Sumatra represents a vast natural resource in the archipelago. Some parts are still extensive, a good place for wild animals.
Traveling in the transmigration area where most locals come from Bugis, Banjar and Java, people will see the contrasts that exist in the soon-to-be prosperous land in the jewel of Indonesia.
Along the journey through the regency, you will see oil palm plantations that dominate the land in this southern part of Sumatra.
Two hour‘s drive from the capital, you enter the district of Mandahara at Tanjung Jabung Timur regency, Jambi province.
Stop a while in the morning around 9 a.m.; you will see women with traditional batik sarongs washing their family‘s clothes in the small river that flows at the edge of the rubber plantation.
Speak in Malay and you may hear odd accents when they speak to you. These are housewives whose husbands are rubber tappers or workers on oil palm plantations.
Do not ask how much they earn per day -- it would not be sufficient to support a family, even for a day!
Squatting while listening to their conversation -- mostly complaints addressed to no one in particular -- we started to have a friendly chat as if we‘d known each other for a long time.
They badly need to be educated by the government so they can earn money to supplement their family income.
They complain that the local women‘s organization simply asked them to make something without giving them an example of how to do it. It seems that women‘s empowerment programs have not run well in the area.
It was nearly 11 a.m. and they had almost finished their washing. We were promised we would meet some children under 15, who would gather at the house of the plantation owner.
We have a small project to share poems and collect the good ones to be sent to the children‘s pages of a daily newspaper.
At a white house many children have gathered and are working.
A group of 10 children work informally, tapping areca nuts then collecting them into a plastic bowl, earning Rp 500 per bowl.
They are students from the elementary school in the district where electricity and water supplies still do not exist.
In a day, if they are lucky each child can earn Rp 5,000. They seem to be happy doing that job and with that money they can buy anything they need themselves.
Watching them tapping the nuts as seriously as real workers, they do not forget to smile and joke when the bottom of the digicam (digital camera) focuses on them.
Sometimes it is too noisy to hear yourself think -- but they are still small children. Compare them with city kids, who are used to luxuries, and you will have a different perspective: Children at Mandahara district are more mature than their city counterparts.
About 10 children, boys and girls, show up at the plantation owner‘s place. As promised, they bring with them their papers and show their poems, full of joy.
Some of them re-write each other‘s work as if they wrote their own poem, some have written a funny poem; some even tell a love story. Many poems are written like a Malay quatrain.
It was a really pleasant afternoon.
To avoid disappointment, all the papers were collected. We talked more about the activities of the children. It was a pity that most had good talent but lacked opportunities.
Children at Mandahara district have their own motivation to achieve a higher level of education. Their wish is to make their parents happy. They want to assist their parents to escape permanent poverty.
Most of the young girls say they want to study at the nursing academy and work in the hospital.
They hope to meet their future husbands there, who work as doctors.
A local ice ream vendor passed in front of the house. We jumped to get glasses of mixed coconut milk made with cold salty ice, with sweet red syrup poured over.
Everyone loves the tropical refreshment and forgets about tapping nuts for a while. Some of them are reminded to work again the next day after school to fulfill the order from their neighbors.
Life is colorful and children at Mandahara pass their time at school, happily tapping nuts.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com (3 September 2007)
