Sarah's Gift And Ship
Sarah's Gift And Ship - Copyright © 2004–2023 Yelp Inc. Yelp and related marks are registered trademarks of Yelp. When the tsunami swept through Banda Aceh, Indonesia, 10 years ago, the Basyariah family was trapped on the top floor of a house - the water was up to their necks and rising rapidly.
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Sarah's Gift And Ship
But they had a miraculous escape when a boat landed on the roof. Between the red roofs of the newly built houses of Lampulo village, a remarkable sight unfolds: a huge fishing boat sits on top of two houses. The 25-meter-long wooden boat has become a popular attraction on the tsunami tourist trail.
Signs point to Kapal di atas rumah, meaning the boat over the house - and a plaque details how the makeshift coffin saved the lives of 59 people. One of them is local businesswoman Fauziah Basyariah. "If it wasn't for this boat, we would all have drowned as none of us could swim," he said.
Basyareia still has tears in her eyes when she remembers that terrifying day. "Soon after the earthquake, people started screaming that the sea water was coming. We were confused, but then we saw the water coming in," he said. No one understood what was happening - the tsunami was unlike anything they had ever experienced before.
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“I thought it was judgment day,” Basyaria said. Her husband took her motorcycle shopping, so she grabbed her five children and started running. They couldn't outrun the rapidly rising water, so he started looking for shelter higher up. The earthquake destroyed many of the buildings on their street, but they found one house that was still standing, and the six of them ran up to the second floor - but soon realized it wasn't high enough.
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It wasn't even a minute before the water reached us," said Basyariah. "The first wave was very black - we didn't know if it was oil or water." Soon came the second wave, even bigger. By then, the family had become addicted. "We were floating with our heads touching the ceiling - the water was up to our necks. I thought we were going to drown," Basyariah said.
Then a strange sight appeared through the window - a large fishing boat crashed into them. "People were screaming," he said. "But then it went into a wedge on the roof of the house and stopped." His 14-year-old son managed to drop a small hole in the ceiling and climbed out onto the roof.
The family disembarked one by one and all boarded the ship. Others joined them. "When I got on the ship, I prayed and prayed," Basyareia said. - We thanked God that the boat saved us, but even the boat was not that stable because it was full of water, so we went on.
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They watched helplessly as buildings collapsed around them with people still inside. "We couldn't do anything," Basyaria said, wiping away a tear. "Even though it's been 10 years since the tsunami, when I talk about it, it feels like it was just yesterday. I'm so sad - I'll never forget it."
After the waters receded, Basyareia and her children moved further inland to a village called Beurawe, but kept returning to Lampulo to search for their lost loved ones. "I didn't know where my husband was. And my parents too - they ran, but they were old and I knew it would be difficult for them to escape."
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He couldn't find them. The widow Basyareiana suddenly had to support five children alone. While in a temporary shelter, aid workers taught her new skills - how to handle fish, how to sew and how to make cakes. That's how he got the idea to sell dried tuna snacks.
A year after the tsunami, Basyariah took a loan of 500,000 rupiah ($40) to start a fish farming business - now she has moved back to Lampulo, where she supports her family and employs a handful of women in the village. In front of his house, a few doors down from the boat, the women pack the dried fish fried in garlic and onions.
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The snacks are called "Dried Tuna Tsunami" and have a picture of the ship on the label. "They saved us in the boat. We want to remember that," he said. After the tsunami, about 15 fishing boats were stranded on top of Lampulo, but the rest have already been moved.
Zulfikar, the owner of the boat, agreed to keep it as a memorial, even though it had been recently repaired, and he hoped to go fishing on the day of the tsunami. Today, the boat is revered as Noah's Ark, but it is also a daily reminder of what happened.
Everyone is trying to take advantage of the ship being here," Basyariah said. "Everyone has a different story about how the boat saved him. People even make up stories." In addition to attracting tourists, the monuments of Banda Aceh also have an educational role. Before 2004, few people knew what a tsunami was, so when the sea water receded before the arrival of the wave, people ran to collect fish left on the sand instead of rushing to higher ground.
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Now school children are taken to the tsunami memorials and learn what to look out for. The tsunami killed a disproportionate number of women and children because they could not swim. About 45,000 more women than men died – in some communities entire generations of children and the elderly were wiped out.
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Awareness of the warning signs saved many lives on Simulue, an island off the west coast of Aceh - only seven people died in the tsunami there, compared to 167,000 in Aceh itself. The island's hilly geography helped, but the islanders also knew what to do thanks to a local storytelling tradition called smong.
According to Unesco's report, short stories told to children often end with a warning: "If there is a strong tremor, and if the sea recedes shortly afterwards, run for the hills because the sea will soon rush to the shore." Candida Beveridge's report from Banda Aceh appears on BBC World Service Outlook on 24 December 2014 at 12:05 GMT.
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