Barber struggles to make a living

Barber struggles to make a living

By Yoko N. Sari

JAKARTA (JP): Many people see Jakarta as a place to escape from the endless pain of living in poverty in their home towns.

The number of people migrating to the capital city rises steadily every year.

People from all walks of life, including farmers, flock to the capital with hopes of improving their standard of living. However, working in Jakarta is not as easy as they imagine before arrive.

Those who are clever enough to take advantage of any opportunity manage to make their dreams come true, while others, especially those who have no special skills, fail. Many even end up becoming criminals, beggars, squatters and prostitutes .

Suyono, 55, a barber who works under an overpass in East Jakarta, says it is easier to make a living in Jakarta than in his hometown.

Still, his life is not easy. With six daughters and a wife to feed every day, he often has to sell something when he fails to bring home enough money.

"Yeah, I have had to sell my belongings one by one just to survive," he sighs.

Suyono has been working as a street barber on Jl. Dewi Sartika, East Jakarta, since the late 1960s when he left his hometown in Tegal, Central Java.

He says that he could not stand being poor and not being able to do anything about it, back home. His parents were too poor to pay for Suyono's education, and he had to drop out of elementary school.

"I decided to go to Jakarta because I was tired of doing nothing. I remember it was midnight when I left my house, with a friend of mine, to come to this city," Suyono said.

It was his friend who took Suyono to Jakarta, gave him his first job and protected him from the harsher side of life in Jakarta. His first job was as a helper in his friend's coffee stall in Jatinegara, East Jakarta.

"I was able to save a little money from that job and finally I managed to open my own coffee stall -- here, in my current spot," Suyono said,

By that time he had already married and had three daughters, but Suyono says his income as the owner of a coffee shop was not bad. He was able to send his daughters to school and to provide enough food for all the members of his family.

One man job

Suyono says that at that time several street barbers set up stalls next to his coffee shop. Since he served customers only when they ordered coffee, he had enough time to observe and watch the barbers doing their job.

He began to learn how to cut hair, practicing initially on his children.

At the same time he began to feel uncomfortable with his coffee business. He resolved to close his shop and become a street barber.

"I did not feel comfortable seeing every member of my family working hard to help me with the (coffee) business. And I saw that being a barber was a one man job: neither my wife nor any of my children would have to help me. So I made the change," he recalls.

Equipped with one chair, a mirror, scissors, razors, and a comb, he launched the new business.

After 30 years, Suyono is still working as a barber in the same spot. The number of his fellow barbers has fallen over the years, however.

Survive

"Well, three of my friends have decided to give up the struggle here and have gone back to their hometowns," says Suyono.

He explains that the life of a street barber is not as easy as it looks -- especially for those operating in an area where street trading has been banned. Suyono, like many other street and sidewalk vendors, is forced to play "hide and seek" with officials from the city public order office.

On many occasions he has had to leave all his equipment unattended, when city officials have chased him away.

Suyono's daily income is not fixed: "I have no fixed income because the number of customers varies. The cost of my services is not fixed. Sometimes people pay Rp 2,000, sometimes, 1,500 and sometimes only Rp 1,000." .

Suyono realizes that his customers have low incomes and have to fight as hard as they can to make ends meet.

He said his customers included squatters, street vendors, students and mentally handicapped people.

"What should I do when a crazy man comes up to me and asks to have his hair cut? Well, I just cut off all of his hair!," he says, laughing.

Can he provide enough food for his family with his uncertain income? Of course not, he replies. And that is why he once tried selling gas lighters to make extra money.

"I sold gas lighters, fixed the broken ones and filled the empty ones with gas. I made enough money from that business. But unfortunately I lost all my capital," he says.

One day he went to the market and spent Rp 65,000 on lighter supplies, he recalls. Shortly afterwards city officers raided his stall and confiscated the lot. His side business never recovered, although he still sells a few second-hand gas lighters.

"I lost it all and now I am only offering my services as a barber."

Fortunate

Suyono has six daughters, three of whom have been fortunate enough to graduate from elementary school. For the other three daughters this was not possible because there was no money.

He says one of his daughters has learned how to cut hair from him. She still cannot help her family, however, because Suyono can not afford to rent a kiosk for her.

"She can't just open a stall on the sidewalk, like me. She is a woman and she would be ashamed to do that," Suyono says, adding that it costs at least Rp 1 million to rent a small kiosk.

In spite of everything, Suyono is still convinced that life is better in Jakarta than in his home town.

"I don't want to return to my home town. I don't have land or a house there and I could not make a living there. I prefer to stay here," he smiles.