REMEMBERING DECEMBER 26, 2004

By: Kathy Mueller
Information & Community Outreach Delegate
Banda Aceh, Indonesia


During my three months here, I’ve had the chance to talk to many community members about what they remember of December 26, 2004. The day their world was ripped apart when a tsunami came crashing down on their villages.

Their stories are remarkably similar. A lot of confusion. People not believing the cries of their neighbours “Tsunami, tsunami!” Many trying to outrun the giant wave. Many not able to. Survivors talk about finally being able to return home, days later, to find water in their homes, up to the second storey. Others discover their dining tables, floating in the water, their abandoned rice dishes still sitting, undisturbed, on top.

Hundreds of thousands of Indonesians lost people they loved that day. Many lost their homes. They don’t forget, but they have to move on. They have to live.

Now, four years later, many have remarried and are living in new homes, many of them built by the Canadian Red Cross. They tell me they feel safe in these better-built structures. They tell me it’s a good environment in which to raise their children. They ask me to thank the thousands of Canadians who donated to help give them a brighter future.

It’s made me realize that, the world over, people are all the same. We all want the same things. To raise our families in a prosperous community, to live in a house that won’t fall when the earth beneath our feet starts to shake.

And although thousands of Indonesians will pause to reflect on December 26th, they know that their future is one filled with hope.