Prostitutes still have their own dreams

Prostitutes still have their own dreams

Moch. N. Kurniawan and Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post,
Indramayu, West Java

Yani looked much happier when we saw her at the Lumba-lumba
discotheque that second time.

The previous night we came in with two girls, long-haired Leni
and fair-skinned Ai. Yani and her friend Ratih, who work at the
disco, looked furious.

As Yani returned our smiles, Ratih sent mixed signals. But
then she said she wanted us to take her to the Grage Mall in
Cirebon to do some shopping.

No problem, we told her.

But she canceled the date just before we were to pick her up
at her house in Karangampel district.

"No way. I won't go out with you on such short notice. You
should have asked me the night before," she said on her cell
phone.

But you were with someone else, we said.

"Yeah and you were with other girls. Why were you with them?"
Ratih asked furiously before hanging up.

Both Ratih and Yani are hostesses at the disco, located along
the Jatibarang-Karangampel highway in Sliyeg district.

We almost forgot that they are people with their own dreams,
feelings and problems.

"I am the oldest of three children and now I am the
breadwinner for my family because my mother does not have a job,"
said Yani as she lit a cigarette.

"Our family would have been better off if my mother had
married an employee from the Balongan refinery. The children
gave her our consent but the marriage was canceled because my
mother thought it wouldn't work out," she said.

Yani said that at one time she worked in a shoe factory in
Tangerang, Banten, in the packaging department.

"But it was not enough money for me. Besides, I had to wait
until the end of the month to get my salary. Here, I can earn
more money every night."

Ratih also said she did not like working in a factory.

"I used to work in a garment factory in Bekasi, but I decided
to quit because I did not feel comfortable."

Both Yani and Ratih look smart and modest. Nobody who saw them
on the street would guess what they do for a living.

At the disco, after a couple hours of chatting and dancing,
Ratih put on her jacket, followed by Yani a couple of minutes
later.

Our local friend, Yanto, said that meant they were ready to be
taken anywhere else, as long as you took them back home.

When we decided not to take them out, they looked
disappointed.

A similar disappointment was apparent when we decided not to
take out Ai and Leni after hours of dancing.

We met the two women at Melati Putih, a type of nightspot
known locally as a warung remang-remang because of its dim
lighting.

If you cruise along the northern coastal highway, known by its
acronym Pantura, you can tell these nightspots by the small red
bulbs that hang out front.

Most of these places are houses that have been turned into
entertainment venues. They sell beer, soft drinks, snacks and
cigarettes.

Some of the places are owned by outwardly religious people.
The owner of the Melati Putih, for example, was in East Java at
the time to enroll his son in a pesantren, or traditional Islamic
boarding school.

"The owner's wife is here taking care of the business. She is
also our cashier," Ai said.

In the Melati Putih, the women offered us a drink. We
preferred soft drinks, which cost Rp 15,000, although a can of
soda could be had for only Rp 3,000 outside.

Both Ai and Leni told similar stories when they described how
they had become prostitutes.

Ai, who hails from the neighboring Kertasemaya district, is a
divorcee who worked at a billiard club in Tangerang until the
1998 riots.

"The billiard club was razed by fire, otherwise I would still
be working there. My husband was a security guard at the billiard
house," said Ai.

"I decided to divorce him not just because he often hit me. My
decision was finalized when I caught him in bed with another
woman. She was already pregnant with his child so I decided to
let him marry her.

"I got my divorce papers just this January. I am glad to be
free," she said.

Leni said she got into this work because she was unemployed
and couldn't find any other jobs in Indramayu or the surrounding
areas.

"It's better to do something like this rather than be broke,"
she said, adding that she moved to Indramayu last year to be
closer to her older sister, who lives here.

"My sister found out about my profession but she didn't
object, so I continued to do the job. Then I moved out of my
sister's house because I wanted to be independent," Leni said,
adding that she had not told her parents about what she does.

She said she had wanted to go to the Middle East or Korea to
work but her parents wouldn't allow her, saying it was too far
and too risky.

Leni said sometimes her visitors came from Jakarta, but mainly
they were from Indramayu.

If Ratih and Yani put on their jackets to "announce" that they
are ready to leave, Leni has her own approach.

Timidly, she asked us to dance and afterward she asked
permission to go to the toilet while staring at us. Yanto said
that meant she wanted one of us to follow her.

Lenny recognizes that her profession is unpleasant, and hopes
to find another job and, like her sister, marry a man who can
take care of her.

"I won't be in this place long. I am ready to get another job,
and I dream of marrying a nice guy someday, having children and
walking them to school," she said.

There might be hundreds or thousands girls in Indramayu like
Ratih, Yani, Leni and Ai. Their ambitions are human ones.

"I just want to find a nice husband who can protect me and
support me. That's all," said Leni.

But she said she was still traumatized by her divorce and no
longer trusted men.

"They just want to hurt me. But someday I want to get married
to someone who really loves me."