Unspeakable grief: Ujang and Rian holding a photo of their daughter Vira, who died when her school collapsed during the quake. — Reuters
ENJOT was tending his cows in the hills near his home when the earth shook.
The 5.6-magnitude earthquake killed more than 268 people, including 11 of Enjot’s family members.
His sister-in-law and her two children were hurt, among the hundreds injured in Monday’s quake.
Now, Enjot is visiting his hospitalised loved ones and trying to rebuild his shattered life, one of thousands of Indonesians reeling from the disaster.
“My life has suddenly changed,” said Enjot, 45, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.
“I have to live with it from now on.”
The epicentre of the quake was just south of Enjot’s hometown, Cianjur. After getting a call from his daughter, Enjot hopped aboard his motorbike and raced home, arriving within a few minutes to see his neighbourhood flattened.
”Men, women and children cried while people trapped in the collapsed houses were screaming for help,” he recalled.
“I saw terrible devastation and heart-rending scenes.”
His sister-in-law and her children, who were visiting from a nearby village, were among the more fortunate. Others heard their screams from the rubble and pulled them out.
Not far from Enjot’s home, an aftershock triggered a landslide that crashed onto the house of one of his relatives and buried seven people inside. Four were rescued, but two nephews and a cousin were killed, he said.
In a neighbouring village, his sister, a cousin and six other relatives were killed when their homes collapsed.
Meanwhile, Rian Solihat had run straight to her daughter’s school only to find it had become a tumble of brick, torn books and lopsided palm trees.
Trawling through the debris, a teacher asked whose child had worn pink to school that day.
“It turned out that that was my daughter,” said Rian, her face stricken with grief at the loss of her eight-year-old child, Vira.
At Tarbiyatussibyan Al Badruniyah Islamic School in Cianjur, Vira was among 20 pupils killed in the disaster.
The quake hit just after 1.30pm local time, when many children were about to start their lessons.
Officials said the timing had made the children especially vulnerable.
“I couldn’t handle seeing my daughter’s condition. Her body and face were all injured,” said Vira’s father, Ujang Nurdin.
Days later, he was still clutching a framed school photograph of Vira in a black graduation hat, proudly holding a green scroll.
His daughter had dreamed of being a teacher, he said, and Monday had been her first day back at school in two months after recovering from an injury that had left her unable to walk. — Agencies
