#40 living in an Indonesian village – a learning experience

I wanted to share this post because I want to bring to light the poverty that I’ve seen first hand in Indonesia. And I hope it will open the eyes and the heart of everyone who reads it. I also hope it will make you just like it made me grateful for the things we have, not to forget others who are in need. Although I’ve seen things on TV or read on the internet about poverty but what I’ve seen in Indonesia had a profound experience because I saw it in person.

As I mentioned in my last post, I wanted to visit Moufleha – a housekeeper/babysitter who worked at my brother’s house. So, I finally got to Moufleha’s village really in the middle of nowhere. I thought once I arrive in Rembang which is a big city, I can just go to her house. But it turn out, that I had to stop at a city called Lorsem and then took a small bus to another town, and from there hired a motorbike or as it’s called here ojek to take me to the village where Moufleha lives.
Everyone in the village was waiting for me; it was like an alien from out of space coming to earth. Moufleha told me they’ve never seen a foreigner coming to visit the village before. Everyone came to Moufleha’s house to see me and they were staring at me, it was funny and fascinating at the same time.
All the houses in the village are very simple; Moufleha’s family’s house has 2 sections. The front was for the guests when they visit or you can say the living room, the back was where the bedroom and only for the family. The sides had a one meter high wall and the rest is wood. The ceiling had a wood supported roof covered with some type of red pottery roof; I believe it helps cool the temperature inside in the summer. The whole house has one light, one TV and a satellite dish but no fridge, I believe they have the TV and not the fridge because it’s less expensive to buy a TV than a fridge.
People were sitting on the floor and few were sitting on the so called couch – wood and no cushioning. The only 2 windows of the house located in the front did not have any glass and the floor didn’t have any tiles or wood. I arrived very close to the sunset time, when Muslims break their fasting and would start to eat. So I went to wash my hands and my face and I was more shocked when I saw the bathrooms, the pictures shows how they look like. I started eating with them Nasi Goreng, which is rice with fried eggs and some meat or vegetables. I was eating with a spoon like everyone else, but I remembered seeing people in restaurants eating with their hands. So I decided I will eat with my hand because I thought the house guests will be more comfortable that way also.
Other people from the village continue to come and visit and some of them stayed until late at night. Some of them were baffled by the fact how I was able to come to their village and were asking how I made it to their village with all the transportation and one of them asked if I was scary. I think the fact they asked these questions because some of them never left the village. I noticed almost everyone in the village has a cell phone and some of them had a camera with the phone. The women and kids were shy when I tried to take their pictures.

After everyone left, I was ready to go to sleep, and I noticed Moufleha’s brother didn’t sleep in the house, I think because there wasn’t enough space he went to sleep with some neighbors or some relatives. There was a little frog jumping around and the little lizards walking on the wall and no one bothered to get the frog or the little lizards out of the house. I thought for a moment about a snake or a rat might come from under the door but Moufleha assured me not to worry about it. I went to sleep and since I was sleepy and since I like frogs I was able to sleep with no problems.
Next day, I walk up and went out with Moufleha to the farm, almost everyone in the village works in the farm. They start at 6AM, I was up at 7AM and we went to the farm for an hour, then her uncle gave me ride on his motorbike to go take the bus to Surabaya.
Although I’ve seen so much poverty in this village but it amazed me that everyone was smiling and laughing all the time. It just makes you wonder why in the village they seem to be so happy like that while in the city where we have everything we get upset for a little traffic jam.