Grandma Ponirah, 'becak' driver

Ponirah, 55, a mother of six children and grandmother to two, is no ordinary woman. The woman from Jeblog village, Kasihan district, Bantul regency, Yogyakarta, sports a crew cut and is of solid build, the muscles of her biceps and forearms clearly defined.

At first glance, Ponirah, better known as Mbak Pon, looks like a man, and with her strong physique and short hair, people presume she is a soldier.

She is not -- she is a becak, or pedicab, driver and has been for the last 15 years because of financial constraints.

Except for Sundays, she starts her rounds at 6:15 a.m. after finishing her housework, transporting several students of Keputran elementary school who are regulars. Later, she picks a spot at Beteng Kulon corner to wait for passengers, and works until late afternoon.

Ponirah said she became a becak driver 15 years ago, when her husband, Suparjo, also a becak driver, could not earn enough by himself to support the family and the educational costs of their six children.

"Besides food, the children also needed pocket money for school. I didn't have the money to set up a small business. The most I could do was to drive a becak, as I could rent one without having to buy it," she said.

The initial objections came from her immediate family. At first, it was her husband who forbade her to work as a becak driver, then her children.

But she was determined to make money to support the family, so she persevered, became the talk of the neighborhood and has been a becak driver ever since.

"My embarrassment over working as a becak driver has long gone. If I stopped doing this, how would my children eat? They also have schooling needs. The main thing for me is working and earning money lawfully," said Mbak Pon.

Besides objections from her family, Ponirah had to adapt to her new trade, which required her to have great stamina and endurance.

She acknowledged that, during her first week as a becak driver, she could not bear pedaling the heavy vehicle. Her legs would turn to jelly and she almost passed out with fatigue. She usually resorted to pushing the becak when she ran out of energy.

Her perseverance bore fruit, however, and her husband and children never complained again about her new trade. Suparjo even gave up being a driver himself and opted to tend their farm and raise livestock.

"It's not nice to see both of us pedaling away. Who would tend to the livestock then?" said Suparjo.

Suparjo recalled meeting Ponirah when she was young, a girl next door who was different from the other girls: she used to climb coconut trees.

"When I was still a becak driver, it was my wife who usually plowed the field. She's different from the others," Suparjo told The Jakarta Post.

Taking turns driving the becak, Ponirah eventually applied to buy it on credit in daily installments of Rp 2,000 (25 U.S. cents). After two years, she finally owned a pedicab of her own through her own toil and labor.

She has dozens of regular passengers, most of whom are students of Keputran elementary school.

The Riri family in Kadipaten, for example, has entrusted her for the last decade with the responsibility of ferrying their children to school.

"I used to drive Pak Riri's son, Rendi, who is now a 10th grader, and Rino, now a seventh-grader, when they were still in elementary school. I'm still driving Riyoga, who is a fifth- grader at Keputran," said Ponirah.

One experience she has not forgotten in her 15 years of being a pedicab driver is when she was hired by a foreign tourist to take him around the Yogyakarta ring road, which is about 40 kilometers long.

She was hired for Rp 5,000 an hour. "The amount was considered quite a lot in those days -- 1995. I was really worn out pedaling from 8:00 a.m. to 4 p.m., even after resting occasionally on the trip," she recalled.

On the Sunday afternoon that the Post called, Mbak Pon was not out driving passengers around Yogyakarta, but was relaxing at home, her trusty becak parked inside the house.

Ponirah said she had not worked because her husband was still recuperating from an operation he had a few days ago.

Suparjo was lying on a reclining chair made of bamboo, and looked weak.

"I have not worked for a month because my husband is sick. Who will tend to him if I work," she said, lighting a cigarette.

With no money coming in, the family had sold two of their cows for Rp 5 million to pay for medical expenses and daily needs.

"We've spent all the money. As my husband is recovering, I will return to work in two to three days," said Ponirah.

Although she exerts herself to her limit every day, Ponirah does not neglect her responsibilities as a woman, a wife and a mother.

In the morning, before she sets out with her becak, she wakes up at 4 a.m. to clean house, make tea for her husband and prepare breakfast for her family.

"Everything is finished by 6 a.m. and the children's breakfast is ready. I leave the house at 6:15 a.m.," she said.

In recognition of her hard work and determination to support her family, Yogyakarta's Kartini Day 2004 committee awarded Ponirah with the title "Strong Woman", a woman who could endure anything, and gave her a cash prize of Rp 100,000.

Ponirah did not place much importance in the award, saying that it was more important to work and not to exert oneself unduly, to lead a simple life without stress.

"The most important thing is, I work hard to earn an honest income. It doesn't matter if the amount is small; as long as it's lawful, I'm content," she said.