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Making Friends

For the past week I've been working with a young man who works for the UN OCHA. Fasrul comes into the Internet Café to send and receive e-mail related to his job. He's relatively new to computers and web e-mail, so I spend quite a bit of time working with him, helping him download attachments, make changes to the files, and then send them again attached to an e-mail message. He's a friendly guy, just as all the Indonesians are that I've met here. The other day he asked me how long I was staying, and when I told him I was leaving in ten days he was really sad I wouldn't be staying longer.

Fasrul is from Banda Aceh. When the waves came, he was on an island off the coast of mainland, and because there was high ground on the island, he was spared from the waves. But, his family lives in Banda Aceh, and they were not so fortunate. His mother and two younger brothers were killed by the tsunami. But, Fasrul's father and sister were not killed. He came back to Banda Aceh as soon as he could after the disaster, and moved his father to his sister's house, because their house was totally destroyed. Fasrul decided to come to Meulaboh. He wanted to get away from Banda Aceh, and he hoped he could forget about the losses he had experienced. But he found out that being in Meulaboh is not much better, and he still sees all around him things that remind him of the destruction of Banda Aceh and the deaths of his mother and brother. He says now he wants to go to Medan, on the other side of the island, to get away from it all. He his thankful for his job with the UN, but he would like to save up enough money to open a small store. My heart ached for him, and my eyes were filled with tears and he told me all this. So many people here with such great losses, and such great needs. How do I make a difference here? In nine days I do leave the Aceh province, but unlike Fasrul, I will not be leaving to forget what happened here. I want to always remember what happened here, which are the brief friendships I was able to make.