Southeast Asia

Surviving the Sumatra quake

Indonesian officials in West Sumatra say some villages engulfed by landslides after last week’s earthquake will be left as mass graves. A spokesman said money would be better spent on the living than on retrieving about 400 bodies believed to be buried under the mud and rocks. Some semblance of normal life is returning to the provincial capital, Padang. But bad weather is hampering efforts to get aid to outlying areas. Reporter Ann Dornfeld visited the village of Bungus Timur, about 12 miles south of Padang. (Photos: Ann Dornfeld)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3

Dornfeld: The road to the village of Bungus Timur passes monkeys swinging through the trees, crystal green bays and water buffalo grazing in the rice paddies. That peaceful scene ends when you reach the village. Corrugated metal roofs sit intact on small piles of rubble.

A house with a missing wall reveals what appears to be a teenager’s bedroom, complete with a poster of a pop star still tacked up. The men of Bungus Timur are crowded around an aid truck that’s just arrived with emergency supplies. The fat bags of tarps, blankets and toothpaste sit within reach. But there aren’t enough to go around, and the villagers are debating who should get help first.

All 40-year-old Ernawati can do is watch. Women here don’t have a say in such matters. Ernawati goes by only one name – that’s common in Indonesia. She works in the rice fields, husking grains in a small wooden mill.

Ernawati had been in the fields all day and just arrived home to her three children when the earthquake hit.

Ernawati: “I screamed God Almighty! God Almighty! Everything shook. My house cracked, and the houses around mine crumbled. I thought it was doomsday! Our house is no longer safe. We are sleeping on the street under a plastic sheet.”

Dornfeld: Ernawati says her children are in shock.

Ernawati: “Especially my youngest child is traumatized because of the quake. Every time I try to take him near the house he runs away.”

Ernawati husking rice grains

Dornfeld: In the four days since the earthquake, the family has eaten only donated instant noodles and rice. They cook them in river water. Ernawati says they can’t afford to buy vegetables.

Ernawati: “I get paid in rice – about three kilos a day. That’s worth about a dollar fifty.”

Dornfeld: Her husband works in the rice fields, too – when there’s work.

Ernawati: “My husband and other men in this village also collect sand from the banks of the river to sell for construction. “

Dornfeld: The sand Ernawati’s husband gathers is mixed into cement and used to lay bricks. People in West Sumatra say unscrupulous builders often dilute their cement mixtures with extra sand. Some say that might explain why so many of the destroyed buildings in the region are now piles of bricks, while wooden structures remain mostly intact.

It’s time for Ernawati to go back to the rice fields. The farmer has work for her today, and she needs her paycheck of rice. But with her house destroyed, what she really needs is money.

Ernawati: “Maybe after people rebuild their houses they’ll need more sand, and the men can get more work. But right now, our life is only getting more difficult.”

Dornfeld: For The World, I’m Ann Dornfeld in West Sumatra, Indonesia.