A day in the life of a secondhand toilet trader

Udjang Kosasih, 40, knows a thing or two about toilets -- they are his livelihood, secondhand ones. He sells them from a tiny shop on Jl. Sultan Agung in South Jakarta. Born in Bogor, West Java, Udjang lives with his wife, Nunung, and three children in Bekasi, Jakarta. He shared his world with The Jakarta Post's contributor William Furney.

JAKARTA (JP): We spend our lives getting up at 5 a.m. to say the morning (Islamic) prayer. We are the early birds of the world. I never go back to bed afterward. I mope about the house, doing this and that. There's a lot going on, as Nunung is getting the kids ready for school. They make a lot of noise, so even if I feel sleepy I quickly snap to.

It takes me about an hour and a half to get to the shop on my motorbike. Bekasi is a long way from Jl. Sultan Agung and there are always traffic jams. It would take much longer if I were driving a car though. Motorbikes are best in heavy traffic, but they aren't that good for your health. All the smoke and fumes can make you feel sick and give you a bad cough. Sometimes I wear a cloth handkerchief over my mouth.

I open the shop at 10 a.m. It's really a shophouse, which my older brother and his family live in. But they don't have anything to do with the business, which is called Mohammad Ali, after the boxer. My father started it back in 1955 and it has been operating ever since. We originally sold beds and moved over to toilets in the late 1970s. It's a kind of mini toilet market here because I'm surrounded by other shops that also sell toilets.

All the ones I sell are second hand. Offices, hotels and other places know about my shop and they bring their old toilets here to sell, usually when they're renovating. I'll pay about Rp 250,000 for one that is in good condition. After it has been cleaned up a bit, I'll sell it for about Rp 400,000. I also sell squat toilets. They're much cheaper. I usually buy them for Rp 20,000 and charge twice that.

My customers are just ordinary Indonesians who want a cheap toilet for their houses. Most of them prefer the Western toilets. People who haven't got much money tend to buy squat toilets. But the preference is definitely for the Western ones, as they flush and so on; it's about what you can afford to buy. So if someone has the cash, they'll buy what they think is better. I also sell sinks, bathroom fittings and spare parts. But toilets are my main trade.

There are lots of food stalls around the area and I'll have lunch at one of them around 12 p.m. -- usually some tempeh, vegetables and rice. And I'll have something else before I go home. I spend about Rp 7,000 a day on food.

Business is slow these days. I could sell four toilets in one day and I could sell none. It depends. Things were much better before the financial crisis, at the end of 1997. But now it's much tougher. People don't have the money anymore.

I shut up shop at 5:30 p.m. and make the long trip home. I'm always shattered when I arrive. There's not much to do in the evenings. We usually just sit around and chat about things. These days it's about what's happening at the House of Representatives (DPR) and all the demonstrations. There's a lot going on that's bad for the country. I think it would be best all round if Gus Dur (President Abdurrahman Wahid) did step down. At least it would put and end to all the rallies, for a while.

I always make an effort to talk to my children about things to stay away from. I tell them never to take part in demonstrations, as they could get killed. These are dangerous times and I think children need a lot of guidance. Otherwise, they could get caught up in all sorts of things, like drugs. That's a big problem and I warn our kids to stay away from them. Guidance is important when you are young. I don't know if I am a wise man; I just know I've survived up to now without getting into trouble. So I try to pass on what I know.

Television is important in our house. I like to watch news programs and soaps. There are a lot of them and I like the stories. I get sleepy around 11 p.m. and head off to bed.