ys 36 - Sunday, February 17, 1991- North Shore News TRAVEL Life in Indonesia a far cry from Western standards IMAGINE BEING chosen by a government youth organization to be transplanted from a comforta- ble life in Canada. By Lisa Reynolds Contributing Writer A life that perpetuates Western ideals; a life complete with a sup- port network of family and friends, an ability to function in the familiarity of your mother tongue and daily surroundings, and access to the goods and ser- vices required to remain educated, healthy, and comfortable. You give this life of privilege up for six months to experience living ina Third World village. Canada World Youth — Work Partner Program selected me to be such a transplantation participant for a project in a desa (village) in Indonesia. I arrived in Jakarta in early Oc- tober, at the beginning of my six-month stay in Indonesia to greet the capital of this country in all its intensity. 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These prices include Air, Hotel and Transfers. f 110 East 14th St fatLonsdaley jf 986-1377 § @ North Vancouver j energy, contradictions of wealth and poverty, and provides a dramatic clash between transplanted Western values and the Indonesian lifestyle. I realized the hypocrisy of my being in Indonesia as yet another exported Western product. But unlike the jars of Nestle baby milk and Nestle food products that line the shelves of many of the tokos (shops) here, | am aware I do not want to reinforce or perpetuate Western values that have served to oppress people all over the world. 1 am a participant in small-scale development; the type that Canada World Youth believes oc- curs on an individual level. Learn- ing between people about each other’s lives in attempts to under- stand and appreciate how each other’s actions affect one another is what CWY encourages. My first two months here in Indonesia I have been struck by the differences. Jakarta provides an example of an import-export capital city where multinational conglomerates breed rampantly in skyscraping offices, banks, and hotels. Scattered between these build- ings are shanty towns filled with families who have left their desa. They live in conditions that the average Canadian does not have to endure. Scattered just outside Jakarta is land still being farmed to produce rice, the staple food of Indonesia, and other goods. 1 now live in such a farming community of 1,600 Kaili people on the island of Sula Wesi. We are far removed from the life in Jakarta in Kayuboko, though most all aspects of life in the desa are still controlled on many levels by Jakarta. Ninety-five per”cent of the peo- ple 1 live with are farmers of rice, coconut, cloves, coffee, and other vegetables and fruits. and Power in Your Life. During the seminar, Robert will do makeovers on audience volunteers. He will also teach the audience Amazingly, | have been received with great hospitality and generos- ity into the home of one of Kayuboko’s farming families. Perhaps 1 am only here because top-down politicing has allowed it: Canada to Indonesia, Jakarta to Kayuboko. When I first arrived in Kayuboko all seemed foreign to me. The people’s faces seemed unfamiliar, their speech and songs melodic but | was yet unable to understand their meanings, and the lifestyle felt all new. From the differing tropical climate, to bathing, to eating, to famiiy relations, to village politics all was new and challenging. ! have stumbled around in the darkness of my Western ignorance and ethno.entricity in an attempt to understand what indonesia is about, and what [| am about, by being here. 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