Internet Café

What do you have in mind once you heard a word ‘Internet Café’? A fancy café that has high speed internet connection? Or a room full of cubicles where each cubicle contains one PC with internet? Well yes, those are the normal so-called internet café looks like. But what I find in Makassar is pretty interesting, because it’s different.

In the Faculty of Social and Politic, there’s a free access of WiFi. It means you don’t need any network key to connect to the internet. This doesn’t happen in other faculties. In University of Bremen, we even have to register our laptop/ PC if we want to be able to access the internet in campus!

What makes it interesting, the place for hang out in Soc-Pol Faculty is decent cafés; or so called warung. These warungs are simple, selling meals or instant noodles, simple drinks like packaged tea, ice orange, instant coffee, and the place for sitting is only simple plastic chair or even old wooden bench.

Just take a look at this picture. These two guys are sitting on a decent wooden bench and put their laptops on a decent wooden table. At the background there are the warungs. It’s completely a contrast picture. Although the place is so descent, which mean for low economy-class people, but apparently the people who goes there isn’t from low class because they all have laptops. Isn’t that interesting?

Look at this video and see the how abnormal this internet café!

Water Scarcity

I guess this is one of some typical problems in developing countries: water scarcity!

Yes, I have to face that problem now although I stay at the 3rd biggest city in Indonesia! If I stay in an island, then I don’t expect much about it. But since I still stay in the mainland, of course I wouldn’t anticipate this at all.

So what happened to me these days; every morning me and my friend have to wait in our terrace. We wait for our neighbors who try to pump the groundwater with electric pump. If one succeeds, then the whole street will go there to collect the water.

But one thing I just knew now. This groundwater source is only last for some time. For example, one day my neighbor who lives directly on the right side got the water. We collect the water for some time until it doesn’t come out anymore. Then in the next day, it’s my neighbor, who lives 2 houses on the right side, who got the water. So it’s not fixed everyday. And I guess that’s the challenge (and of course frustration!).

My strategy for this situation, I just have one big shower everyday. If I don’t sweat so much, then I just have light shower which I called ‘cat bath’ or mandi kucing in Indonesian. Somehow I think this situation is funny, comparing to my life in Germany. In Germany, we don’t need to have shower everyday because the weather is mostly cold. I remember, even after my daily one-hour walk, most of the time I don’t take any shower. In Indonesia, the weather is hot and humid, so having shower twice a day is a regular norm. How come in a country where having shower everyday isn’t necessary, the water is always available; while in a country where having shower twice a day is a must, the water is scarce. Ironic, huh?!

If I need more water for washing my clothes or my hair, then I use drinking water which can be bought in gallon bottle. Oh well, maybe I can be as beautiful as Demi Moore. I heard she washes her hair using Evian.

Don’t ask about water for cooking. We don’t cook anymore as we would need more water rather than if we just buy ready-made foods. So yes, it’s an expensive life style :(