Matthijs Slot's Tsunami story

By Matthijs Slot, I wrote this in May 2006.

My bad time was on 2004 12 26, it was the day of the tsunami. We were on Chicken Island. My dad and I were on the beach and my bro, sis and mum were on the boat when a big wave came and lifted my mum’s boat up. The wave came and destroyed the boat and then it hit me and my dad. Before the wave, my dad and I were putting fishes that we found on the beach and we were putting them back to the sea. My dad was wondering why the fishes were there. On the 4th fish we put back, my dad and I saw this big wave, my dad said “run” but I did not run. My dad just read the book about tsunami, and he knew that something was wrong. I looked at the wave thinking it was wave like you see in Australia. Then it took my mum’s boat and maybe more boats and crashed and hit me and my dad. All I was doing was trying to get air. Whenever I looked out to the sea, I saw my dad rescuing these children. I was daydreaming, wondering what was happening. The next wave I saw my brother terribly injured, I helped him to safety. I pulled him by his arm, and another lady picked him up. Than another wave hit and I was taken back to the sea. Bastiaan, my brother was high enough. After that wave I managed to get to safety. While I was up to safety, I saw my mum and dad, looking for Vivian (my sister). I gave my mum and dad a big hug and my brother hugged my mum. Then they went back to find my sister. My sister was only 3 years old. A boat came two to three hours later. My Mum and Dad and brother and I went on a boat that brought us to another boat. But that boat did not go to the hospital. It did not move at all, it did not want to go because it was not getting paid for it. So then we had to wait in the sun for 4 hours, got a little bit of water like 50ml, because there were so many people that were there. Finally one hospital boat came and brought my mum, brother and me and some other people to the shore. The boat ride was 5 min. When we got to shore, a very unofficial car brought us to the hospital. My mum was brought to an operation room, where they had to take water out of my mum. My dad and my brother where separated so for 6 hours. I hated those hours. I was in the hospital waiting for my mum and dad. I was with my brother. My dad came when I was crying my eyes out because I did not see my sister anywhere. My dad brought my brother and me to the hotel Alis (we were staying at another hotel, my dad called them but they did not come to pick us up, and my dad said that we where in the tsunami, but they said “if you want to go to Alis, you must first pay” and then the Alis people got our language and brought it to Alis).