Out-of-town students find it hard to settle in city

Out-of-town students find it hard to settle in city

By Yoko N. Sari

JAKARTA (JP): Adjusting to life in Jakarta is not as easy as
you may think. Although the Indonesian capital is the most
metropolitan city in the country, with almost every culture and
lifestyle represented, fitting in can be difficult.

Two out-of-town students at the prestigious University of
Indonesia discovered that they had to go through a rough period
of cultural shock before finally settling in and feeling
comfortable living in Jakarta.

M. Juni, in his final year at the School of Social and
Political Sciences, says it took him a while to find friends he
could identify with when he came to this city in 1987.

"Most kids studying at the university come from rich families.
I simply felt I didn't fit in," said Juni, who is from Prabumulih
in South Sumatra. "I tried to mix with them but it always ended
in trouble."

"They're just a completely different bunch. I had no intention
of copying their lifestyle or trying to become one of them," he
said. "I can't pretend to be somebody I'm not."

Rudy Hartono Sabri is another out-of-town student and is also
in his final year at the same school. He comes from a poor family
in Tulungagung in East Java.

He recalls that his thick Javanese accent was a major
liability when he came to Jakarta in 1988. He felt inferior
because people laughed every time he opened his mouth.

Rudy, nicknamed Scubo because he pronounced "scuba diving"
wrong during initiation, says he even hesitated to speak during
class discussions at first. "I was afraid to speak although I
wanted to. As soon as I tried to speak, everybody laughed. So I
just sat in the class and kept my mouth shut."

The two young men, both in their mid-20s, say they eventually
overcame the cultural shock once they found people they felt at
ease with.

Juni, whose father is a retired police officer, admitted that
he went through a brief stint as a drug dealer before deciding to
come clean.

Underworld

The group of friends he identified with at the university
happened to be people who used drugs or drank alcohol. "I fitted
into their world immediately because we had something in common,"
he said.

This pack, unlike the rich kids, don't care about appearance
or background, he said.

He joined the underworld because he needed the money to live
and study in Jakarta.

He decided to ask his father to stop sending money because he
wanted to be financially independent. Yet he wanted to continue
his studies because he vowed before leaving his village that he
would return with a university degree.

"Where I come from, a young man of my age is considered old
enough to earn his own income and I felt really ashamed that my
parents were still sending me money," he said.

Juni didn't immediately enter university. He failed his first
attempt at the entrance exams in 1987. He passed the following
year. In between the two tests he got to know the underworld of
Jakarta and continued to hang around them when he got into
university.

That was in the past. Now Juni supports himself as a collector
for a leasing company.

Scubo was more fortunate. He found friends who often went to
great lengths to help him settle in. They even taught him how to
operate a computer. At times, his friends even lent him money.

But, as Scubo points out, his friends don't smoke pot or drink
alcohol.

Fitting in was simply a matter of time, and his friends helped
him build up his self-esteem. He no longer feels ashamed about
his thick Javanese accent.

Scubo lived with his older brother for the first two years.
His brother financially supported him in the beginning because
their parents are too poor to support Scubo's studies. His father
runs a workshop repairing bicycle tires in Tulungagung.

Scubo became independent after winning a scholarship from the
Supersemar Foundation. However, the Rp 40,000 a month barely
covers his expenses.

Thanks to his friends, he learned how to operate a computer
and now processes data for fellow students and private companies.

"I couldn't have done it without help from my friends," he
concluded.