Lhoknga School Students Remember Those Killed In Acheh Tsunami With Prayers

From Syed Iylia Hariz Al-Qadri Syed Izman BANDA ACEH, Dec 24 (Bernama) -- Come Dec 26 each time, the teachers and students of Sekolah Menengah Atas (SMA) Negeri 1 Lhoknga, a high school, painfully recall the tsunami that hit Aceh 10 years ago where more than 400 of their colleages perished. The over 400 were among an estimated 225,000 killed in the tsunami in the Indonesian province on the island of Sumatra in 2004. And each year since on that date, the SMA Negeri 1 Loknga never forget to recite the al-Fatihah and Yasin at the tahlil for those killed in the devastating incident. The school's treasurer, Wardiani Ibrahim, 48, said the tragedy was etched in her mind as almost half of her students perished in the tsunami. "I still remember that before the disaster, we had about 700 students but after that, we were left with only 300," she said. The mathematics teacher who has served the school for 20 years now, said when the tsunami struck, she was at her home in Bandar Acheh, 13 km from the scene of the incident, and upon hearing of it, kept thinking about the safety of her students who lived in Kampung Lhoknga. A student of the school, Wahyu Shah Putra Khairuddin, 17, who is in Semester Three (Form Three), told of the scary moments that he and his best friend, Kawani Ardian Shah, also 17, went through when they were swept by the sea waves. The two were swept more than five kilometres away from their school, and it was a matter of life and death for Wahyu when he had to hang on to a tree trunk. However, his best friend Kawani and the latter's parents and elder sister died in the incident. For Ainul Mardiah Nordin Ibrahim, 17, there were no words to describe how she felt when she reported herself after the incident but her classmates were not to be seen. She said at that point, she felt like quitting school but on the encouragement and moral support of her parents, she toughened herself up and continued her studies until now. Ainul Mardiah said almost three-quarters of her 34 classmates lost their lives in the 2004 tsunami. SMA Negeri 1 Lhoknga, located only one kilometre away from the coastline, was also destroyed in the tsunami and rebuilt into a one-storey building. It has been rebuilt again by Mercy Malaysia into a two-storey school.(photoBernama) -- BERNAMA