After lunch, Rini took me to one of the poorest neighborhoods/kampung in Jakarta. It is called Kampung Jati, a maze of narrow walkways with families living a few feet from one another. All of the walls and ceilings are made of found materials, Whole families (5-7 people) live in cramped 10x 10 spaces. One of these spaces, painted all white with no furniture in it but floor mats is where KAPAL has been training women leaders for four years. Most of the families in this area are Muslim. When KAPAL began trainings one of the things they introduced were several sessions on world religions so that women could be introduced to the basic ideas of other religions in addition to their own. About 30 of us met in this space. (see pic ) Each woman introduced herself to me through an interpreter. As I did when it was my turn.
Quite in the moment I asked them what struggles involved them in their neighborhood.
The women immediately said water (members of KAPAL had just passed out cups of purified water to each woman). Rini had said they used theatre in their community and so we began to “stage” the problem: each month the women must go to the post office to pay their water bill. But the water is dirty, or at other times, the water does not come out of the faucets. What possible solutions are there to this problem, I asked through the translator. One woman said, none—we must pay or they turn the water off. Another said, we could complain, but the person at the post office is the wrong person, he has no power. We played out both of these ideas. What other solutions might there be? A woman said, we could go to downtown Jakarta and talk to the head office for water. We played it out. Another said--our words are not taken seriously here either; we need to stage a protest. Another woman said—yes and we must invite the media! And so we played this scene out too. Through it all, we laughed. Some women were very engaged in the process, others just wanted to watch. Fine. But strategizing together was the key idea. When Rini laughed and said-- oh I had no idea of the time, we must be going-- it was a surprise to us all that two hours had passed so quickly and all focused on water!
As we walked down the narrow walkway the many women leaders of the Kampung Jati came with us---and their children! (see pic) Rini stopped to point to a bucket of yellow water --- that’s the water they were talking about, she said. Later, in the taxi, she told me that KAPAL had taught them these same theatre methods (techniques of Augusto Boal) using another problem of the neighborhood. Rini, why didn’t you tell me, I would have done something else! Oh no, she said, it’s important that they learn them again, especially from a foreigner! I was humbled that these very welcoming women had so generously offered their time and energy to experience Boal’s techniques—again!
Kathryn arrived in the evening from Cambodia to join the rest of the Indonesian journey.
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