerry can washed in through one of
the mosque's windows and floated toward her.

"I had no energy left. I just stood there looking at it. Then
I held onto it, with my son," she said.

"I guess yes, that was a miracle."

Slowly, the water began to recede and Haiwati was able to go
outside. A group of men helped her and Sikno climb on to the
roof. Her entire suburb was virtually destroyed.

Through sheer luck, she found her sister and her 10-year-old
son at another mosque, where they had taken refuge.

Hungry and afraid, they all headed for a makeshift refugee
camp inside the compound of the state television broadcaster,
TVRI.

Two days later, her husband, who had traveled by boat from
Calang, turned up and found her. He had gone to the mosque where
Haiwati had her escape from death. Residents there, remembering
the expectant mother, told him where she had gone.

Then her eldest son, 17, arrived. He had escaped the waves on
motorbikes with his friends. Haiwati's fourth son was in the
North Sumatran city of Medan at the time of the tsunami.

Having found her entire family, Haiwati said her heart went
out to her distant niece, Muardah, 16, a student at an Islamic
boarding school who lost her parents to the waves.

"She can come with me now," said Haiwati.

Quiet and still visibly shaken, Muardah, wearing a blue
headscarf, said she wanted to become a doctor, although she was
unsure how she would pay for her schooling.

"We will help her, although I just don't know how," Haiwati
said, adding she was now just counting the days to seeing her
fifth child.