Excited to help

I finally arrived in Padang four days after the earthquake struck the western part of Sumatra Island. I've lived in a few parts of Indonesia, yet have never been here before. However, I always wished to visit this place to enjoy its natural beauty and tourist hospitality.

I never imagined coming here to see destroyed buildings and damaged houses. I could have never anticipated coming here to a place that still has no electricity and no clean water. But, as a part of the Mercy Corps Indonesia emergency response team, I feel so excited having this opportunity to help people in need.

Driving around Padang gives you some sense of just how strong the disaster was. But it's not until you go further north, to Padang Pariaman, that you realize how bad the conditions are. It's in places like that where you wonder how the community will struggle to get their life back to normal.

Uni lost most of her family's house to last week's earthquake, and is now sleeping in a tent pitched in front of a local mosque with her husband and two children. Photo: Elpido Soplantila/Mercy Corps

A two hour drive brought me to Ulakan village in Padang Pariaman yesterday. When our car arrived there, I immediately saw hundreds of houses totally fallen to the ground. It was so tragic, looking out the window seeing elderly people sleeping on a couch just in front of their houses, or children playing under tents made of tarpaulins and plastic bags — materials that almost all of the families in the area are using as their temporary shelter.

“Since last Wednesday, when the earthquake happened, we left our house because our bedrooms and kitchen were gone, and the children are still afraid to stay in the house,” explained 32-year-old Uni, as she prepared food. Now she’s staying with her husband and two children in a 16 square metre tent in front of a village mosque.

Besides Uni, there are almost 200,000 other families whose homes are too damaged to live in. Almost a week later, the scale of the damage is still unfolding and figures continue to fluctuate. Needs are rising.

Mercy Corps is starting our first distribution today: we are providing hygiene and recovery kits to more than 400 households in two sub villages, Manggopoh Dalam and Binuang.

Even though I've come to Padang under much different circumstances than what I'd once imagined, I am excited to be here as part of the Mercy Corps response team, supporting survivors and affected communities.