Today I made the big trip and crossed the Jambi river to the part of town known for its religious conservatism, batik, ancient temples, and higher level of poverty. Only knowing this information from friends’ side comments, the inaccessibility of this part of town has incited increasing curiosity for me until today provided the opportunity to see it for myself. SIKOK, the other ngo I volunteer with manages a network of middle school sex-ed programs in Jambi and today we had to go and visit one of these schools that requires a boat trip to reach it. From the rickety little boat we took, I unfortunately wasn't surprised to see more than one person throwing bags of trash into the river. This only had the effect of reinforcing my aversion to eating fish here since the ubiquity of sludge-like, trash covered rivers in Indonesia is nothing like my image of salmon migrating up clear streams in the Pacific Northwest. But as we continued, the ojek ride to school revealed the town over yonder to be charming in a developing world kind of way. Why is it that wooden houses are immediately so much cuter when they are held up on stilts? Maybe it was the potted plants lining the bridges to each house, or the colorfully painted shutters, or the overgrown marshes and palm trees, but it was all more refreshing that the dirty, cement covered, traffic congested city of Jambi that I live in. When we made it to the school that is desperately in need of a new paint job, we found out that the man who runs the sex-ed program was not there today. So much for our effort, or lack of in regards to Indonesian work ethic and preparedness, but luckily through a few more ojek rides we were able to track down the teacher at his home. With the meeting over and my stomach calling for lunch, it was just another work field trip to see a little more of Jambi and the local efforts trying to expand sexual health education and rights.
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