Mennonite Central Committee

One family’s journey to a new home

Victor J. Sensenig
October 31, 2007

MEUNASAH LHOK, Indonesia – The day the tsunami hit, Ayub’s father had taken his family from their village on the west coast of Aceh to stay with him while he worked in a nearby town.

It was their fortune – of the 300 people in their village, only a handful survived the tsunami.

And even in the village where Ayub and his family stayed, people rushed out after the earthquake and watched together as the water receded from the coastline. Ayub’s father Muliadi remembers how someone shouted for them to run to the mountain. The family was barely able to make it before the wave came in, washing away the community.

“My son was very afraid,” says Muliadi. “He saw his mother crying and crying. Many of his friends were dead.”

The family walked the 70 kilometers to Banda Aceh, the road damaged so badly they were forced to travel by foot. Ayub’s father carried everything they had with them – now everything they owned – and his mother carried his baby brother. Ayub, now 8, walked the whole way.

For the next two years the family lived in a shelter. In February 2007, they finally moved into a new home. Some 162 houses in the Lhoong area, as well as more than 200 houses near Banda Aceh, were being built in an MCC project in partnership with GenAssist/CRWRC.

The 42-square meter houses, which cost about $7,000 to construct, were designed after consulting with the villagers about their needs. A lottery determined which beneficiary would receive which house. Each family provided its own paint, and the men spent their weekends coating the houses in bright shades of pink, green and purple.

Ayub’s family decided on yellow with maroon trim. Ayub’s father also extended the roof over the front porch, and festooned with front of the house with concrete molded to look like a rock wall.

Together the family is settling into the routine of a new life. Ayub, now 8, plays soccer with his friends and says he wants to be a policeman when he grows up. Every Friday at noon, he puts on his pink prayer clothing and goes to the mosque with his father, Muliadi. At home, he enjoys drawing, especially cars.

After sharing a tent with several other families for months, Ayub and his younger brother Chandra now only have to share a room.