JOHN STANMEYER—VII FOR TIME

Mohammed, 36, cleans up inside his brothers nearly completed home located on the ruined foundation in Lam No, Aceh

Resurrection
	New jobs still need to be found, homes still need to be rebuilt. But those parts of Asia most hurt by the tsunami are stirring again. A Time special report on what has been achieved so far, and the work yet to be completed
	By Simon Elegant

Posted Monday, March 28, 2005; 20:00 HKT
Khoedyman Xi picks up a mud-smeared red plastic cover for a motorcycle rear light, polishes it with a rag, and carefully places it on a shelf in a glass display case. The case already holds a row of similar covers, as well as three sets of windshield wipers, half a dozen bottles of brake fluid and four plastic steering-wheel covers. That's pretty much all that's left of Xi's business, Areka Motor, an auto-parts and air-conditioning repair shop located in the heart of what was once the main commercial district of Banda Aceh, Indonesia. It's taken Xi and his son Tony weeks to clean out the mud and debris that choked the inside of the narrow shop, and despite their efforts, the stench of decay still hangs in the air. The 65-year-old mechanic says he left to stay with relatives in the city of Medan, 480 km to the southeast, after the tsunami swept away his wife and other family members. But now he's back and open for business. Customers drift in and out of Xi's store, picking at the few items he has for sale or asking if he can repair their motorbikes or cars. "Things are still not very good," Xi says. "I still owe money to the big boys in Medan on all the stock that was lost in the tsunami. But we are not beggars. We can take care of ourselves."

It has been three months since an underwater convulsion off the coast of Sumatra spawned a series of huge waves that washed up on the shores of the Indian Ocean. On official counts, nearly 300,000 people died in the tragedy or are still missing. For the survivors, the pain will never disappear. Now, however, after what surely must be the greatest outpouring of compassion the world has ever seen, a semblance of normality is setting in. Schools, food stalls—and yes, auto-parts shops—are reopening; mosques, temples and churches are welcoming the faithful to prayer; and children are again playing in streets that not long ago were grimly silent.

Like Xi, many survivors say they are beginning to think of the future. But the task of rebuilding and recovery is, if anything, even more formidable than the emergency-relief efforts that have been done so far. "We do relief all the time and we're good at it," says a top U.N. official who is touring the region to assess its post-tsunami needs. "So far it's been relatively easy. This is only a few million people after all. In Bangladesh one year we had to house and feed nearly 20 million. But reconstruction is a completely different ball game. That's when problems with corruption and bureaucracy kick in. Now the hard work begins."

The challenges are daunting: reclaiming a devastated environment so that people can once again feed themselves; rebuilding entire communities from scratch; relaunching thousands of small businesses like Xi's; helping those traumatized; and simply ensuring that survivors have access to the kind of services most of us take for granted—clean water, electricity, garbage collection, phone lines, sewerage systems.

Continued...

	Rising from the Rubble [Jan. 24, 2005] Devastated by war and natural disaster, can Indonesia's Aceh province find peace? Treat Them Like Kings [Jan. 24, 2005] Our culture says we cannot tell aid workers to leave Language Lessons [Jan. 17, 2005] In the wake of Asia's disaster, the world learns to choose its words carefully Race Against Time [Jan. 17, 2005] An inside look at the rush to beat disease, hunger and the destruction of the tsunami Naming the Dead [Jan. 17, 2005] Relatives and scientists turn to the grim task of identifying victims Global Agenda: Comforting Strangers [Jan. 17, 2005] Lessons to be learned from the world's generosity More Related Items | Search all issues of TIME Magazine