Anglela Dewan, The Jakarta Globe

Christina Fowler standing in the remains of her office, right. (Photos courtesy of Christina Fowler and Chris Scurrah)
Rebuilding After the Sumatra Quake
Christina Fowler from Springfield, Illinois, has lived in Padang for 10 years. She and her partner, Chris Scurrah, run surf tours and recently moved their office from a hotel they once ran by Padang’s Arau River. A wall from a neighboring building came crashing down on their new office during the earthquake that devastated the city of 900,000 last week. But that was not enough to send the couple packing. Fowler shares her story in the wake of the disaster with Angela Dewan in Jakarta. The other day, when I was walking around taking photos of the damage early in the morning, people were up and about down the destroyed alleyways. Everyone I came across asked if I had eaten and had something to drink. They offered me what they had, however little. The people here are friendly, they’re always saying hello, and because we’ve been here so long, everyone knows our names. I suppose that’s not so difficult seeing as we’re both named Chris, but still. We have a good relationship with the locals. They’re helping us a lot with our cleanup. We feel like that’s the way to get money to them without just handing it over. Keeping them busy digging through the rubble keeps their minds off their losses and gets them some money to start over. When the quake hit, our office staff ran like hell. Everyone got out OK — I still can’t believe it. A three-story brick wall from the building next door fell onto our roof and pulverized everything inside. We have scrounged around to recover what we can, but there isn’t a lot you can do when three feet of concrete and brick are covering everything. There’s so much destruction in Padang and a lot of crumbled lives. Bulldozers, helicopters, military trucks. It’s like a war zone, like bombs were dropped all over the city. Some houses are standing, right next to a total concrete brick heap. There are a lot of disaster tourists here, people driving around wasting precious fuel, taking photos of what’s going on. Getting the news out to the world is good, but those of us trying to load [up] what’s left of our lives get stuck in massive traffic jams while people drive by stopping at all the mess. We just want to get what we can before our landlord gets the wreckers in and clears the whole thing. It’s kind of frustrating. We hear that a lot of the destruction has to do with what the buildings were fixed upon. Lots and lots of landfill is below many of the structures. Just digging around in our yard, it’s easy to see that there isn’t much stability when you have plastic boxes, bricks, roof tiles and garbage underneath the earth. In fact, we dug up a lot around here before the quake — some of our staff wanted to take home what we found to use as foundation for their houses. That’s got to have a lot to do with why some of these buildings are down. Lots of air pockets under them to break open and sink. I was in St. Louis, at the airport, when the quake struck. I saw it on the news and had a mini heart attack. They were talking about Samoa at the time and “somewhere in Indonesia.” I couldn’t get online so I asked a stranger sitting next to me to log onto the US government Web site to see where in Indonesia the quake had hit. When I saw it was Padang, I just went numb. I had 30 hours of flights before I got to Singapore, let alone to Padang. All I could think about was Chris. I didn’t feel loss, so I didn’t think he was gone. But I wanted to hear his voice. That’s all I wanted. When I landed in Atlanta after the first leg of the journey, I called a friend in Springfield, where I was visiting, and where I’m from, just to talk to someone. I just wanted to hear a voice. I asked him to keep talking. Every now and then the TV would show something about the Padang quake — I would break into his conversation with tears of frustration — then say, “OK, your turn again. Keep talking. Just keep talking.” He got me through my layover in Atlanta without having a heart attack. I’ve lived here in Padang since 1999. I met Chris and stayed. I knew he was the love of my life. We ran the Batang Arau Hotel for eight years and we were pretty much the center of the surfing industry too. Everyone came to our hotel to drink and told stories — we were “The Pub.” Scuzz — that’s what everyone calls Chris — is amazing. He has done so much over the years for Indonesia, Padang and the outer islands. He has an incredibly kind soul and is forever seeing the positive in everything. Sometimes when he is out to sea on charter and I’m here in Padang, he sends me a text saying, “The dolphins are jumping, the sunset is amazing, I am thinking of you.” He keeps me going. I love him madly. Our old hotel building is still standing proud, but it’s damaged. We heard it was built by the Freemasons. I always said it would be the last one standing, but from the looks of it, it isn’t structurally sound anymore. We’re now just doing what we can to help. We have food and drinks and Internet that everyone is welcome to use. We take donations of fuel for the generator and cash. It was touch-and-go there for a while in the beginning, but the roads are opening up and things are able to get into Padang again. It’s the outer villages that are in desperate need. Some have nothing and have to walk six hours to find water or food. That’s where we are directing all aid organizations that ask what they can do. We have asked our former guests to donate what they can to help rebuild our staff and crew’s homes and lives. We employ more than 40 Indonesians, all of whom have lost a lot. We lost everything, so in order to keep them employed and salaries paid, we have asked for donations for them. Most people never know who to donate to. Most are afraid of money getting caught up in big aid organizations’ administration costs. We are a direct line to Indonesians that have brought many smiles and good times to our guests, and those guests have been very kind with their donations. It all goes to getting them back on track. We have already got three of our crew houses to live in. We have told them all to find somewhere to live and we will cover the cost. If they had to wait for aid from the government or nongovernmental organizations, it could be months before they have shelter. My eyes water just thinking about it. I am so proud to be able to help them. We couldn’t have done any of this without our staff and crew. They are our first priority. I want to ask the world to send positive energy here. We do our best to keep seeing the life in all this destruction. Please keep smiling and laughing and thinking of us. We’re all warriors, with many heroes. At the end of the day, we are all connected, and we feel it. We’re going to stay here and rebuild. We employ Indonesians who are the primary earners for their families. We can’t abandon them now. We have survived many setbacks here. It’s Indonesia and it’s just the way it is. This is just one more on the list. I am sure it won’t be the last. I wonder what the rebuilding of Padang will bring.Christina and Chris’s tour companies: Sumatran Surfariishttp://www.sumatransurfariis.com/Bevy’s Sumatra www.bevyssumatra.com/