Nusa

The conditions in Nurma Sulaiman’s tiny room in one of Nusa’s six barracks have just become a little more cramped. But neither she nor her husband and four children are complaining, because the cause of their discomfort is the arrival of a sewing machine. ”Twenty-eight of us have been given these,” she said.

When the tsunami came rolling in from the sea, everybody in the village ran. The men in the coffee shop knocked back their glasses and hurried towards the jungle. The women climbed up a hill and watched, crying and praying, as a tide of debris devoured their homes.