Indonesian children return to school after tsunami

By Crack Palinggi

PANGANDARAN, Indonesia (Reuters) – Indonesian children
returned to school on Monday in an area of Java devastated by a
tsunami, the latest sign of a slow resumption of normal life
after the killer waves struck a week ago.

Elementary students in this fishing and beach resort, which
suffered the brunt of the disaster, were encouraged to sing
songs to relieve stress but also given a lesson on how to
recognize a future tsunami.

“Birds behave weirdly, suddenly the sea recedes, there is a

salty smell, and a sound like a bomb or a plane,” said
five-year-old Wildan Pratama, when asked for signs of a
tsunami.

“I would go to a higher site, hike up a mountain or onto a
roof,” he added, saying he had been calm when the tsunami
struck on May 17 bringing rubbish-laden, filthy water right up
to his house.

Thirty-nine students returned to the school, still only a
small fraction of the 259 who normally attend.

“Many students were evacuated to outside Pangandaran. So
they will study in another school,” said Dudung, a teacher at
the school.

“Children are being taught the signs (of a tsunami).
Students are also singing songs to relieve their trauma.”

FISHING VILLAGES

People displaced after last Monday’s tsunami who fled to
higher ground have been encouraged to return to their homes, if
they were left intact, and some have started going back.

But some remain too scared, preferring to shelter in large
military tents in the hills or stay with relatives.

Paul Armor, country director at the Catholic Relief
Services, said he was particularly concerned about the impact
of the tsunami on more remote small fishing communities in the
area.

“I think what people have failed to recognize is that the
fishing villages around this tourist area, are the ones that
have been hit,” Armor said by telephone, adding that his agency
was focusing 90 percent of its aid efforts on three fishing
villages.

The number killed by waves that brought death and
destruction to a 300-km (185-mile) stretch of Java’s south
coast on July 17 was revised down to 635 from nearly 700, with
59 missing and about 45,000 displaced, health and disaster
officials said.

The revised death toll was attributed to double counting in
some districts.

On Sunday, a strong undersea earthquake struck off the
coast of Sulawesi island, prompting jumpy local authorities to
issue a tsunami warning, which was later withdrawn. There were
no reports of deaths or damage.

Newspapers on Monday discussed calls for the media to take
a bigger role in giving warnings of a potential tsunami.

Indonesian broadcaster MetroTV interrupted its programs to
issue a tsunami warning after the quake in Sulawesi on Sunday.

The lack of warning ahead of last Monday’s killer waves,
despite regional efforts to set up an early alert system after
the massive Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, has been driving a
debate over the official response in the sprawling archipelago.

Indonesia’s 17,000 islands sprawl along a belt of intense
volcanic and seismic activity, part of what is called the
“Pacific Ring of Fire.” (Additional reporting by Diyan Jari in
JAKARTA)