Lots of firsts for me today. My first field day. My first motorbike tour on the back of a bike driven by a local Indonesian who didn’t speak much English, weaving through the narrow, crazy passageways in North Jakarta as we looked at the progress of Mercy Corps flood risk reduction program. My first visit to a tofu/tempeh making establishment. My first up close and personal experience with a polluted river being used for bathing, wasting, and making food.
It’s funny how I have always considered the field to be research sites studying non-human objects like eelgrass or coral. It makes sense for the social sciences that the field would be communities as I have been learning in the classroom since August but it felt wrong for a few minutes today to be using that terminology when discussing these very poor areas. Makes them seem like objects instead of subjects to me.
The areas we were in today were definitely the poorest areas I’ve ever been to but I didn’t feel sad or emotional like I’ve always thought I would. I think that’s because they were so happy and well adapted to conditions most Americans would never stay in for one night, let alone a life time.
Yuni, the MC person in charge of the one year flood risk reduction program, explaind to me that this wasn’t considered the slums or poor, just flood-prone. What is poor than to Jakarta’s standards???
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Dear Kasey,
ReplyDeletehi girl, i just realize that you have blog and you put my name on it. how are you? i am working with WHO in Jakarta now. but, still looking for the next adventure to other place than Jakarta. Poor based on Jakarta's standard (refers to Statistic Board Agency-14 indicators):
1. floor width less than 8 m2/person
2. floor made from bamboo/wood/cheap teak
3. wall made from bamboo/cheap teak
4. No toilet
5. No electricity
6. Water resource from well/unprotected resource/rain/river
7. cooking fule from wood/coal/gasoline
8. meat/milk/chicken consumption once a week
9. able to buy a pair of cloth once a year
10. once/twice meals per day
11.unable to pay for medical services in health centre or clinic
12. household income less than 55 $ or 15$ per person
13. highest education is elementary school
14. don not own vehicle/saving/gold/etc
if a Household or person fulfilled 9 out of 14 of the indicators above, then he/she/they are considered as poor.