LAMPUK – Going to bed every night, 10-year-old Ikra Alfila can’t close her eyes, fearing nightmares of giant waves washing away her fellow Acehnese.
"Even if I wanted to, I couldn't forget,” the Acehnese child told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in a broken voice on Tuesday, December 22.
“It's the same for my friends who survived."
The little girl is haunted by the memory of tsunami waves that smashed into Aceh five years ago.
"I was with my grandmother but the wave separated us,” the young Acehnese recalled.
“I was carried away and then some people saved me. My grandmother drowned," said Ikra, who also lost her baby brother, mother and grandfather in the catastrophe.
Around 169,000 people were killed and 600,000 driven homeless in Aceh when walls of water smashed into the Indonesian province in 2004.
More than 40,000 others died elsewhere, mostly in Thailand, India and Sri Lanka.
The disaster destroyed 141,000 houses in Aceh, caused $4.5 billion damage and left a quarter of the province's population jobless.
Images of the devastation around Lampuk, where the mosque was the only building left standing in a landscape of flattened trees and rubble, were flashed around the world in the days after the disaster.
Houses, schools, businesses and markets were washed away as far as seven kilometres (four miles) inland, and more than one in five villagers lost their lives.
Missing
A massive operation has been launched to rebuild the devastated province after the tsunami disaster.
"The village was totally rebuilt thanks to the aid which we received from all over the world," Khairiah, a 43-year-old teacher, said.
Billions of dollars have been outpoured to rebuild the devastated province after tsunami.
Indonesia's tsunami reconstruction agency wound up its work in April, having built 140,000 new homes, 1,759 school buildings, 363 bridges and 13 airports.
Despite the massive reconstruction operation, many Acehnese still miss their normal life.
"It looks like life is normal here,” Khairiah said, referring to the brightly coloured homes.
“But the trauma remains."
Concerns are running high in the province that with the Indo-Australian tectonic plates in relentless motion, another catastrophe of the scale of 2004 tsunami is almost certain to hit the area again.
However, Khairiah, a devout Muslim, is unfazed, saying she will never consider leaving her seaside home.
“(A new disaster) hits us, that's our destiny."
"Even if I wanted to, I couldn't forget,” the Acehnese child told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in a broken voice on Tuesday, December 22.
“It's the same for my friends who survived."
The little girl is haunted by the memory of tsunami waves that smashed into Aceh five years ago.
"I was with my grandmother but the wave separated us,” the young Acehnese recalled.
“I was carried away and then some people saved me. My grandmother drowned," said Ikra, who also lost her baby brother, mother and grandfather in the catastrophe.
Around 169,000 people were killed and 600,000 driven homeless in Aceh when walls of water smashed into the Indonesian province in 2004.
More than 40,000 others died elsewhere, mostly in Thailand, India and Sri Lanka.
The disaster destroyed 141,000 houses in Aceh, caused $4.5 billion damage and left a quarter of the province's population jobless.
Images of the devastation around Lampuk, where the mosque was the only building left standing in a landscape of flattened trees and rubble, were flashed around the world in the days after the disaster.
Houses, schools, businesses and markets were washed away as far as seven kilometres (four miles) inland, and more than one in five villagers lost their lives.
Missing
A massive operation has been launched to rebuild the devastated province after the tsunami disaster.
"The village was totally rebuilt thanks to the aid which we received from all over the world," Khairiah, a 43-year-old teacher, said.
Billions of dollars have been outpoured to rebuild the devastated province after tsunami.
Indonesia's tsunami reconstruction agency wound up its work in April, having built 140,000 new homes, 1,759 school buildings, 363 bridges and 13 airports.
Despite the massive reconstruction operation, many Acehnese still miss their normal life.
"It looks like life is normal here,” Khairiah said, referring to the brightly coloured homes.
“But the trauma remains."
Concerns are running high in the province that with the Indo-Australian tectonic plates in relentless motion, another catastrophe of the scale of 2004 tsunami is almost certain to hit the area again.
However, Khairiah, a devout Muslim, is unfazed, saying she will never consider leaving her seaside home.
“(A new disaster) hits us, that's our destiny."
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