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wo Indonesian girls are speaking in the Malay dialect although they are obviously residents of a village in remote West Kalimantan, located near the border with Malaysia.

The intriguing reality is that they are fluent in the foreign dialect on their own home soil. Hati-hatilah di jalan, jangan sampai dilanggar lori (Be careful on the road, don’t get hit by a truck) says part of a story on a web-site blog. The word “lori” is not familiar in the Indonesian language.

Yunus, the blog’s writer, who could almost not stop laughing said, “How could there be a lorry on a path? Lori, in Malay, means truck.”

Yunus participated in a two-day, debut Border Blogger Movement (BBM) training on Jan. 28 and 29 in Sanggau Ledo city, Bengkayang regency, West Kalimantan.

Yunus, who recently started learning how to write for and create a blog, posted the story on his personal page http://anaksungkung.blogspot.com. The youngster hails from Sungkung, a village in the remote Bengkayang.

Residents living along the border between West Kalimantan and Malaysia, and who are invited to join a longer five-month program, are provided with training materials on village journalism, photography, simple video-making and utilizing social media, such as web blogs. They have posted several noteworthy human-interest stories.

Some tell of the ups and downs of inland residents selling vegetables in Malaysia by walking along slippery paths alongside sheer cliffs, while others talk about the Malaysian ringgit, which is better known than the rupiah.

“Outsiders often don’t know about our life in the border area. We’d rather be provided with knowledge about journalism and blog making, so we can tell others about the daily lives we lead,” said A. Ika Lestari, a temporary teacher in a remote village in Sanggau Ledo district.

“I often see my students having to swim across the river during floods. Imagine how they struggle to obtain an education; not to mention other hardships, like healthcare,” said Ika.

Another participant, Udin, compared poverty in Java to areas along the West Kalimantan–Malaysia border. He said only a complete understanding about poverty could produce appropriate policies and a solution.

“Poverty in Java means people without homes, agricultural land or a steady job. Here, the poorest people still own homes and farms, but they need capacity building,” said Udin, who is a temporary teacher in Paket hamlet, Tujuh Belas district.

“We want people to know our stories directly from us. Living in the countryside requires additional skills so that we can speak up and be heard by people over there,” said Okta Lapo, who only graduated from senior high school.

During the two-day training, participants were asked to write down their experiences, and were then trained on how to publicize their writings on the web blog. They were full of enthusiasm because the skills were new to them. The organizer provided support by lending modems and free Internet connections during the five-month program.

Later, they will be required to independently and actively update their blogs with simple stories. Within five months, Internet users will be able to read the interesting stories and look at the photos posted by the rural residents.

The BBM program is especially entitled to residents living in border areas between Indonesia and Malaysia in West Kalimantan. The program has reached five regencies: Bengkayang, Sanggau, Kapuas Hulu, Sintang and Sambas.