City of dead in Aceh showing signs of life

CALANG - The city of the dead. That's what some called Calang on Aceh's west coast after December's tsunami smashed nearly every building to rubble and left more than 6,000 of its 7,300 people dead or missing.

But nearly two months after the Dec. 26 disaster that devastated the community 81 miles south of Aceh'S provincial capital, Banda Aceh, there are many signs of life on the flat fields of red dirt where the town once stood.

At their heart is a complex of large white tents from which the voices of children can be heard doing their lessons in the intense late morning heat and humidity.

Running from the primary grades through high school, the complex has 801 students, according to coordinator and English teacher, Dina Astita.

That large number, despite the massive casualties in Calang, reflects the fact that the hills above are now crowded with the makeshift huts and tents not just of its few survivors but of refugees from around the area, many attracted by the school.

"As a teacher I'm just thinking about education," says Astita, 33, as she leans forward to speak with earnest intensity. "The children must have education."

Wearing a red Muslim headscarf and light brown blouse and pants, she says she lost her own three children, a younger sister, "also my house and everything we have before" in the tsunami. She and her husband survived because they were attending a wedding out of town.

Since then she has thrown herself into efforts to get help for the school, originally set up by an Indonesian Marine unit that is the most prominent government element in the area's recovery effort.

"Reconstruction is nothing without education," said Astita.

Officials of the various U.N. and NGO groups operating in Calang say they know Astita, for she pleads with them and anyone who will listen for aid in getting more teachers and supplies.

- REUTERS