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.