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Monday, February 18, 2008

Wholeday at Ciliwung






Yesterday, I went to Ciliwung, took part in social aid activity organized by KKMK (Catholic Young Employee Community). Ciliwung is a main river flows through my lovely Jakarta. "Kampung Pulo" and "Bukit duri" were the name of the districts I visited, a full of poverty urban district experiencing great flood so many times. In this place, approximately one year ago, Ciliwung 's water level got 4 metres overflowed from normal condition reached a height of 3 metres flooding houses and made this area become the most serious flood-stricken area in Jakarta. You only saw the top of the roof of most of every houses there, even reached as high as the waist of an adult person standing at second floor of two-floored house.

The people live in there have become accustomed to flood disaster that happen almost annually. The poverty forces them to stay at this area hopelessly. The lack-of-hygiene housing crowds the river banks with poor drainage. Ciliwung's width in Kampung Melayu was reduced to five from ten meters in many decades. The population has been reclaiming the river banks, so that the river became increasingly narrower, and consequently the river flow became stronger. The condition of the river has been made worse by garbage and refuse that silting the riverbed.

We came to that pathatic place yesterday. Yeah..., although we came from catholic community, but in this activity we didn't bring our religious labels or symbols. That was my favourite part in this activity that showed our honesty and careness to our surrounding as human being. We collected all garbage we found and also planted some small crops around the riverside. This might not influence the river condition, but this is important for people awareness about garbage handling and also their healthy environment.

Finally, I impressed with people's friendliness, their served snack and their smiling faces. A full of definitely sincerity smile... A smile that made me realize that this small world is so pretty even at the most pathetic environment. Smiley is the window of people's heart indeed....

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