Honolulu, Oct. 21, 2006

In the taxi on the way back from a dinner here a couple days ago, the driver asked us what we were going to write about from the trip after finding out that all of us were journalists.

“About Hawai’i of course, how wonderful the place is,” said my friend, teasing a bit.

“Aww, that’s so boring. People always write about that,” said the native Hawai’i with a big posture.

“Then tell us, what’s more interesting to write?” I asked him.

“The people, the economy. The low salary of locals, how people can’t afford housing because it’s one of the most expensive among other states. Many people end up living in the beaches, you know. Write about the economy, how people are suffering, and put the headline ‘trouble in paradise’. Now that’s a story,” he said.

He said tourism doesn’t really improve people’s welfare. Everything is expensive and salary is low, especially for locals. The tourism industry in Honolulu, he said, is owned by big companies and the money including tax money then went back to the mainland.

The headline in the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper this morning also said regardless the background of people, Hawai’ian simply cannot afford housing. The other day, East West Center staff Suzie Johnson (if I’m not mistaken the last name), which was introduced to us as the computer wizard, said she had five jobs other than IT staff to support her and her family, including driving and babysitting.

“Compare to California, for example, they pay webmasters like me $10,000 to $15,000 more a year,” she said, while driving us to the Pearl Harbor.

Kinda sad, huh?

Posted by hera at 6:37 AM | Permalinks | Comments   

Honolulu, Oct. 15, 2006

Aside from being away from family and work (but not you, t), the best thing about traveling abroad is to be able to walk around without hassle; without having to dodge the holes on the side of the street or dodging motorcycles which pass the pedestrian lanes, or being worried about the heat of the sun, the pollution, or pickpockets.

I love walking. I did it everytime when I still live in Bandung. But where to walk in Jakarta without having to experience those things I’ve mentioned? So, everytime I’m in other countries, I always walk everywhere. It’s a nice way to absorb the atmosphere of the place, and a great way to lose weight (of course it’s back again once you’re home, dammit).

It’s lovely to walk here in Honolulu. I live in this small lodge inside the University of Hawaii campus, which is surrounded by trees. In the north, there’s a mountain view, lovely. If you walk to the north, you’ll pass a nice housing complex. The houses are very cute (turned out housing in Hawaii is the second most expensive in the US after California. I’ll talk about it in the next posting).

The air is very humid, though, which reminds me of Singapore. But still this place is nice and peaceful. People are friendly and helpful, drivers are civilized they always stop and give the chance to pedestrians to cross the street even on busy ones.

I feel so healthy here. I managed to hike the Diamond Head Mountain and the hill toward Manoa Falls. Although I didn’t get to the top of the Mountain like the others thanks to this unfit, sedentary body hehe.

Oh, I so not miss Jakarta.

Posted by hera at 6:35 AM | Permalinks | Comments   

This is Sasih, with husband Kadmira and three out of five children. All seven of them live in this tiny room in the slum neighborhood in Pejompongan, Central Jakarta, just behind the railroad.

This is their neighborhood. They share the bathroom with other people.

I wrote about Sasih as an illustration in an article last December about faltering family planning program in the country. Sasih is only 30, but she has already five kids and the oldest is 14. Having five kids, she said, was a headache, financially and emotionally. She said she did try
contraception – injection, pills, jamu herbal drink -- but it just didn’t work. Sasih was afraid to
use IUD, although it is safe, and implant she said was expensive, Rp 75,000 or around US$8. Kadmira only earned Rp 30,000 tops everyday as bajaj driver, and Sasih earned Rp 40,000 daily from selling hot corn in the nearby modest apartment complex.

Based on the article, I wrote a paper and applied to the Jefferson Fellowship for journalist. I got it.

Before leaving for Honolulu, I visited Sasih and told her I got the fellowship. She was indifferent. I don’t blame them, cause Kadmira had just fallen from a building when working as a construction worker in between driving bajaj, and broke his leg. Sasih herself was not feeling well, she said she had problem with ulcer or something. Her belly was bloated, I just wished she wasn’t pregnant. Or ever again.

I gave the family a small money and left. I was feeling disgusted with myself. I had exploited her for an article. I had used her to get the fellowship. Sasih was my ticket to Hawaii.

I had made a promise to myself to help the family after I got back. If you’d like, you can help them too, maybe we can pay for the children’s tuition. Or give the children books, or at least milk and food cause they’re pretty malnourished. They’re skinny and with brownish hair for all the wrong reasons.

I had promised, remind me always.

Posted by hera at 6:24 AM | Permalinks | Comments   

Oct. 15, 2006

Aaah, Hawaii, the aloha state… the sun, the sand, the nice walks along the beach, right? Wrong :) I arrived here in Honolulu yesterday morning, got jetlag as usual, and passed out 'til the afternoon. I walked around and buy some food but it started to rain so I got back. It rained hard all night so I just watched TV until I was asleep.

This morning, around 7.30 I was woken up by, get this, earthquake! At first I thought it was a dream where my mom shook my bed hard cause I wouldn’t wake up for early morning prayer. When I really woke up and found my mom wasn’t there, I still didn’t wanna think it was an earthquake but rather a huge truck had passed by. I jumped to the window, and of course there wasn’t a truck or anything.

A few seconds later, it happened again, a smaller but still powerful one. I went down to the lobby, and some people got panicked and went outside. Me, in my pajama, still stood there half awake, didn’t know what to do. But the rest of people seemed to be casual and there was no rush or anything. After I made sure that everything was OK and no sign that the building would fall or anything, I went back to my room, turned on the TV to check what was happening, but a second later the power went off.

I waited for a while, thinking ‘oh my god, what if there would be tsunami?’. But there was nothing, no rush in the street or anything, so I went back to sleep. At noon, my colleagues called, asked me to join them for lunch and grocery shopping since the blackout will likely last until the evening.
The earthquake turned out was 6.7 Richter scale! No injuries and fatalities, though, I heard. But a small hospital near the volcano, which was the epicenter of the earthquake, was damaged.

Meanwhile, nearly all restaurants nearby closed already because of the power outtage occurred in the whole island. Finally, we found this BBQ restaurant, got in a long line of queue, and had lunch there. We shopped for groceries and food in a supermarket called Safeway, which was packed with people. We shopped in the dark and got us some (unhealthy) food. On the way back, it rained again.

The power was back on 6.40 pm, thank god, cause I’m afraid of the dark hehe. Everybody was screaming in delight.

Anyway, I’m here in Honolulu cause I got the Jefferson Fellowship from the East West Center here. The program’s theme is ‘Population and Social Dynamics in Asia Pacific’. I will stay here in Honolulu for a week, and then move on for field trips to Tokyo and Hiroshima (Oct. 22-28), Bangkok and Chiangmai (Oct. 29-Nov. 4) and New Delhi (Nov. 5-Nov. 11). Pretty exciting, huh, huh? Jealous already? Have to spend time with your lousy family on Lebaran day? Hah!! :P

Miss you, t.

Posted by hera at 6:15 AM | Permalinks | Comments