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Acehnese
children play on a tree in a makeshift tsunami refugee camp in Banda
Aceh on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
(Reuters)
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CAIRO, February 3
(IslamOnline.net) � Helpless and stricken by sadness over the loss of
their fellows and fear of a recurrence of the killer waves, children in
the tsunami-hit Indonesian province of Aceh wrote poems, praying to
Allah.
Oh Allah, the most compassionate
and merciful
We are subservient to You and we are weak
Don't
bequeath this ordeal anymore
Don't deal out this suffering again
As
we know the blame is ours
Oh Allah, You have put us to the
test
We don't want to see our people cry anymore
And the cries of
our little brothers and sisters
Oh Allah, will You forgive us
Only
to You can we plead and only to You can we pray
Amin Ya Rabbal
Alamin
Acehnese children used such a
simple way to express their sympathy with their mates who lost their
families, friends and homes in their ravaged town of Meulaboh, hoping that
poems would inspire the stricken children to look for a better future,
according to Indonesian daily, The Jakarta Post Thursday, February
3.
Praying to Allah
Reading the poem, titled �Our
Prayer�, with her soft voice, Cut Nurfajria, a 13-year-old student in
the eighth grade at SMP 3 junior high school -- also writer of the poem --
said the poem was a prayer to Allah that no more tsunamis would occur, not
only in Aceh, but also everywhere around the world, according to the
daily.
�I'm sad as many of my friends
were victims of the tsunami,� said Cut after reading the poem.
Cut and her family were lucky to
survive the monstrous tidal waves as her house in Lapang village was
located far enough from the beach, however, she can feel the pain that her
schoolmates and their families went through.
Cut was not the only Indonesian
student who wrote poems to express grief and sadness over the impact of
the disaster, the paper said.
With horrible experiences of the
devastating disaster still fresh in their minds, other children diligently
wrote poems to express their feelings.
Among those children was Hendri
Rizky, a 13-year-old student, who wrote a poem titled The Cries of My
Relatives.
More than 200,000 people were
killed, over half of them from Indonesia, and millions were rendered
homeless in southern Asian countries following monstrous tidal waves
spawned by a killer 9.0 magnitude earthquake.
Back to School
After a one month off after the
tsunami disaster, students in the Meulaboh town were happy to go back to
school, showing a growing interest in continuing their studies, the daily
said.
�I'm glad to return to school and
get back together again with my friends here,� Furqon Muttaqin, an
Acehnese student in the seventh grade, told the paper.
The students were studying under
the trees around the school compound as a section of the school has been
used as a relief post by the French military for the past week.
Students formed circles and some
also sat in lines facing each other, while teachers sat on one
side.
�Come, let's sit in a cooler
place, or you'll be sick,� a teacher told some students who were sitting
in the sun.
Meulaboh was chosen as the place
to announce Education Awakening Day in Aceh and Nias, North Sumatra, after
twelve teachers were killed in the area by the tidal waves.
Some 99 schools were also
damaged in the West Aceh area.
