Jakarta remains a magnet for rural folks

Annastashya Emmanuelle, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The dream of making a better life amid the grind and bustle of the big city has drawn people from rural areas all across the Indonesian archipelago to Jakarta.

Many believe that, if they try hard enough, pitiless Jakarta will yield significant changes financially, if only for the sake of broadening their horizons.

Some of those people who came here for financial reasons said they got what they bargained for -- and that the sacrifice was one well worth taking.

Twenty-six-year old Arlis from Lampung was one. She first came to Jakarta in 1997 looking for any job that would pay more than the Rp 50,000 a month she earned at her previous workplace.

Shortly after enlisting the aid of a domestic helper agency she found work with a family which paid her Rp 150,000 a month to cook and clean their house.

Today, her salary is Rp 300,000. "It's not that it was difficult for me to find a job in Lampung, but it was hard to find the one that pays well," she mused.

Back home, her husband juggles taking care of their four children with working on the two-hectare plot of land in which they have planted corn, rice and cassava.

"Before I came here, I tried to help my husband farming," she said. "But it was difficult to make ends meet while waiting for the crops -- about one time per six months."

Before making her final decision to come to the capital, she tried her hand working at a cassava flour factory for a few weeks, where she earned Rp 5,000 per day.

"After a while, I thought the payment was too small compared with the labor -- even in Lampung, that kind of salary wasn't sufficient to cover our basic expenses," she said.

Her major setback while working in Jakarta is that she often misses her family back home.

"I find it hard to be so far from my husband and children ... but when I think that I'm now able to give my children anything they ask for, I feel content.

"Jakarta is not so bad," she continued, "as long as you're not a faint-hearted kind of person."

Arlis sends her full salary to her husband every three months for her children's tuition, and their other needs.

When she lived with her family, "my children couldn't have the things like a bicycle and dolls, now they do," she said.

"To me, that's enough to make up for the hard work I put up with here," added Arlis, on her way back from Lampung Thursday while visiting her employment agency, Kasih Ibu.

She resumes work in Kebayoran, South Jakarta, on Monday.

During the Lebaran holidays, when most maids return to their home villages with their families, others come to the city to make some extra money as temporary helpers.

"I make about Rp 25,000 to Rp 30,000 per day as a temporary maid during the Lebaran holiday. I would be able to make a month's salary with just 2 weeks of work," said Ida, who came from Tasikmalaya, West Java.

Meanwhile, Haris Mujono from Surabaya said he is here to get a taste of big city life.

Even though Surabaya is the country's second biggest city -- and thus not so different from Jakarta -- Mujono finds the capital city more captivating.

Since he came here early last year, he has helped his brother sell chicken soto at the Gambir railway station in Central Jakarta. Before arriving here, he worked as a porter at a shoe factory in Surabaya.

"I make lots of friends here, and I find this city very exciting. I also learned that Jakarta is a place to make good money as long as you are willing to work hard," he said.

However, Mujono plans to later return to his hometown to raise a family.

"I'll give it another year or two, and then return to settle down -- or perhaps after I'm married, I'll return here with my wife," Mujono, 21, told The Jakarta Post.