Today I went up to Ibu Umi’s cart area to ask her some questions for my homework. We had to write about traditional medicine today. Ibu Umi uses traditional medicine for her high blood pressure as she can’t afford modern medicine. As we were talking we got onto a different topic. Ibu Umi told me a story which explains why their current financial situation is what it is. A few years ago when Ibu Nina was working at an office, she was a supervisor and responsible for giving everyone their pay. Most people wanted cash so the night before payday, she and Ibu Umi would organize it all and make the envelopes ready. One morning after doing this while she was on her way to work with her bag full of envelopes with pay, someone grabbed her bag and ran off with it. Ibu Nina went to the police station and immediately filed a report. Unfortunately the office didn’t believe her and she was informed that she would have to pay back the entire sum. It amounted to 40 million rupiahs! A fortune! So Ibu Nina and her mom and brother sold everything they could in their house and paid back 5 million right away. From then until now, Ibu Nina’s husbands pay has been docked 1 million rupiah each month. In fact all he earns is 1 million. He receives 300,000 rups for travel costs and 150,000 rups as an incentive. So they have been surviving on that alone! Remember, about 7,800 rupiahs is 1$ CDN. After hearing this story, I went to see an expat woman who has been living here for a very long time to get confirmation of this story. She confirmed it and she also confirmed that everyone in the kampung believes that Ibu Nina didn’t take the money herself that it in fact was stolen. If she had taken the money she certainly wouldn’t be living in the house that they currently live in. What a story! It sure explains a lot! At this point I’m not really sure what to do. Just giving them money is not the answer. The expat woman, Cindy, told me that I should talk with her husband about what to do to help them without making them dependant on us. I understand from Cindy that Ibu Umi would love to be able to start a larger business. I will talk with Cindy’s husband soon and see what he thinks would be best.