My new home is in Jantho, a small town 1.5 hours outside of Banda Aceh. Jantho seems like a place in the middle of nowhere, and my home is on the outskirts of this of nowhere. We aren’t the original inhabitants of this town, and our location on the town’s edge reminds us of that fact.
My new home is a tenda (tent). The facilities here aren’t as nice as what I am used to. There is only one room for sleeping, cooking, and general living. The toilets and showers are in a block some distance from my tent and shared by everyone.
HomeSome people like traveling, not me, I didn’t want to come here. But we had to move after we lost our homes and previous lives in the tsunami. All of a sudden we had nowhere to live, but they said we could come here. I didn’t have much to bring with me, because I don’t own much. That made the journey here easier, but I still don’t like traveling. It scares me. The unfamiliar, the unknown.
Do you have a lot of entertainment where you live? We have a river for swimming. It’s refreshing, but I have to learn how to swim. The other day it raining a lot and the river rose real high. Two children, they couldn’t swim either, got stuck in the current. One of them drowned. Now we are all afraid to swim in the river again. There’s not much entertainment here.
There are some organizations that help us. Some provide free rice. Some organize activities for the children, like soccer games and traditional music practice. Back home our children never experienced some of the activities they can join in here. The organizations conduct surveys and collect data about us too, maybe the data helps them. We have foreigners working here, some Bule (Westerners) and some other nationalities. The Bule have a lot of money. They can help us. People like Bill Clinton, he visited Jantho. I think that must mean the Jantho camp is the worst of the camps. He looks like a nice man.
We don’t have anything to do here, man must work, but there are few opportunities here to make a living and provide a purpose. And as for the future, it’s uncertain, do we to stay here forever, or try to leave at the first opportunity?
Only Allah knows. We believe that everything that happens, happens because of God. We may know why, but it is meant to be. It is the same Allah who brought my misfortunate that will deliver me from this. It is in Him I find comfort.
The main drag
