Amused

I was at the apotik (pharmacy) yesterday buying anti-malarials and was reminded of something I've found very amusing all year - condoms in Indonesia. There are three brands: fiesta, Virgin and Durex. Fiesta and Virgin are amusing enough all on their own - especially because both offer a durian flavor, the most god-awful fruit known to man- but Durex is especially funny because there's an option called "extra safe". I mean, the other kinds are, what, only kind of safe??? Only in a country like Indo would a comdom be branded as "virgin" - they could not be more obsessed with virginity (for example, I've been told that women won't use tampons because they are convinced it'll take their virginity... but this doesn't make total sense because married women won't use them either).

Some of you "adult-types" might find this inappropriate, but I just think it's so classic Indonesian and therefore hilarious.

On a similar note, I'd like to post a blog entry from my friend Tori:

The Things Indonesians Do to Eke Out a Living

• Selling raw tofu and tempeh by driving around neighborhoods on motor or bicycle, mostly in the morning, and yelling stuff
• Selling nasi goreng, chicken sate, and terang bulan from small stalls on wheels, at night
• Driving around a bicycle, squeaking a funny horn and selling balloons to parents to give to their small children
• Selling gasoline by the liter for people on motorbikes (including me)
• Selling market produce from a big basket that women skillfully carry on their head around neighborhoods in the early morning
• Becak drivers (pedi-cab men) delivering people, but very often industrial material like two-by-fours or scrap metal, from one site to another
• Selling various kinds of Indonesian “special” cold drinks; es doger (a weird combination of black sticky rice, bread, milk, sugar, and tapioca), es degan (young coconut and sugar), es buah (fruit cocktail), etc, from stalls (mobile or otherwise) on the street
• Selling newspapers, peanuts, and other things to people at traffic lights
• Copying keys for people, also from kiosks on the side of the road
• Selling rides on what I can only describe as a sort of carousel that doesn’t go “round and round,” only up and down. These men drive around neighborhoods playing ridiculous recorded music; parents pay probably a thousand or two to put their kid on the pony for a few minutes
• Selling computer generated city maps to people waiting at traffic lights
• Working at a night market (produce market open from 8 pm to 3 am or something)
• Selling fruit, of course
• Driving around a bicycle full of brooms and other household necessities
• Selling shoes
• Selling phone minutes (pulsa)
• Selling water, other bottled drinks, and processed snacks from a kiosk (this has to be the most over-staffed, unnecessary vocation in Indonesia)
• Acting as a “parking man.” Rachel and I describe this as Indonesia’s version of social welfare. Those without other employment will sit at particular parking lots and areas, their “turf.” When you, the driver, are ready to leave, you have to give the parking man 500 rupiah. You don’t ask why, you don’t bargain, and you NEVER leave without paying.
• Acting as unofficial garbage collector
• Acting as unofficial recycling man/woman: collecting bottles or paper from people’s homes. I don’t know what they do with it once they have it.
• Making power strips and other electrical devices for people, because you generally can’t trust the quality of those you buy in the store (true story)
• Sharpening knives for people at their homes
• Driving a becak (yes, I am fully aware I’m repeating here)
• Copying things for people. I swear there is a photocopy shop on every block in my neighborhood
• Doing people’s laundry
• Cleaning rich people’s homes
• Being a “driver” for rich people
• Operating “warkop”s, a version of a coffee shoppe that’s usually outdoors or underneath a rickety structure. The coffee is usually of the instant variety.
• Washing motorcycles
• Washing motorcycle helmets (in 20 minutes or less!)
• Working for rich people. Being the person who cleans all the glass in the house, or the person who revvs all the engines (motorcycle and car) daily (thanks to Caitlin for her extensive knowledge of the Things That Rich Indonesians Employ Other People to Do For Them).

People have frequently asked me what people do, career-wise, in Indonesia. Obviously the educated and the rich are an exception, but the list above pretty well illustrates the jobs available to Indonesian people. They do whatever they can figure out to do; I don’t think there’s a science to it. Personally, though, I think they are creative, industrious, and open-minded. They are survivors.

Back to me: I'd also like to add the job of "passenger". In Jakarta there's a sort of carpool lane where there must be 3 people in a car to even drive on the road, so people will stand on the side of the street waiting to get picked up so the driver can pay them X-rupiah to ride in their car for a few blocks. Women with children are the big ticket items...