Hub’s Indonesian community mourns
Boston’s Indonesian community is reeling after a powerful earthquake struck the country this week, including a Hyde Park couple still missing relatives on the island of Sumatra.
“I have aunts and uncles in Padang,’’ the capital of West Sumatra, said Munassarni Bantacut, 51. “We cannot get it yet on the phone, but we heard from somebody - they said my aunt and uncle are OK but the house is gone. We have nephews also, but they still don’t know where’’ they are.
Bantacut was born in Padang, and grew up in nearby Medan, where most of her immediate family still lives. She was able to briefly contact her brother yesterday via cellphone, confirming his safety.
Munassarni Bantacut and her husband, Najib, who have been in the United States since 1992, are planning to hold a gathering at their home tomorrow to mourn with fellow Indonesians and raise money for relief. In 2004, Najib Bantacut, 56, organized an event at Roxbury Community College that raised $10,000 to $12,000 for tsunami disaster relief.
The 2004 tsunami struck NajibBantacut’s hometown of Aceh, which is also on Sumatra, destroying the homes of his mother, brother, and sister, but sparing their lives.
When news of the first earthquake reached Hyde Park Wednesday, the couple relived memories of 2004.
“I find out yesterday morning on CNN. They made it seem like a tsunami,’’ said Najib Bantacut, a construction worker. “We thought it was going to be another.’’
Reactions were similar elsewhere in Boston’s Indonesian community.
“The first time I heard, my heart just stopped beating, my brain just stopped, my hands went cold immediately,’’ said Anai Njendu, 35, of Boston. “I needed to find out what’s going on. It’s hard to hear from the news. . . . It’s better to talk to family and see what’s really happening.’’
Njendu grew up in northern Sumatra, hundreds of miles away from the epicenter of the quake. Her family felt the tremors, but all are safe.
“My brother’s friends are [in Padang],’’ she said. “He tried to contact them but it’s hard to, with the phone connections and all that.’’
Njendu, who came to the United States in 1998, also revisited bad memories from 2004, when her mother died in the tsunami.
David Tong, 33, a pastor at The Reformed Evangelical Fellowship of Indonesia in Boston, said he has been following the story and will begin collecting donations this weekend.
