OVI'S STORY: PART 1

Ovi Marunduri – Biographical Information:


*Ovi was born Nov 25, 1975 on Bawa Island in Hinako’s, just off the southwest coast of Nias. His immediate family consists of:
· 2 brothers, German – age 45, and Jonny – age 38 – both live on Bawa.
· 1 sister, Norma – age 29, lives in Kalimatan
· 1 sister, Betty – age 31, lives in Jakarta
· 1 sister, Emi, -- age 40, lives in Padang
· 1 brother, Fauzan – age 36, lives in Medan
· 1 brother, Ginus – age 37, lives in Bandung
· 1 brother, Eva – age 46, lived in Aceh.
Eva, and his wife, married one year, and 3 months pregnant, killed in tsunami. Their bodies have not been recovered.

*Ovi’s parents are deceased. His mother died when Ovi was 3, and his father died when Ovi was 9. Ovi lived in the hospital when he was very young after his mother died. They took care of him there until he was 6 years old and started elementary school.

*From elementary school to senior high school he stayed with his brothers and sisters in Sirombu, Nias.

*At age 18, when senior high school finished, he went to Padang and started university majoring in tourism. He could not finish because of the economic crisis and had no money to pay for school.

*In 1997, he started to work with his brother, German, on Bawa building a home stay (small hotel and restaurant).

*1997 – 2000 he worked with German at the home stay.

*2001 he met Chris on Bawa and started working with him and Sumatran Surfariis – has worked with Chris ever since.

Ovi’s Story:

This is basically a chronological account of Ovi’s experiences that was garnered through an interview with Scuzz:

Dec 26, 2004:
At about 9:00 am, Ovi was at his home stay, Secoci Beach, located on the southeast side of the island of Bawa in the Hinakos. The Hinakos are a very small group of islands off the southwest coast of Nias. Around this time, Ovi feels an approximately 10 minute earthquake – slow, not strong but long. A glass of water sitting on the table kept “jumping”.

At Ovi’s home stay, there was no earthquake damage. After the quake no one was sure what had happened. Ovi asked some kids to go to the main village and buy things for the home stay. At approx 10:00 am the kids returned and said they heard an SSB radio report that the main island of Hinako was destroyed by the earthquake. Ovi then walked from his home stay to the main harbor on Bawa, which is about a ½ hour walk. Approximately 100 people live in this harbor village on the west coast of Bawa.

When he arrived he saw all the water being sucked out of the harbor. Approximately 1 kilometer from the harbor are 2 islands, Hamutala and Bogi. Ovi reports seeing the water being sucked straight out between these two islands, and he could see dry reef between them. Locals were running out on the dry reef to get the fish that were left on the reef. No one tried to stop them. There were men, women and children on the reef collecting fish, when the first wave hit. The water came back in quickly, but hit the 2 outlying islands first and created a kind of barrier for Bawa Harbor. The wave hit the outer islands and sprayed up between the islands in a giant explosion as the waves came together at the channel between them, and continued on towards Bawa Harbor. Approx 5 people didn’t run fast enough to escape the wave, and were caught up and pushed to the beach. The wave came in 15 meters higher than a typical high tide in 5 minutes and receded to 100 meters lower than a typical low tide in 5 minutes. No one was killed, and only the old canoes were destroyed. The newer canoes were pushed up onto the beach approx 15 meters but were not damaged. At this point the locals all ran for their canoes and headed inland.

Ovi’s family lives on Asu Island. He feared for them because SSB radio contact out of Sirombu (main city on west coast of Nias) reported a 7-meter wave had hit Asu Island and it had been destroyed. At approx 11 am, Ovi asked a local fisherman for his canoe to take the 2-kilometer ride out to Asu. The currents were so strong, in and out, and so far, that he could not make it. The water kept coming in and out like this all day until about 5pm, when the biggest wave hit. The last wave destroyed a small bridge over one of the rivers running off Bawa to the sea. Radio reports were saying it was coming again. The locals were terrified.

No one would go near the beach that night and all canoes were brought in and put near the houses approximately 100 meters from the beach at high tide.

7:00am Dec 27:
Ovi’s’ brother German came in from Hinako to check on his family. He told Ovi everything was fine: no deaths and no major damage. He told Ovi the water had gone out about 150 meters, and came back in only 10 meters because a small sea wall stopped the main flooding from happening.

10:00am Dec 27:
Ovi went back to his home stay and noticed a 5x5 meter floating island of trees and debris, as well as many fuel containers, floating in the sea. The containers were from the main island of Nias. He wondered how much damage had been done there.

Dec 27, afternoon:
Ovi surfed in his bay all afternoon and reported only strong currents every 15 minutes. He said the waves were 3-4 feet, perfect, normal sized for this time of year, with bright sunny weather. The sea seemed different, but he was not scared of it.

Most of the villagers went to the main island of Hinako because this island has a high hill, while Asu and Bawa are both low and flat. They stayed there with their families for at least 1 week. Stories were starting to come out about what had happened in Sirombu in mainland Nias. The smaller islands of Hinako get all of their goods from Sirombu. Sirombu was heavily damaged by the tsunami, markets destroyed, and many roads damaged from flooding. Therefore food wasn’t getting through to the Hinakos.

News also started coming in about Banda Aceh. It had been destroyed, thousands dead. Ovi could not stop thinking about his older brother, Eva, who was living there. The last time he spoke to his brother was Dec 26, 6:00am. Eva called from Banda Aceh to tell them he was coming to Nias on the 29th. Two hours after the call the earthquake hit. Reports say his house is gone, and no one has seen him or his 3-month pregnant wife. As Ovi tells this to Scuzz, his eyes fill with tears.

By the morning of December 28th, a government boat arrived at Sirombu with rice and noodles. These goods were never given to the Hinako Islands. All villagers from the Hinakos had to travel to the mainland of Nias to get any food. The normal ferries that run to the smaller islands would not go.

January 3rd:
Ovi is at his home stay and sees the Sumatran Surfariis charter boat ASIA. He can’t understand why the charter boat he works on would be out this time of year, as January is off-season and most boats are on high dock for repairs. When Ovi sees Chris he asked him “Why come?” Scuzz explained that he was surveying the area for damages and had brought supplies from Padang. Ovi was happy because the company he worked for was coming to make sure his people were okay. Scuzz asked if Ovi could help with relief efforts since he is from Nias and can speak the local dialect, which he agreed to do. The language of Nias is completely different from Indonesian. Without Ovi, there would have been many problems with communication with the smaller villages. Ovi explained about the problems of food getting to Asu and Bawa. He asked if Chris could go to the Hinakos first.

After food is dropped in the Hinakos, ASIA, with Ovi on board, headed off to Sirombu. This was Ovi’s first time to Sirombu after the earthquake. Sirombu sits on a peninsula on the northeast side of the island. The Indian Ocean on one side, and a bay is on the other. When the tsunami hit, it smashed one side of the town and flooded the other. Many houses were damaged, debris was everywhere, and roads were washed away. It was very emotional for him to see what the quake and tsunami had done.

Many villagers asked why the boat had come. Ovi told them about his company in Padang wanting to make sure all was okay, and that there were supplies on board for those that needed them. They had been living with very little food and had lost their income of fishing when their canoes were damaged and fishing lines & nets were washed away. The villagers wanted to unload everything right away, but Ovi said he wanted to speak to the head of the village to make sure things were distributed evenly amongst everyone. The crew of ASIA (Ovi, Scuzz, and a military man) worked all day to unload ASIA. The chief of the village wrote everything down, and was asked to distribute it evenly. ASIA then left for Asu arriving at 8pm.

Normally the island of Asu has approximately 100 villagers. When ASIA and Ovi arrived there were no more than 10 people. All locals had moved as much as they could to the main island of Hinako and to the mainland of Nias. Ovi knew this was a problem with communication. The locals were listening to the SSB radio giving warnings of another tsunami coming. All villagers were too scared to stay. ASIA gave food and supplies to Asu, unloaded the rest onto a speedboat, then headed off for Teluk Delam to restock the boat and return. Ovi then took the speedboat with rice, noodles, biscuits, juice and many other supplies to Bawa to give to the locals there.

Jan 4th:
Ovi, 3 of his sisters, one brother, and his friend Solja, went to Gunung Sitoli on Nias to attempt to get the ferry back to Padang. Christina called him asked if he could stay and coordinate another relief boat with supplies from Padang. He borrowed his sister’s hand phone to keep in communication with Christina and sent his brother and sister back to Padang.

Ovi then called together 20 of his friends to help. Ovi sent his friends north and south of Sirombu to gather information on damaged villages. They rented trucks and motorbikes and headed off for the area north of Sirombu. When they returned, the distribution plan was made.

Jan 6th, morning:
Mentawai Indah, the cargo boat Christina loaded with fresh fruit, veggies, relief buckets, and fishing gear, arrived and the unloading commenced. Ovi felt really good because he knew he and his friends were doing something extraordinary.
It was early in the relief aid operation, so Ovi had no problems in Gunung Sitoli with the harbormaster, government, or heads of the local villages. Everyone happily helped with unloading the boat and loading onto trucks for very little wage. Everyone worked together for the good of their villages. Ovi was busy answering the hundreds of questions from the villagers. Everyone wanted to know whom the supplies were from, why they were being brought out, who were they for, how long help would continue to come, and if they had to pay for the supplies. Of course, nothing was expected in return; they were just there to help.

After all trucks were loaded, they set out for the villages on the other side of the island that were damaged in the tsunami. Christina called and asked Ovi to take the satellite phone sent out with the supplies over to a village called Lahewa where Sam from IDEP Foundation was waiting. He was docked with Sumbar Rizeki, another ferryboat full of supplies on the west side of Nias. They had problems with their phones and radio and had no communication with Padang. When Ovi and Herman, one of Ovi’s friends helping with the distribution, found Sam and gave him the satellite phone, it opened up all communications for them. This was truly a turning point for IDEP and their relief aid operation. It took Ovi and Herman 4 hours on motorbikes to make this effort. The roads were washed away and in some places they had to push the bike long stretches of sloppy land to get through.

After his meeting with Sam, Ovi headed for Sisarahili Dua. This is a village north of Sirombu, and one of the most damaged areas from the tsunami on Nias Island. Many villagers drowned here because they were afraid to leave their houses. Countless canoes were destroyed, fishing nets and lines washed away, houses were demolished, and debris was everywhere. Ovi arrived at 5pm and gave out supplies until 10pm. The villagers had moved to higher ground and were living in the church about 1 kilometer from the high tide mark. They tried to set up makeshift houses with debris from their old ones, but had no way of escaping the mass amounts of mosquitoes swarming everywhere in the wet jungle. The rain never stopped. The logistics of getting truckloads of supplies deep into the jungle was unreal. The trucks could not get close to the villages because of the roads, so everything had to be walked in, sometimes over 6 kilometers, to get to those that needed it. The village heads were so happy because everything came straight to them and not to the government first. A kitchen was set up immediately and food was made for everyone in the village. Everyone worked hard that day and at 10pm, when the trucks were empty, they all left for the ride back to Gunung Sitoli to refill the trucks and start again the next morning.

They arrived to Gunung Sitoli at 3am and awoke again 7am. Ovi was so happy when he woke and saw that all 20 of his friends had come to help again. He was paying them in cigarettes and food plus about US$3 per day per person for 20 people to help him. Some of these people rely only on surfing tourism for their income. They were more than happy to help the surfing community help their island.

Supplies were dropped in Lahusa, and Pasir Putih. Ovi found that by giving the supplies to the local Pastor rather than the local government, it would ensure they would get to those that needed it. Christina then called Ovi and asked him to buy more fruit and veggies from markets in Southern Nias to take out to the Hinako Islands of Bawa and Asu. The roads were so bad that a bus could only get to the middle of the island. Giant holes and flooding kept it from getting any further. Everyone had to get off, transfer everything to a bus on the other side of the broken road, and continue on that way. Finally arriving in Sirombu, Ovi used rickshaw drivers to cart the supplies to the dock where he met a fishing boat that carried him out to the islands. He arrived on Asu at 10pm an January 7th. The villagers asked many more questions and gave Ovi suggestions about what aid they needed. They had lost many of the children’s school uniforms, and wanted Ovi to let us know in Padang.

Operating on less and less sleep, Ovi kept charging on. All the while in the back of his mind he couldn’t stop thinking about his brother in Aceh. He had yet to hear word from him since the tsunami.

On the 8th morning Ovi dropped supplies off at Bawa, his island. The villagers were so proud of him for helping to get food out to them. Ferries had stopped bringing supplies out because they were still quite scared of the weather, and many canoes and small outboards were damaged so the islanders couldn’t get to the mainland.

Every village Ovi dropped supplies in has a document stating the date, supplies dropped, number of people in the village, and their ages. And the village head signed every document. This was all Ovi’s idea.

Ovi then traveled from Bawa to Hinako to Sirombu buy boat, then on to Gunung Sitoli by motorbike on the evening of the 8th. It was another long day and the weather had gotten worse. High winds and heavy rain made traveling almost impossible. Still, he made it and continued his efforts on Nias.

Jan 15, 8pm:
ASIA, with Alyssa and Adam Kobayashi aboard, and Mikumba, the boat chartered by the SSRO (Matt George, Bill Sharp, Tim Turner, Dustin Humphrey, and others) arrived at Gunung Sitoli. ASIA was dropping off supplies purchased by SSRO for Nias then going on to dock at Sibolga for off-season repairs. Mikumba was loaded down with supplies and heading up to Simeulue Island. Alyssa and AK joined Mikumba here, and traveled on with SSRO to Simeulue. Ovi and his friends helped to unload ASIA and arranged the distribution before he left for Sibolga (on Sumatra) the next morning. Ovi wanted to stay and help, but Scuzz said to rest and tomorrow try to find out information about his brother in Aceh. He says this was his first real peaceful sleep since the tsunami.
After arriving in Sibolga, Ovi took a bus to Padang where he spoke to his sister about going to Aceh.

The next day Ovi got a call from Christina saying Chris had left for Simeulue the night before and needed Ovi’s help taking a cargo boat loaded with supplies to the Alafan area on North Simeulue. Ovi said, “Of course. I want to help the people”

Sibolga-Simeulue run, coming soon...

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