Street vendors count blessings in city

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Wed, 02/18/2009 2:06 PM  |  City

Bambang Haryadi, 16, tried to seize the day. He went out to sell Barbie-look-alike dolls on a street near Jatinegara market in East Jakarta. He came home after trying all day, bringing Rp 30,000 (US$2.50) home from selling two dolls.

Bambang and his housemates, mostly street vendors like him, have a different concept of the phrase "Carpe Diem", or seize the day.

Street vendors like Bambang live one day at time, counting their blessings and their plight every single day.

Home, sweet home: Macarini poses in the four-square-meter room that she shares with her two sons and her husband. Her room has a window overlooking Ciliwung River. (JP/Henri Ismail)

They don't buy groceries in bulk for the month. Rather, they buy meals everyday at food stalls and many pay Rp 1,500 a night for a place to sleep in their lodge on the Ciliwung riverbank in Bukit Duri, South Jakarta.

Ask them about any financial plans for a better future, they are likely to give you a blank look. They cannot count their income on a monthly basis because life is uneventful for them.

"On good days, I can bring up to Rp 100,000. Worse days, maybe, Rp 30,000. People here sometimes come home with nothing," said Macarini, 37, Bambang's mother and a vendor who sells kitchen utensils.

"Once Bambang came home after selling more dolls than usual. He said he went to Cakung Cilincing with his fellow vendors. It's quite far, not much competition there," she said.

"How much do we earn in a month?" Macarini asked back, tried to count and did not give an answer.

Financial crisis has no bearing on people like Macarini, Bambang and dozens of their housemates.

Life was hard before the crisis.

"We bring in enough for meals and transportation. That's good. Savings? No, the money is only ever enough for us to live," Macarini, who hailed from Cirebon, West Java, said.

Andi, 25, also from Cirebon, sells imported garlic. He has been in Jakarta for 15 years, since he was only a kid. He has not changed profession. He has always worked in the informal sector as a street vendor. All that have changed are the goods that he sells.

"I've sold kitchen utensils and other things. Now garlic is good. Sometimes we earn Rp 100,000 a day. That's good," he said.

Andi said that although life was tough in the capital, there was not much work he could do back in his hometown.

"If you have vast land, you can harvest enough yields. But there's not much work outside the harvest season."

He said many Cireboners in Jakarta came home for harvest season only to return to Jakarta after it was over.

Financial planners have always said people should save some of their income right after they earn it and before you spend a single cent. But for people like Andi, they have a different method to bring some money back home during Idul Fitri holidays.

"August and fasting month are always crowded here. Those times are the chance for us to earn extra money," Andi said.

In August they make and sell little red-and-white flags and wooden sandals for the Independence Day celebrations. During fasting month, they rely on the increase from spenders ahead of Idul Fitri; for many people, the month is shopping time.

"The fasting month brings more fortune. Then we take the extra income home for Idul Fitri," Andi said.

He said he and his friends did not have the means to save money. Banking is not an option for the small amount of money they have, while local cooperatives operate more like loan sharks rather than saving-lending cooperatives.

"The cooperatives here lend money. Borrowers pay by the day. If you borrow Rp 100,000, for example, you pay Rp 10,000 each day for 12 days. The collector will find you every day," Andi said.

Dream and goals are almost foreign to them.

"My dream? I don't know," she sighed and gave an awkward smile.

"What do I want to do if I'm old and cannot work anymore? I just want to go back to my hometown. Life is peaceful there. You don't have to think of what to eat and how to earn money there," she said.

"But for now, I have to earn whatever I can here."

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