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Saturday, September 24, 2011

Indonesia ~mia

At school my favourite teacher is my social studies teacher. He’s really cool because he pretty much just teaches us about whatever he feels like has a remote connection with what we are learning about. Right now we are learning about refugees and he showed us pictures from his trip to Indonesia. He said that a bunch of people there are refugees from Afghanistan or something. Anyway, he showed us pictures from his last trip to the big city in Indonesia (I forget what it’s called but whatever).
Most of the pictures were from when he rode the train all through the city. He told us about all the ways they make money in the slums. Lots of people sell food on the train, so if you are taking the train you don’t have to make a separate trip to get your groceries because they come to you. The way they get the food to sell it is they go buy food from the market and sell them for a few cents more that they bought it for. That way they hopefully earn enough money to buy food and more fruit for the next day. Another way they earn money is by renting instruments and putting together at band with their friends. They sit in the aisle of the train and play while someone goes around with a hat asking for money. My teacher said that the musicians in the band he saw were really good. He also saw a woman who walked up and down the aisle sweeping with her little son following behind her with a little tin asking for money. He said that there are little kids running around everywhere because their parents couldn’t afford them. They wander around getting whatever food they can and begging. My teacher said that he didn’t give them any money because they will just go buy paint thinner to sniff so they aren’t hungry for the next few days. He says that when they are young is the best time of their lives because they have complete freedom, and he says that all the kids are really happy.
The houses in the slums fill up every available space and are made of any scraps they can find or steal from building sites. There are a bunch of pictures he took out the side of the train of houses that come right up to about 10 feet from the train tracks. He said that his friends that live there have people building little houses in his back yard daily. The houses take up every available space.
Not the entire city is poor. Just a few yards down the road there are expensive cars, big houses, tall buildings, and designer clothes. It’s really sad that they can’t spread the wealth around. When he finished showing the pictures he had us write a few questions he could ask the people there the next time he went.

2 comments:

  1. Mia--the city probably is Djakarta, the capital. I think you'll see a very different face of Indonesia in Bali, where the society is more traditional, but there isn't at all the extreme inequity in distribution of money and jobs and education. And you're right--it is too bad we can find a better way to spread resources around.

    Hong Kong was a bit like your teacher describes when I lived there because it had just had a huge infusion of chinese from Mainland China where there was a big famine that killed millions of people. The refugees came and built where ever they could find space, carrying water in tin cans to their houses from whatever faucet they could find and dumping sewage in the streets and in the bay. Often the shacks had three families--each one using it for 8 hours to sleep. When not in the house, the family would hit the streets and try to work a little. The children were turned loose--the older ones [4 or 5] looking out for the younger ones [2 or so]. But I wouldn't exactly say the children were so happy--hard to be happy when you're hungry, lice-infested and/or sick. And along side of all of this, there were regular middle-class apartments and then the big houses and gardens of the rich--both Europeans and Chinese. Hong Kong has changed a lot since then. You will probably see a world very much like this in India.

    So, I'm curious. What were the questions you suggested that he should ask when he went next?
    love, bippy

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  2. Hey MIa,
    I never knew about Afghan refugees fleeing to Indonesia. That's interesting! Did you tell your class about your mom's family being refugees from Cambodia to the U.S.? It might have made for some pretty interesting conversation. Glad to hear your thoughts about spreading the wealth, you are already wise beyond your 14 years! xx Mingdeap

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