It was still dark, around 4.30 at dawn. Adzan (call to prayer) echoed from some prayer houses and filled the sky around Kubu Beach, Subdistrict Arongan Lambalek, District Aceh Barat, January 2010. Some fishermen raced against the time to land their boat and to lift their catch of the night. They should not be lost from the bright sun. If they lost they would be left behind by the middlemen who had been waiting at the landing place.
But landing a boat and keep it in a special place is a complicated and time consuming task for a fisherman who has just finished hunting the fish and shrimp in the sea and around the estuary all through the night. From the estuary, the fishermen must sail through the denseness of palm forest alongside the river.
At the same time, they also have to guide their boat avoiding the rapidly growing water hyacinth. The light from an oil lamp is their only help. When the day is breaking, they can count on the red tinge light of the sun in the east.
Only from there they can reach the landing place which looks like a 50 square meters bay. The condition of this landing place is far from decent. It is full of water hyacinth and beach palms. The water is quite deep too, a knee high of an adult. It is completely dark and it has no light not even from one lamp. The path from land to water or vice versa is also steep without cement and very slippery when it is wet.
“Welcome to our landing place. This is the real condition of our place. We are now thinking of having a new landing place which is more decent and close to the fishermen’s villages,” said Anwar, the leader of a fishermen group there.
Actually, their landing place is still part of the villagers’ property. Upon docking the boat, the fishermen go out of the boat and set down their feet into the water. One by one they lift the nets to the land, and then the plastic drums filled with fish and shrimp, and a water bucket. They then go back to the water and drain the seawater inside their boat, wash the boat, and then secure it. Because the surface of this landing place is steep, they pull the boat from the land with the help from other people. They still have to drag their boat to the store place under banana trees in villagers’ plantation not far from the landing place.
For the fishermen in Kubu, life is quite hard. Their wish to have a more tactical landing place is probably still far from real. They are still hoping for a help from others to make their wish comes true. “We’ve talked to our local government. There are some options for the location to build the new landing place,” said Anwar.
Besides depending on their local government, they also expect Child Fund to help them make their wish come true since they have already received support from Child Fund in the form of fishing net. This aid, similar to support to other groups in the form of fishing tools, is part of the revolving fund scheme.
According to Anwar and his fishermen fellows, Child Fund and its assistance program is very useful. When tsunami struck in Desember 2004, the fishermen went suddenly bankrupt. Their boats and fishing tools were destroyed. They completely lost everything. “So when Child Fund helped us with fishing tools and boats, we were truly saved. We could go back to earn a living,” said Anwar.
He believes that the fishermen fully understand that fund distribution scheme through revolving fund oblige the fishermen to pay back in installments to Child Fund. There are a lot of fishermen in all over Arongan Lambalek who had to start their living back from zero after the earthquake and tsunami.
“The aid certainly lightens up our lives. This includes non-financial aid from Child Fund to Fishermen. We learn to run an organization and to make our way to prosperity,” Anwar continued.
Therefore the fishermen are hoping that Child Fund to continue their assistance program in this place. “If Child Fund reopen such support program, we want support to build a new landing place for fishermen’s boats,” said Anwar.
Mariana Hasbie
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