Whether or not there will be another earthquake today, dinner isn’t going to cook itself, and the washing still needs to get done.
Daily chores and obligations still persist as life goes in Lombok in the wake of several deadly earthquakes this month that have left at least 555 dead and nearly half a million homeless, forced to evacuate.
Lombok’s upper half: Residents of the island’s West, North, and now East regencies have resorted to living in villages of tents, after vacating their homes that are either totally flattened, cracked, or still precariously standing. They dare not sleep under any roof for fear that another earthquake could bury them in rubble.
Traveling from evacuation camp to evacuation camp, it’s evident how resourceful Lombok villagers have become out of necessity. There’s more than a touch of ingenuity in the way odds-and-ends — tarps, but also plastic advertisement banners, palm fronds, rice sacks, blankets — are used to build shelters. Not all materials are water-resistant.
It’s also apparent just how strong the sense of community is — the dusun, or traditional village, being the strongest unit. Resources from the district-level government are allocated by dusun, and it’s often the kepala dusun, or head of the village, who is left to sort out allocations by family. Every village seems to have at least one big tent meant to serve as a common space, or community hall.
Even though whole villages have migrated into tents, villagers still pass their broken homes, businesses, and places of worship every day, a perpetual reminder of how much they have lost and how much remains to be rebuilt.
As of Saturday, the island is no longer in a state of emergency, which was previously declared by West Nusa Tenggara Province, but things are now transitioning into the “recovery” phase.
Before the buildings can be reconstructed, they must be cleared if there is any doubt of their structural integrity. Earthquake-resistant designs will need to be prioritized in rebuilding, President Jokowi said during a visit to the island on Aug. 13.
But even before rebuilding can begin, the earthquakes will need to stop, and no one definitively knows when that will be. And so, day to day life goes on.
All photos were taken by Julianne Greco during a visit to Lombok this month, shot at various communities serving as evacuation posts in West Lombok.
