Perspective-A Trip to a Kampung

The students at SPH come from some of the most affluent families in Jakarta.  They are raised in the nicest neighborhoods with numerous helpers and nannies.  Many of them have no idea what lies beyond the upper-class communities in which we live.

Our unit of inquiry right now is entitled "Who We Are."  Each grade has this unit, but studies a slightly different aspect of this broad question.  In grade three we explore our needs and wants, how different people meet those needs, and how we can live responsibly based on our needs.

To help students see how other people live, since all they know is their upper-class lifestyle with multiple nannies, drivers for every child, and unlimited resources, we took them to a kampung, one of the lower-class villages, close to Karawaci (our town).  They interviewed some of the people, got to attend a class at the school there, and ate a typical lunch that students there might eat.

My first field trip with these guys was awesome.  It was not only good for them to get out of our bubble, but wonderful for me too.  I had not been to an area like this since coming to Indonesia. It was actually nice to be away from the supermall, Western coffee shops and bookstores, and 50-story apartment buildings.

Here are some photos from the trip!

Trash sorter's house, picking out the recyclables to sell.  This is their only income. 

When we ate lunch, the kids left a ton of food.  Apparently they were not fans of the simple meal of rice and beans.  We combined their leftovers into a few nice boxes.  My first instinct was to think, "We can't give this food to others.  It's scraps.  It's been touched by these kids' germs."  But then I realized, many of these people have next to nothing.  The trash sorter family is huge, yet live on pennies a day. And they would really appreciate this food.  We gave them the food.  And all of the cardboard from the lunch boxes.  And all the plastic tray dividers in the boxes, so that they could make a little more money. 

I was told when I got here, be careful what I throw away, like broken glass, metal, etc.  Because someone always goes through it. The trash sorters are making their money.  Seeing the home of one of these sorters makes me even more careful as I toss things.

A couple days later in school, the kids were comparing the way that we meet our need for food with the way that those in a kampung meet their need for food.  They had to come up with their responsibility, aligned with what God's Word says about meeting this need.  One girl said, "I need to learn to eat more.  Or ask my mom to pack less.  Because I don't eat very much.  And I waste a lot of food.  And other people don't have very much at all."  Said perfectly through the lips of a child.  I really have a lot to learn from these kids this year.  And I am excited for every minute of it!