Myth worsens poverty in mountain hamlet

Myth worsens poverty in mountain hamlet

By Agus Maryono

BANYUMAS, Central Java (JP): The Simpar hamlet of Punggelan
district in the regency of Banjarnegara can only be reached by a
two hour climb up a narrow dirt path.

Residents of the hamlet in Tlaga village say they have been
reduced to eating a corn-based rice substitute for over a year,
but a long-held belief has prevented even the village chief from
checking these claims and bringing assistance to locals.

Almost no outsiders are willing to work here as the result of
a myth which has it that those returning from Simpar will either
die or lose their jobs.

Hardiman, the 34-year-old Tlaga village chief said he had no
idea how this superstition began. "I don't really believe it," he
said, but adds: "I wouldn't dare to go to Simpar myself."

The Simpar hamlet chief, Kismani, said the village urgently
needed officials to witness their situation. "How can we make
progress when even officials are afraid to come here? We do not
want to be treated like this," the 60-year-old man said.

Kismani added that villagers almost never eat fried food as a
result of the scarcity and expense of cooking oil.

Children bathe in a spring without soap or toothpaste. Their
clothes are dirty and rumpled. Adults make do without much in the
way of clothing -- women wear only a sarong and a bra. Homes have
earthen floors and are without electricity in this hamlet of 350
families located 35 kilometers from Banjarnegara.

Health facilities are almost nonexistent. Many were seen bent
double suffering from an apparent difficulty in breathing.

"Many people here have lung problems because they smoke corn
leaf cigarettes and carry heavy burdens," resident Sungkowo said.

Locals plant corn, cassava and grow grass to feed their goats.

"If somebody gets sick, we have to hope they get better by
themselves because we cannot afford medicine," Kismani added.

Elsewhere, conditions are still a little better -- there is
still rice to mix with cassava. In the village of Gunung Wetan in
Jatilawang district, Banyumas, the ceramic-tiled homes hide the
fact that almost all of the 4,251 residents eat only twice a day.

If no rice is available then a typical meal will consist of
cassava alone, explained Kiwen, a housewife who prepares her
family's two daily meals early each morning.

Her husband is one of the lucky ones -- he gets a small amount
of money and some cassava from the owner of a plot for whom he
works. "We don't know what we will eat when the cassava runs
out," said Warsem, Kiwen's neighbor.

In other areas authorities have tried to hide the food
shortages by saying cassava and corn are the preferred foods of
locals, but the Gunung Wetan village head attempts to put up no
such facade.

A rice substitute made of cassava called oyek is residents'
only hope, Wiryo Sukarto, the village head said. Much of the land
here is clay and rocky and only fit for cassava, he added.

"Barely 10 percent of the village owns paddy fields," Wiryo,
60 said. Although the village is only 37 kilometers from the
regency capital Purwokerto, it is still fairly isolated.

"Residents are relieved that a road building project has
begun," Wiryo said.

Evenings are quiet here as tired and hungry locals call it a
day at 7 p.m. Riwut, a village official, said people now maintain
a constant vigil due to a recent spate of chicken thefts.

Future prospects for the village look even worse, with just
over 50 children enrolled in high school.

Natalia D.E. Lestari, a teacher here, said once children have
completed elementary school, "girls are married off and boys are
told to go to Jakarta to work in restaurants." Parents, she said,
"hope to use the money they earn to improve their houses."

Rice is also a luxury in the Ganda Tapa village of Sumbang
district, where the 350 resident families now rely on a corn-
based rice substitute.

"We can't afford rice because it is Rp 3,200 per kilogram,"
while corn is only Rp 1,300 per kilogram, 45-year-old Lakem said.
She hoped the crisis would come to an end soon so that they could
once again eat rice every day.