Survivor lived on coconuts, prayers while drifting at sea

Survivor lived on coconuts, prayers while drifting at sea

Andy Wong, Associated Press/Klang, Malaysia

Tsunami survivor Ari Afrizal says he drifted on the Indian Ocean
for two weeks, living on coconuts that he pried open with his
teeth while floating on pieces of wood, then a broken boat, and
finally a fishing raft.

And all the time, he prayed.

His prayers were answered when a container ship, Al Yamamah,
spotted him on Sunday, hauled him aboard and brought him to
Malaysia on late Monday.

Ari, 21, was working on a construction site in the Indonesian
province of Aceh on Dec. 26 when a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and
the resulting tsunami swept him and his friends out to sea.

"The earthquake lasted about 15 minutes," Ari told reporters
on late Monday after Al Yamamah docked at Port Klang near the
capital Kuala Lumpur. "Then the waves came, big, big waves that
slammed down hard on us."

Ari, who appeared fit despite the ordeal, said he and his co-
workers were swept out to sea and clung onto passing pieces of
wood.

"I recall seeing four of my friends hanging onto wood but we
drifted away from each other as the waves rolled us out further
into the sea," Ari said.

Before being taken to a hospital on Monday night, Ari said he
saw "many bodies" and debris floating around him.

"I prayed and prayed. I told God I don't want to die ... I
worried about my elderly parents and asked for a chance to take
care of them," he said. "As if my prayers were answered, a broken
sampan (boat) floated toward me a few days later."

On the fifth day, he saw a huge fishing raft and swam out to
it, thinking he would be rescued. But the raft was unmanned. It
contained, however, some bottles of fresh water. He ate coconuts
that he found floating in the sea, husking the soft ones with his
teeth.

He said many ships passed by without noticing him until the Al
Yamamah came along. The ship's captain, John Kennedy of New
Zealand, said he did not expect to find any survivors when his
crew spotted the raft, because nearly two weeks had passed since
the tsunami. The crew sounded a whistle anyway.

"To our surprise, a frail-looking man emerged," Kennedy said.

He said Ari looked fine except for parched lips and even
managed to board the ship without help.

As he was taken to a hospital for a checkup, Ari could only
think of his parents.

"I pray that my family in Aceh is also as lucky as me and
survived the disaster."

Ari is the third Indonesian tsunami survivor rescued from the
sea and brought to Malaysia.

A Malaysian tuna ship rescued on Dec. 30 a pregnant woman who
held on to a floating sago palm tree for five days. She was badly
sun burnt and bitten by fish, but her baby was safe.

The second miracle survivor was a man from Aceh who drifted
for eight days before being spotted by a Japanese-owned cargo
ship. He clung to floating planks with scores of other people --
all of whom were eventually swallowed by the sea.

Malaysian authorities have allowed him to stay and work in
Malaysia after he said the tragedy left him with nothing in his
hometown.

Indonesia suffered more deaths from the tsunami than any other
country -- more than 100,000. In Malaysia, 68 were confirmed
killed and more than 200 injured on its northwestern coast, which
is separated from Indonesia's worst-hit Sumatra island by a
narrow strait.