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LIFE IN INDONESIA - HOW PEOPLE SURVIVE IN INDONESIA
By Chahaya, Indonesia
 Generally, people who live in Indonesia can be grouped in to two,based on their daily activities to make a living or to survive : farmers and sailors. The rest are business owners, professionals, etc.Farmers and sailors, based on the technology they used, also can be grouped in two : modern farmers and traditional farmers, modern sailors and traditional sailors.
Traditional farmers.
Traditional farmers usually live in a semi forest region or a village with minimum facilities and far from town. Most of them live in houses made of wood and live in poverty. Several traditional farmers who have some acres of land can live better than other farmers. But also there traditional farmers who have not farms, they work for other farmers.
Traditional farmers usually wake up very early in the morning before they hear the voice of praying from the mosques around their house at4.30 am. After praying they make a little preparation then they go to the farm.
When the Sun appears in the east sky, usually their wives go after them to the farm, bring some food for breakfast and lunch. The husbands, wives and their children usually work together. The farmers have huts in their farm to take a rest.
There are many things to do when they arrive in the farm, taking care of their plants and animals such as goats, ships or Buffalo.
Generally, rice, corn, chili and peanuts are their main plants,but in some other regions, region with higher land, people only hope for vegetables and fruits.
In a year, traditional farmers could only harvest once or twice. Several months after harvest, exactly in the middle of dry season and rainy season, it is a hard live for farmers. The traditional farmers can plant nothing in dry season for they have not good watering system, they depend only on the water from rain. The green leaves and grass change to yellow, this means that their sheep, goats or Buffalo will seriously lack of food in the coming weeks.
The money that the traditional farmers get from the sale of their harvest must be able to cover their daily needs as long as six months (the difficult period). Most of the traditional farmers lack of money before the next harvest come. In this situation they usually eat corn and cassava the whole day without fish, egg, meat or vegetables.
The coming of rainy season is good for their farm but it is the hardest condition until the harvest time come. Traditional farmers living in the villages with almost no other job opportunities, they can do nothing during the rainy season. In some villages, people can still do another job such as being a hard worker/helper in a housing projects or ride pedicabs or make some handy craft.
Traditional Sailor
Indonesia is a maritime country, no wonder that Indonesia has famous history created by its former sailors. The country has 5 big islands and thousands small islands. The big islands are Sumatera, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Irian Jaya.
Of course the traditional sailors live in the seaside regions of the islands. In some regions, the land very near to the seaside also good for farming, so many traditional farmers and traditional sailors are neighbors.
As a person who ever lived with traditional sailors and traditional farmers, I can see that the traditional sailors live better than the traditional farmers.
The traditional sailors begin their day earlier than the traditional farmers. Usually they wake up at 2.30 am, make some preparation then at 3.00 am they start to move their small boats to the sea to find fishes, shrimps or crabs, these are three expensive animal sea water they can find. They usually go back to the land at 4 pm.
They work on the sea water for about 13 hours a day. No matter how hot the day is. They bring some food and water for floating breakfast and lunch.
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LIFE IN INDONESIA