Veteran 'jamu' vendor sells and spreads good health

By Kosasih Deradjat

JAKARTA (JP): Many may agree with the "Health is better than wealth" proverb, but an herbal medicine vendor tells us that life is also about sharing good health with others.

Sadikem, 52, popularly known as Mbah Muji, has been earning a living by making and selling jamu, a traditional herbal medicine, for 35 years.

She makes jamu from raw materials bought at a nearby market and sells it from door to door.

"Selling jamu means making money and keeping fit by walking around neighboring villages," she said.

Her work, she says, leads to "sharing health with customers who drink my herbal medicine." Jamu -- made of turmeric (curcuma longa), curcuma xanthorrhiza (temulawak), ginger and honey -- is good for everybody's health, she insisted.

The skepticism of medical experts about jamu's effectiveness has not deterred Mbah Muji from attracting a wide range of customers.

From housewives and maids to vegetable vendors and Army personnel, all drink her jamu on a daily basis.

Turinah, a maid, told The Jakarta Post she drinks Mbah Muji's jamu to eliminate pain and fatigue after a day's work.

Udin, a carpenter, said that drinking the herbs regularly helps him "maintain his masculinity".

Her career as a jamu vendor began when she was a teenager. She came to Jakarta in the early 1960s with her aunt and a fellow villager from Central Java.

She married here in the 1970s with a cigarette vendor who came from the same district in Central Java. Presently she lives with one of her sons in a house she bought together with her late husband in Cawang, East Jakarta.

For more than 25 years she has been carrying a 15-kilogram basket full of bottles of herbal medicine on her back through the city's alleys. Fortunately, she can now rest her back for she has replaced the basket with a two-wheel cart.

She is still energetic, pushing her cart along the city's alleys and happily serving customers.

One thing seems to bother her, though. None of her four grown children, three daughters and a son, want to be a jamu vendor.

"They told me that they do not mean to imply that being a jamu vendor is an inferior job. All jobs are good... but they said they just don't want to be jamu sellers," Mbah Muji said in a low voice.

"They want to work...do office work," she said.

Whenever they say that, she says, she can't help but get emotional. Jamu selling is not inferior, her children say.

"How do you think I put you all through high school?" she asks her children, obviously proud that all four have graduated from high school. (kod)