Nuraini -- her love of teaching overrides her fears

Nuraini -- her love of teaching overrides her fears

The Jakarta Post, Takengon, Central Aceh

Nuraini may have lost her home and every possession that was
in her house, but unlike many of her neighbors who also lost
their homes in a recent arson attack, she refuses to leave town.

For the 34-year-old Acehnese mother of four, something is
keeping her here: Her love of teaching, and most of all, of the
children she teaches at an elementary school in the nearby Pulo
Aceh neighborhood.

Nuraini remembers vividly the night she lost her home in
Timang Gajah II village, on Sept. 17.

"I was watching Kau Masih Milikku (you're still mine), a TV
drama, when I felt that the air was getting hotter and hotter.

"I went outside and saw the flames already engulfing the
house. I quickly went back inside and woke up my husband and my
children.

"We just fled. There was no time to save our belongings,"
Nuraini told The Jakarta Post in a make-shift hut built on top of
the debris of what was once her former house.

Hers was one of 23 houses in the neighborhood that were burned
down that night.

No one to this day has claimed responsibility. Nuraini and the
other fire victims had no idea what the motive was for the arson.

Now, Nuraini and her family return to the hut every day to do
their cooking, but not to sleep. Besides the inconvenience, it is
also not safe to sleep in the open.

Instead, when dusk falls, they all go to meunasah, the
community hall building nearby, to sleep.

There are a few other families who have settled for this
arrangement, but most other fire victims have simply given up and
moved to Payabakung in Matangkuli, Lhokseumawe, North Aceh.

"Many villagers have simply fled to escape intimidations by
unidentified people," Nuraini said.

Others could not stay on because they had no means of
subsisting, she said, noting that the fire victims had not
received a single cent of assistance from the government, or from
any one for that matter.

Nuraini said she and her family was staying put and she would
continue teaching at the school.

"I love my profession too much, and my pupils love me.

"I have nothing else in this life but my profession, family
and pupils," she said.

Homeless as she may be, but at the very least, she still has a
job to go to.

Her husband, Abdul Karim, is not as fortunate.

His ID card, a crucial item in any conflict zone like Aceh,
was among the possessions he lost in the fire.

As a result, he cannot work.

"The security agency told my husband to stop his activities
until he gets a new ID card," she said.

Nuraini declined to speculate upon who the culprits could be
although some of her neighbors claimed to have met and even
talked to the perpetrators before they set the neighborhood on
fire.

"Some witnesses said they spoke with an accent that is not
Acehnese. They had guns and machetes, and they wore masks," she
said.