Haunted by Concrete Houses

In the last 54 days, anxiety has riddled the lives of the people on Ambon, Maluku. There have been 2,438 earthquakes, of which 277 were felt across the 803.9-square-kilometer island. Nobody knows when it will end.

KOMPAS/FRANSISKUS PATI HERIN

Teaching and learning activities for earthquake victims of SDN 1 Waai state elementary school in Waai village, Salahutu district, Central Maluku regency, Maluku, on Tuesday (19/12/2019). Ambon continued to feel the aftershocks of an earthquake until Tuesday.

The weather was fine on Tuesday (19/11/2019), but 7-year-old George Bakarbessy wore a gloomy expression. The second grader at SDN 1 Waai elementary school in Central Maluku regency was trying to pay attention to his teacher at the front of the class. His gaze was empty. The emergency shelter that housed the class stood in a resident’s garden, located on high ground around 2 kilometers from the shoreline.

He often daydreams in the tarpaulin tent, sometimes looking out at the garden plants. George is mourning for his grandmother, Martha, who died of a heart attack during the earthquake last Tuesday (12/11).