TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Evacuees' love-hate relationship with emergency staple food: instant noodles
“We had instant noodles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner," said a displaced person in Jayapura.
Change Size
Displaced people in Gunung Merah shelter in Jayapura, Papua, are fed instant noodles on March 20. They fled their inundated homes on March 16. (Courtesy of Tabloid Jubi/Engel Wally)
M
arta Yikwa struggled to find staple food in the wake of the disastrous flash flood that hit Jayapura, Papua, on March 18. On her first day at the evacuation camp in the Bas Youwe Stadium, Marta had no choice but to survive on packs of instant noodles provided by volunteers in the area.
“We had instant noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The makeshift kitchen was not yet set up on the first day at the camp,” Marta said, adding that she still ate noodles as the local administration had reportedly donated an additional 1,000 boxes of instant noodles.
Marta’s instant noodle diet is a common experience shared among survivors of natural disasters in several regions across the archipelago over the years. In the absence of nutritious meals, instant noodles are often regarded as a handy substitute during an emergency, for better or worse.
Read also: Sentani flash flooding death toll rises to 89
Even when the situation gets better, instant noodles are still the top choice for displaced people. Marta said when the makeshift kitchen began to cook proper meals for them on the second day after the disaster, she still ate instant noodles because not everyone received proper meals. Some food had also gone stale and inedible during delivery, forcing them to eat instant noodles again. "Of course, I'm bored with it, but what can we do? Yesterday, Yakuhimo officials sent us another 1,000 cartons of instant noodles. The ones who eat a lot of noodles are the children," she said.
Survivors of the 7.4-magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami that struck Palu, Central Sulawesi, last September were also forced to get by on instant noodles, since the city was isolated from the rest of the region because of severely damaged roads.
