Earthquake Relief

Ruins. Location: Pundong, Bantul Selatan.

Kenapa banyak sekali rumah tembok yang runtuh ya? Dan kenapa hampir seluruh rumah gedek (dan papan) berdiri tegak? Pertanyaan gue ini jadi bahan pembahasan seru di antara Marlo dan Frenky pagi ini. Ternyata pertanyaan sederhana ini pembahasannya nggak sederhana. Apalagi buat gue yang nggak ngerti masalah teknik membuat bangunan. Selama mereka berdua ngebahas itu, gue manggut-manggut aja mendengar teori-teori mereka. Kalau pun gue ditipu, hehehe, mending gue nggak perlu tahu, deh.

Yang jelas dari pembahasan mereka, gue baru tahu bahwa kebanyakan orang di kampung-kampung di Jogja (mungkin juga di seluruh Jawa, ya?) nggak menyangga susunan bata dengan besi apapun sebagai tulang. Jadi, biasanya rumah tembok itu dibangun dengan cara menyusun bata dengan semen sesuai bentuk yang mereka mau, baru kemudian diberi atap.

Gue jadi inget pelajaran sejarah SD. Gosip-gosipnya kan, candi Borobudur itu dibangun dari batu kali yang dipahat dan disusun-susun dengan pemantap putih telur. Wuih! (Hehehe…gue sih, percaya soal penyusunan batu kali itu pakai sistem penguncian. Yang nggak gue percaya bagian soal putih telurnya. Kasihan bagian kan ayam-ayam itu….).
Bisa jadi pengetahuan lokal ini diwariskan secara turun-temurun. Yang berubah cuma jenis bahan dan cara penumpukannya. Dulunya batu kali, sekarang bata. Dulunya putih telur, sekarang semen.

Cuma, menurut gue, mungkin aja itu bukan karena mereka punya pengetahuan lokal. Siapa tahu alasannya hanya karena harga besi bertulang itu mahal banget. Padahal mereka kan ingin punya rumah tembok yang kelihatan lebih bagus, lebih mapan, lebih mantap, lebih kelihatan permanen, dan lebih menaikkan status sosial. Jadi, hajar bleh.

Demi hal-hal itulah, mereka bisa jadi dengan gampang menyingkirkan prinsip-prinsip teknis membangun rumah. Demi hal-hal itulah, mereka meninggalkan tradisi membangun rumah pakai gedek (dan papan) yang kayaknya sekarang terbukti bisa bertahan dari gempa. Hehehe…semangat banget gue dengan teori gue ini, ya? Semangat orang yang sama sekali nggak punya bukti ilmiah dan nggak ngerti cara bangun rumah.

Mungkin seru juga ya, kalo hal-hal kayak gini dibahas beneran dan dipublikasikan ke mana-mana. Siapa tahu negara kita yang sebenarnya rawan gempa ini harusnya bikin rumah yang ramah gempa dengan cara-cara murah meriah.

Masalahnya sekarang, siapa yang mau rumahnya balik lagi berdinding gedek, sementara di TV bisa ngeliat Ari Wibowo tinggal di rumah tembok berdinding mulus berwarna jambon? Gue mau nggak ya?

Bricks? Or Gedek?

I wonder why there were so many brick and drywalled houses that fell apart? And why is it that almost all homes made of gedek (a kind of woven bamboo material used for walls) were left standing? This question of mine became an interesting discussion topic for Marlo and Frenky this morning. It turns out that this simple question didn’t have a simple explanation. Especially for me, not understanding the technical aspects of construction. As they both dwelled on this topic, I nodded mindlessly as I listened to their theories. Even if I were being lied to, hehehe, I would rather not know.

Evidently from their discussion, I found out that most people in the Yogya villages (and maybe throughout Java?) do not support the brickwork with any kind of framing. Therefore, most brick homes are made just by layering the bricks with cement according to the desired form, and then topped with a roof.

This reminds me of my History class in elementary school. The lore was that the Borobudur temple was built with carved river rocks that were layered and sealed with egg whites. Wuih! (Heheh.. I personally believed the part about the river rocks layered with an interlocking pattern. I didn’t believe the egg white part of the story. Those poor chicken!). It may well have been that this local knowledge was passed down through generations. The only change is in the material and the layering system. Before it was rocks, not it’s bricks. Before it was egg whites, now it’s cement.

But in my opinion, it probably wasn’t because of the local lore. Who knows, maybe the reason behind this type of construction is simply because the cost of steel framing is extremely expensive. Meanwhile people wanted to have brick homes that look better, stronger, more settled, more permanent, and elevated their social status. So, they built it anyway.

For those reasons, they readily neglected the basic technical principles of home construction. And for those reasons, they abandoned the tradition of building homes with gedek (and plywood), which has now evidently proven itself to be earthquake-proof. Heheh… I’m so excited about my theory, aren’t I? Well this enthusiasm comes from someone who doesn’t have a shred of scientific proof, and doesn’t understand a thing about home building.

It might be interesting, if things like these were actually discussed and published. Who knows, perhaps our country, which in reality is prone to earthquakes, should build cheap homes that can withstand quakes.

The problem now is, who would want to go back to having gedek walls, while we can watch Ari Wibowo on TV living within the smooth pink walls of his brick home? Would I want to?

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Mas Dono’s Team (Keris Mas - Caraka) received 2000 box donation of Garuda Instant Rice. Location: Yogyakarta.

Koordinasi dengan Mas Dono di Jogja.

Beliau mengkoordinasikan pendisitribusian ke daerah2 yang belum menerima bantuan dengan cara mengirim tim pendahulu dengan motor. Tim ini mencari ke pelosok2 daerah mana yang belum menerima bantuan dan mendata keperluan di daerah tersebut dan jumlah KK nya. Siangnya tim ekspedisi dengan membawa logistik dan barang2 lain yang dibutuhkan berangkat menuju daerah2 yang telah di survey.

Sistem ini menjamin tidak terjadi overlap dan daerah yang membutuhkan benar2 menerima bantuan. Stok logistik di posko mas Dono cukup banyak mengalir, ketika kami kesana banyak selimut2, makanan seperti mie instant, nasi goreng instant dari indofood, kiriman selimut dari hotel-hotel dari bali. Kekurangan tim ini adalah tenaga medis dan obat2an.

Koordinasi dengan tim medis dari Wates, Kulonprogo Tim medis terdiri dari satu orang dokter, beberapa paramedik dan relawan. Kesulitan tim ini di hari2 pertama setelah gempa adalah stok obat2an. Hari ini kami berhasil mendapat stok obat cukup banyak lewat jalur informasi dari Fakultas Kedokteran UI - Tim Metro Ikhlas (Metro TV). Prosedurnya tidak terlalu rumit, hanya perlu list obat2an dan daerah mana yang akan di sebarkan, plus seorang dokter penanggung jawab. Tapi tim ini kekurangan transportasi dan informasi daerah mana yang harus dituju.

Hari ini kami berhasil “menjodohkan” kedua tim ini, dan besok mulai bekerja bersama2.

Sementara itu Mas Endro dari wates juga menditribusikan barang2, makanan ke Bantul, sambil membawa formulir survey kebutuhan daerah tersebut.

Tim Bemal hari ini baru ber lima, Ibu Ketua rombongan : Sheila, Marlo, Frenky, Gleno, Dianti, besok Yuni akan bergabung.

Sheila (Bengkel Amal) with Medical Team from GKJ Wates. Ibu Ninik is diagnosing a quake victim patient. Location: Pundong, Bantul Selatan.

Coordinate with Mas Dono in Jogja.

He organized the distribution of goods in areas that have not received help by sending a pioneer team on motorcycle. This team went out looking for isolated areas that have not received help, listed the needs in that particular location, along with the respective number of families in that place. In the afternoon, the expedition team went off to these surveyed locations bringing logistics and other needed goods.

This system minimized overlap and guaranteed that the areas that needed help actually received proper treatment. The stock of logistics at Mas Dono’s post was flowing. When we got there, there were numerous blankets, food like, instant noodles, instant fried noodles from Indofood, blankets from hotels in Bali. What this team lacked was medical support and medicine.

We coordinated with a medical team from Wates, Kulonprogo. This medical team consisted of one doctor, several paramedics, and volunteers. The problem this team faced on the first days after the quake was lack of medicine. Today we managed to receive plenty of medicine from the University of Indonesia Med Faculty and Metro Ikhlas Team (Metro TV). The procedure wasn’t too complicated. All we needed to do was to provide a list of medicine, name the area where we will distribute the medicine, plus have a doctor who will take charge. However, this team did not have adequate means of transportation and information about location.

Today we managed to “match” the two teams, and tomorrow we will start working together.

Meanwhile, Mas Endro from Wates also distributed goods and food to Bantul bringing a survey form to list the needs in that area.

Tim Bemal today only consists of 5 people: Sheila, Marlo, Frenky, Gleno, Dianti. Tomorrow Yuni will join us.

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Arrived at Sheila’s home at Jalan BB at 4.30 in the morning. Marlo was already there. He slept in the van. Woke him up, and then he went to wake Sheila up.

Finally left Sheila’s home at 5.25am, we all still felt very sleepy, having only slept for merely 2 hours after packing all the stuff in the van. Clothes, plastic tarpaulin tent, candles, milk, baby food, blankets are piled in the back of the Suzuki All Purpose Van (APV). Marlo was driving.

Picked up Gleno at Gelael Pancoran, and then straight to Cikampek toll road. Me, Gleno and Sheila slept all the way through Cipularang toll road (sorry Marlo…).

In Ciamis we stopped for breakfast at around 10.30am. We decided to eat at a restaurant called Nikmat (delicious) because it was right next to the BCA office. It was a decision we will regret for the rest of our life, hehehe…

Nikmat Restaurant. Food from hell. The vintage look of fried tofu, fried colon, dry steamed rice… and we’re miserable. Location: Ciamis, West Java.

Changed driver from Marlo to me after the very un-satisfactory breakfast. After 3+ hours driving, arrived at Kebumen. Stopped for lunch. This time the food is ok.

Changed driver to Gleno. He drove like Schumy on adrenaline rush (much like Marlo…). We finally arrived at Wates at 6.00pm. We went straight to GKJ Wates church, the coordination post for emergency relief effort for Jogja quake. At 6.30 in the evening, we finally arrived there.

With the help of GKJ Wates team, we unload donation stuff from the van. Location: Wates, Kulon Progo.

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Halo semua, ini posting pertama blog ini (kayaknya…). Kita sekarang di warnet yang merangkap jadi posko Yayasan Air Putih di Jogja. Sheila lagi nge-update website bemal di ruang sebelah, gue lagi bikin proposal.

Tim Bengkel Amal: Frenky, Dianti, Yuni, Sheila (ketutupan Marlo), Marlo dan Gleno (yang ngefoto), menggunakan fasilitas ruang rapat dan internet gratis yg disediakan oleh Yayasan Air Putih melalui jasa ISP Citraweb.

Lokasi: Citraweb, Jl. Ampel No. 10, Papringan, Yogyakarta.

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