Sitting on the rooftop of the prison building, ‘convict’ Irwandi Yusuf stared at the sea of water all around him. Hours had passed. He thought about his wife and three daughters - not knowing whether they were alive - and began a monologue with God.

Irwandi was one of two prisoners - the other a petty thief - to have climbed to the roof top after the tsunami struck Aceh on the morning of Dec 26, 2004, which claimed 160,000 lives in Indonesia alone.

“I did not escape from the prison, the prison escaped me,” he quipped. Like most Acehnese, despite having suffered - and survived - one of the most devastating natural disasters in modern history, Irwandi retained his sense of humour.

	In his own words
	The day I ‘died’