Rizal Sahputra drifted on a makeshift raft, escaping two shark attacks, in an

incredible feat of survival that became known as the 'tsunami miracle'

By Jonathan Pearlman, Sydney

When the tsunami struck, Rizal, then 20, was in Calang, an Indonesian seaside
village in the province of Aceh, where he was spending time at his family home
while awaiting his exam results for the civil service.

In the morning, he left the house with his father and 17-year-old sister to do some
construction work on a mosque when he heard "a bolt of noise like a helicopter" and
saw the ocean descend on the village. Some 170,000 people were to die in Aceh in
what followed.

"When I saw the wave, I shook my dad's hand and said 'I think I have to say goodbye
to you'," Rizal said.

"I shook my sister's hand. I cannot remember if I hugged or kissed her. My dad told
me to run and when I turned my back the wave had swept away my house. I couldn't
see my house or my family. It was all gone. I did not cry. I just kept running."

At first, Rizal, a former state athlete, was able to keep ahead of the wave and he
climbed to the top of a mango tree which was above the waterline. Then he looked
back to see a second, bigger wave approaching.

"That wave took away everything including the trees and myself," he says. "I did
not feel scared. I did not think anything."

It was at this point, Rizal says, that he recalled the survival lessons from his
grandfather, with whom he lived on a farm in the jungle as a young boy. He put
together his makeshift raft and it became his home for nine days as he floated on
the open seas.

At first, he sat and watched as hundreds of people drifted by, some alive, most
dead. During the next few days, he said he saw thousands of bodies and looked
closely at them all, wondering if he would see his family.

"There were many naked women and they were still alive, holding on to coconut
trees," he said. "I asked one by one for their names but they were all coming from
a different village.

"I was surrounded by bodies. I was trying to find if any of them were my family. I
saw my sister's friends and my close friend's brother and my cousin Debe, who was
24. I just prayed for her... I thought it was the end of the world."

On the first day, he found several coconuts which he cut open with a knife he had
retrieved from the body of a floating soldier. Throughout the voyage, he survived
on eight coconuts and some food plucked from the water, which included a packet of
chocolate, five packets of instant noodles, a can of Coke, two cans of Sprite, and
an energy drink.

For a brief time, Rizal had company on his raft after he came across a man who was
alive. Saply, a policeman from the city of Meulaboh, was sick and dehydrated. Rizal
fed him some noodles and they spent the first night together on the raft.

But on the afternoon of the second day, far out at sea, Saply became convinced that
he could see dry land. He tried repeatedly to swim to a friend who he imagined he
could see waiting for him as Rizal tried – and failed – to stop him.

"I tried to give him hope so that he would not swim away," Rizal said. "First time,
I stopped him. Second time, he begged me. I could not do anything. But he swam away
on the third time about 10 metres [33 feet] and was gone. Later I went back to his
hometown and saw his mum and told him that he passed away."

From that moment on the second afternoon, Rizal was alone, though he continued to
see dead bodies in the water until the fourth day. He continued to drift, wearing
the same yellow T-shirt and green pants which he had been wearing when he left his
home to work at the mosque.

"After the fourth day, I did not see any bodies any more," he said. "I was alone.
Totally alone… I spoke to the birds. I spoke to myself. I saw a duck and spoke to
the duck. I just said, 'If you see anyone, tell them I am around and come and
rescue me'."

One afternoon – he thinks it was the second day – he saw "a shark the size of a car
eating the dead body of a baby".

"I wasn't scared," he said. "I thought, 'If I am safe from the tsunami, I am safe
from everything'."

On several occasions, Rizal said, "I almost gave up". The worst moments were when
he came close to being saved. On the first evening, he saw a fisherman from his
village in a boat and yelled out hysterically, only to see it pass by. Years later,
he confronted the fisherman, who had not heard his shouting and assumed everybody
in the water was dead.

On the third day, two boats – a fishing vessel and a ferry to the island of Weh –
passed "just in front of me" but neither saw him. He briefly swam away from his
raft to die, but thought better of it. On the morning of the ninth day, he saw
another ship and left the raft to swim to it, but again he was was not seen.

"I swam back again to my raft and sat down there," he said. "I almost cried."

Later that evening, another cargo ship began to approach, a Japanese vessel on its
way from South Africa to Malaysia. It came closer and closer and, as Rizal stood
and waved and yelled, a Japanese crewman spotted the colourfully dressed castaway
on the raft of sticks and twine.

Huang Wen Feng, the ship's officer, later described the sight of Rizal as "a
miracle". "He was shouting at us," he said. "I couldn't believe it."

Rizal was sunburnt and dehydrated but well enough to swim towards the boat.

"They tied a rope to me," he said. "I was suddenly very strong and swam away. Right
after they put me on the ship, I fell down. I was so happy. I was so weak."

Three days later, Rizal was set down in Malaysia. He recovered in hospital, where
he discovered that his older brother Ronal, an Indonesian soldier, had been in the
city of Medan during the tsunami and had survived.

After recovering in hospital, Rizal returned to Aceh and flew on a military

helicopter to his village. During the flight, he said, he cried for the first time.

"Everything was gone," he said.

"I went to my house. No more. It was all gone… I spent two nights there. I just
kept on crying. I did not say anything."

Rizal decided to leave his home province and went to study in Kuala Lumpur. He has
returned to Aceh several times but he immediately has the same recurring nightmare,
in which he runs away from the tsunami and the world is empty, aside from his
brother.

"It is always the same dream," he said.

After completing his degree in English and communications at UCSI University, Rizal
went to Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, to work. On a bus, he ran into an old
friend of his sister's named Adelia. She had lived in his village while her father,
a policeman, was stationed there but had moved to another town before the tsunami
hit.

"She knew my family, my home town," he said. "I felt comfortable with her. I
thought this was maybe my destination."

Two years ago, the pair were married and now live in Malaysia. Rizal works in
marketing and student recruitment for the university. He said he has never been
scared of water or oceans but is terrified of earthquakes.

"Even though I got married and am happy in my life, the tsunami just comes to me
and I get sad," he said. "I suddenly remember my mum, my dad. I am ok in my life
and have a stable income, but I cannot forget… In December, every day I remember
the tsunami. It is the time when I lost my family."

Rizal said he is thankful that he survived but has not been able to understand why
he made it and his parents and sister and so many others did not. A devout Muslim,
he sometimes wonders whether it was because, on the first day, he made a pact with
God that he would pray on behalf of his family if he survived. But, he admits, "I
don't know why".

"I keep asking that question," he said. "I still wonder why God wanted me around
out of the thousands of people from who died. I don't know why. I have no answer."