MANDALAY: It was the final Friday prayers for Ramadan, just two days (Mar 28) before the Eid al-Fitr festival marking the end of the Islamic holy month.
A 13-year-old Mandalay resident, who goes by the name Sein, was at a mosque near his home, listening as his Imam preached.
Suddenly, the ground quivered and the mosque shuddered.
“Everybody scattered and ran. When I reached my father, he told me, ‘Don’t run outside, sit still. If we’re going to die, let’s die while praying’,” he recalled.
“So, we continued praying. I suddenly felt as if I was violently pulled by someone… and our mosque seemed to shake back and forth.”
When the tremors stopped, Sein stepped out onto the streets and immediately saw that several nearby shops had collapsed.
The devastating scene triggered a flood of dread and déjà vu for the teenager.
PAINFUL MEMORIES
Less than two years ago, Sein lost his mother and younger brother when Cyclone Mocha brought lashing rain and winds to Rakhine, along Myanmar’s western coast.
The deadly cyclonic storm killed at least 145 people in the country and displaced hundreds of thousands when it made landfall in May 2023.
“I saw the sea levels rise and water flooded everything, including the building where we held out. I had to swim to escape,” he recounted.
His mother was five months pregnant at the time.
“I cried a lot. My mum is truly gone. Mum did everything for our home since I was young,” he said, the pain evident in his voice.
“I prayed to Allah, please send my mum to heaven. If we lose our lives in this earthquake, please send us all to heaven as well, so we can meet her again.”
NEW LIFE SHAKEN BY QUAKE
When the ground finally stopped shaking from the 7.7-magnitude earthquake, Sein rushed back to the apartment he shared with his new family.
By now, his father has remarried and Sein has a younger stepsister. They left Rakhine a year after Cyclone Mocha to start a new life in Mandalay.
As he sprinted past buildings that crumbled in the quake, the knot in his stomach grew tighter.
Thankfully, he found his family safe and sound, albeit shaken by the powerful tremors.
“I suffered the storm. I suffered the earthquake. I don’t want (natural disasters) anymore,” he said.
Source: CNA
