Zakaria Yunus is a fisherman but ever since December’s tsunami ravaged this tiny village, he has not returned to sea.
His 20-ton fishing boat was shaken by the waves in much the way a dog shakes a sock. It was dragged over rice fields and fish farms and then was slammed into palm trees only to come to rest a mile inland. Miraculously, the boat, called the Bumi Gas, is still in one piece.
The International Rescue Committee is working to move the boat and several others like it back to the ocean. The boats are the sources of employment for well over 150 villagers and preparing them for fishing represents a move towards economic and psychological recovery for an entire community.
The project is being managed by Basari Agani, a member of the IRC’s national staff who makes his home in Aceh. “It is not an easy project but it’s worth doing,” Agani said. “We’re going to have to use winches and lots of manpower to pull the boat on its side, and then we’re going to have to roll it on tracks back to the water.” He estimates that it will take more than 25 men along with several vehicles to move the vessel.
The IRC has identified boat building and repair as a critical need for communities in Aceh province. In the district of Nagan Raya on Aceh’s west coast, the IRC is preparing to distribute tool kits and boat building materials to local fisherman trying to repair their vessels.
In the meantime, fishermen from Nagan Raya who did manage to salvage their vessels need of ways to preserve their catches. In response, the IRC is providing refrigeration units and ice-making machines and the generators and gasoline to power them.
The stakes are high for fishermen like Yunus. For him, the Bumi Gas is more than just a vehicle or even a source of livelihood. It is the device with which he comes to terms with the forces of the ocean - forces that issue forth both sustenance and ruin. Without the Bumi Gas, he can only look backward onto what has been lost. “The sea has taken my wife and three of my children,” he said wistfully. “But it is all I know. And I have to get back to it.”
The recovery of the Bumi Gas represents a step towards a more hopeful future. “I built this boat myself 25 years ago and it has a soul,” said Yunus as he put his hand on the side of the vessel. “And our lives depend on the soul of this boat.”
