Daniel - It has been surprisingly hard for me to collect my thoughts in terms of what we are experiencing here in Indonesia.
Currently we live in a village of about 5-10 thousand people who are primarily farmers. The village is simple but very lively
and we are only a 30 minute angkot ride away from a major city. The angkot rides are normal now but the experience is unique at
first. You made friends quickly and learn there is no such thing as personal space. Imagine a mini van and then squeeze it horizontally
and vertically a bit. Remove all seats in the back and replace the walls with benches. Next put bars on the windows and squeeze
15-20 people in. And oh ya remove the side door completely (you got to have some air conditioning right?). For a bonus add a breast
feeding mother every once in awhile and maybe a bag of fruit or veggies the size of a person. Don't forget that this is a smoking
ride and feel free to do so at any age. All of this I hardly notice anymore.
Life in our village is really fascinating and I believe most villages outside of the main cities are basically the same. If you
can find your way to a little money maybe the equivalent to $10,000 US dollars you are ready to snowball cash revenue.
Cash Cow is a literal thing. Cows pay themselves off in about a year an a half. If you can buy a car and turn it into an Angkot
you have yourself another revenue maker and last the farms make money here because people actually eat everything grown. A nice house
runs you about $20k-$50k and a meal is about $1 and $5 gets you an amazing meal.
The last two days I have helped my host father (bapak) at the farm.
It consisted of scaring birds away from the rice patties and smoking cigarettes (I still don't smoke). Followed by someone bringing
us a feast to eat in the middle of it all with a view of the mountains/volcanoes. This area is extremely resourceful and no
rain water goes to waste. There is an elaborate network of small channels that starts in the mountains and feeds all the farms
and then continues to to the major city. Along the way you see people using the water in a lot of ways such as bathing,
cleaning clothes, cleaning cars, cleaning anything, and yes, even using the water as a toilet. It is not odd in the city to see an old man squatting smoking a cigarette.
The worst thing we have seen is how people handle their trash. Trash cans are limited and most don't take the time to find one.
There are many places where people dump into a main river or on the side of the road. Paige even had an experience where, after asking her host mom where to empty her trash bin, was led across the street and shown how to dump it. Paige couldn’t do it, so her mom did it for her. And then Paige explained how next time, she wants to burn her trash. I think the mind set is out of site out
of mind especially with the amount of rain the area gets, the rivers basically push the trash down stream.
We have had two very small earthquakes and the local volcano constantly smokes.
1 comment:
I'm enjoying keeping up with your new life. Thanks for the posts!
I can't seem to get these newest pictures to work though...
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