Corpse gets a free ride

JAKARTA (JP): A North Sulawesi teacher moonlighting as an ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver came home a hero after he took a corpse on a 150-kilometer, midnight journey through a jungle.

Wahab Daulima said his strong desire to help a neighbor had helped him overcome the fear of having a stiff body pressing against his back, something that would send a chill down his spine under "normal circumstances".

DR magazine reported in its latest edition that Wahab refused the Rp 100,000 (about US$10) that the dead man's relatives had offered him for the ride from Gorontalo to Marisa in November.

"That night, my spirit was so entwined with the deceased's that there was not the slightest bit of fear in me," Wahab recounted.

Ramli Lihawa, the deceased's son, said he was too broke to hire the Aloei Saboe Hospital's ambulance and Wahab was the only one who agreed to transport his father's body home.

None of the ubiquitous bus and van drivers around the state- run hospital were interested in taking him up on his offer for the obvious reasons, Ramli recalled.

The only problem that the motorcyclist had to work out was how to carry the body, which had started to stiffen, DR reported.

It took some time before he decided to put the body on the back of his motorcycle saddle and wrap the hands around his chest with plastic robes.

The report did not mention if the deceased wore a safety helmet. (pan)