Sardines coming out of their ears
Report by SHAHANAAZ HAHIB from AchehTHOUSANDS of sardine tins and instant noodle packets meant for tsunami victims lie undistributed in a room at a make-shift mosque at the fishing village of Lam Pulo.
The tsunami survivors don’t want them.
“Bosan. Ngak bisa makan. (Fed up, I can’t eat anymore of it),” said Ramli Ismail, who had many unopened tins of sardine in his tent.
In the next tent, trishaw driver M. Rizal who lost his trishaw, house, wife and one child, had a whole box of unopened sardine cans.
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UNOPENED CANS: Rizal, with his son on his lap, showing the cans of sardines at his tent in Banda Aceh on Wednesday. |
The instant noodles do not have bumbu (the flavour sachets), so villagers don’t want to eat the noodles either as it is tasteless.
The canned mackerel and instant noodles were donated under the World Food Programme and distributed to the village by Save The Children, an international NGO.
The other items donated under the programme were rice and cooking oil and these are popular with the villagers.
Julidar Sulaiman, the village co-ordinator, said “we open the storeroom door wide and tell people to help themselves to however much they want, but there are no takers” for about 5,000 sardine cans and 2,000 packets of instant noodles.
So what are the folks in this tsunami-wrecked area eating? Lam Pulo is just by the sea and so most of them catch fish, crabs and prawns using their native ingenuity, as they have no money to replace smashed fishing boats or to repair damaged ones.
Those who have the money to buy nets are able to fish further from shore; the others wade into the waters and spike fish.
Julidar said some people sell some of their rice rations to buy eggs.
“People here are fine eating boiled rice and egg. It’s the sardine they can’t stomach,” he said.
Lam Pulo has now become part of the sea. The tsunami killed two-thirds of the villagers. But the 2,500 survivors still don’t know who will help them rebuild their homes, repair boats and get traders back on their feet.
Julidar said Saudi Arabia had offered to help them with new homes.
“But we have not heard from them. They have only come to see us twice since the tsunami. So we are still looking for some other organisation that can help us. We can only hope we haven’t been forgotten,” he said.
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