My drive into Jakarta with my Camera and my Driver

When Candace was here in August, she and I headed out to what is considered a slum area of North Jakarta. This is the same place mom and dad visited and that I have mentioned a few times in the blog. While we were there last time the ladies showed me a quilt that they had made, with the intention of selling it at a later pasar. It was the first quilt that they had ever made and I was very impressed with it. I asked if they would like to learn a new technique on how to finish a quilt edge, and they were very interested. In the time between now and then I made a 10x10 inch sampler square quilt, and I brought this in on Friday. With the extra material and stuffing, the ladies copied my sample and made their own samples. This is a time when I wish I had access to a proper quilting cutting board and an Olfa rotary cutter for each of these women! These ladies are incredible, and they soak up anything you teach them so quickly; I wouldn't be surprised to find that they take what I showed them and improved on it by the next time that I visit.

On the way in to North Jakarta you have to drive over a really skanky river and on that river there are various types of homes. In the foreground is a recycling community, where people live amongst the garbage that they collect, sort and hopefully later, sell. If you look the background, there are some really nice looking, cookie-cutter cement homes, and further behind that are the fancier malls. I've been casually observing the growth of the recycle spot along the river over the last year, and I've noticed that it has grown quite a bit.

In order to see the ladies from the slums my driver has to take a road that is sandwiched by another filthy river and some mass-inhabited home fronts. There's not a whole lot of room for our vehicle, small as it is, and we have to share the road with motorcycles, pedestrians, very small, half-naked children, and sometimes another oncoming car. When I go into the home area, Haris our driver sits by the river and smokes, watching our car. We've been told not to leave it unattended. I feel a little guilty, kind of like I slink in, do my thing, and then climb into my new car with a driver and cold a/c, and drive off to my safe home where mosquitoes are relatively controlled, there are satpams protecting me and my family, and I have a refrigerator full of food. I guess I could allow my guilt to overcome me and avoid such situations, or keep looking for opportunities to experience the lives of others, regardless of their situation, while I learn from them. I've got so much to learn.

This is a rather long blog but there were so many photo opportunities and I want to share some of them with you. As Haris and I headed home, my hands cleansed by my ever-handy hand sanitizer, my belly full of bottled water, imported pretzels and a peanut butter sandwich, we came upon a street light where many street beggars take advantage of cars having to stop and sit for a few minutes. Again, it's hard not to react to a situation where you have an onslaught of people banging on your window, either wanting to sell you a bobble head, a blow-up life child-sized life jacket (hmm? Who chooses the items to sell? Is it marketing or the result of a box that happened to 'fall of the truck' when merchandise was being unloaded in a warehouse somewhere?), or just to wanting you to hand them some coins. Just before we started moving, this little guy came around. When you watch him over time, you can see he has the knack; he's got the look figured out. My response was to leave the windows rolled up, but it inspires me to continue to seek out ways to help within my own community.

The latest email from Karawaci Ladies (I have been using their old name in my postings) informs me that we're collecting money to supply items to 'cardboard kid' schools. These schools have been set up by local individuals (nationals, I think) to provide an education for the kids who, like this little guy in the photo, work the streets during the day. They cannot afford an education. There are local national teachers who volunteer their time and energy (beyond their regular work) each week to come and teach these children, and they have asked that Karawaci Ladies supply them with a plastic bin full of learning supplies (paper, pencils, books, etc). I can't help this little guy (there's probably a big guy who takes most of his money from him and his mom anyways) from my vehicle but thankfully, Karawaci Ladies is a great way to help him, practically, from my home.

One more thing the ladies' charity group is doing is raising money for goodies to be distributed to these children at Christmas time. Each student will receive a plastic cup with a toothbrush, toothpaste, face cloth, a bottle of water, a comb and some other sundries.

Thanks for reading.