Rodney On Earth

Pondering Poverty:

I’m still processing images recently taken in south Vietnam along the Mekong Delta. I must say I only shot a handfull of images during my two day tour of the Mekong Delta, with some scenes standing out more than others. Life along the river a mixture of harsh and simple life: meaning, while making a living along the river may be difficult, people still content with each other, their environment, and thus with daily life.

I’ve mentioned in past blog posts Indonesia is a country of maximum extremes. While Jakarta is quite modern, it still has scattered pockets of gritty poverty. Furthermore, Indonesia’s poverty levels becomes more acute as one goes further away from a major city. I’ve also mentioned Vietnam also have a similar social structure, but not to the extreme of Indonesia: in other words, Vietnam’s HCMC is not nearly as modern as Jakarta, and its poor regions are not as inflicted with poverty as deeply as Indonesia.

I am beginning to think there are different categories of “poor.” Vietnam poor is more along the lines of “country living” poor (as Americans would say, living in the Boondocks); they have very little money, but they also need little money as they try to live off the land as much as possible, and their homes are buildings that are simply decaying, but maybe once were built to a certain cultural standard.

Indonesia’s poor are not only monetary poor, but poor in nearly every way relative to the essentials of living; they tend to live in makeshift homes of disgarded wood, plastic wrap and scraps of sheet metal, and often are wearing scraps of old cloth as clothing (in the poorest areas I’ve seen so far). I have seen families living on cardboard between railroad tracks in Jakarta. It is safe to say Indonesia has the “country living” poor, plus the stark, gritty poverty of having virtually nothing at all.

Along the Mekong Delta, may earn a living selling fresh fruits and vegetables from out of their rowboats. In the early hours one can find dozens of type of fruits and fresh seafood. There are even vendor boats, where the person sells bottled water, canned sodas and snacks! Speaking of snacks, you should try the mini pineapples! The seller will cut up the pineapple in a way the stem can be used as a handle and then you eat the pineapple as if it was a turkey drumstick! YUMMY!

As it should be obvious by now, living on the Mekong Delta means spending a lot of time in and around the water. Whether you are washing (yourself, child, pet, cloting or veggies, all next to each other), traveling, earning a living or shopping, odds are you will use the river. And life on a river means having a boat. Every age, men and women are in boats.

TelkomHell:

I use a mobile phone service called Telkomsel. They are (supposedly) the best in Indonesia. But, my personal experience with them lately has been nothing but pure Hell on Earth! I signed up for international roaming, mobile banking, etc. Does ANY of it work? NO!

Not only do I find it hard to believe they are the best service, but the service is almost none-existent in central Jakarta! (Meaning, I must stand next to a window to get a measly two bars on my mobile phone, and I am in a standard 1st floor building, not a conctrete-laced skyscraper! Don’t even let me get started about their Telkom Flash Internet service (I’m already planning to switch back to Indosat for Internet upon returning to Jakarta)!

The standard line from customer service is “Please wait 3 days” I’ve waited 3 days now for over a week. They have no idea what they are doing. They’re simply stalling, and getting rid of customers, so when they call back, maybe another tech will have to deal with the issue. They should rename their service to TelkomHell!

So, if you have tried to call me, SMS me, or MMS (in reference to you, x-tine hahaha) me, please wait until I return to Jakarta.

Cambodia Coming Up:

EARLY tomorrow morning, I’ll be heading to Cambodia! I’m very excited and looking forward to this part of the Journey. I can’t wait to see the temples as well as the villiages. While there, I’m not certain how much internet access I will have. I will try my best to say hello when I can.

Cheers!