Finally, in July, Kapuk Murua Village was free from flood alerts and epidemic warnings--at least for the moment. Yet, the riverbanks continued to accumulate garbage. The single improvement was that we could finally see the river itself along with the reflections of the stilt houses built on the water. Since the river has been under such stress, we are all waiting to see its new look.

It was just past ten in the morning, about two hours before noon. The sun was hot as we gulped down our spicy Indonesian food. Then we made our way to the village of Kapuk Murua.

I had been here before, but it was the first visit for the others. In March, Tzu Chi TV sent a camera crew to document local Tzu Chi volunteers and Indonesian military at work cleaning up the village, which was in a disastrous condition from years of garbage accumulation along the river and riverbanks. People swam in the inky river, and little children waded in the water on their way to school. A young man expressed the concern of the whole village when he turned to the camera and pleaded, "What are we going to do if you leave?"

Tzu Chi members had gone to the disaster areas and uncovered the cause of the problems: the villagers simply dumped garbage into the river without realizing that some of it would never decompose naturally. As a result, more and more garbage continued to pile up.

I wondered whether the black waterway by the road was the river or the ditch! How could these people live in such conditions? As we entered the village, we were prepared for anything.

Reflection on the filthy river

After we entered the village, we quickly parked our two vans at a school under the protection of three soldiers provided by the Indonesian government. Tzu Chi volunteers Kao Pao-chin and Chen Chin-fu guided us into the illegally built village. We passed through a narrow alley leading to the river. While some rubbish littered the street, we found that the people’s homes were so clean that we tried to avoid stepping on the shiny paving bricks. The scene at the river, however, was something else--rather horrifying.

"Oh, things have improved a lot," said Chen Chin-fu with a wry smile. Although there were no more flood warnings or epidemic alerts, trash still littered the riverbanks. People still discharged their feces on a platform by the river. The only improvement was that we could see the river and the reflections of stilt houses on the water. However, the reflections came from an inky black river!

A boatman on the river pulled ropes to bring passengers to the other side. A hen, leading her chicks, searched for food along the river's edge. We could smell the scent of lunch in the air. The tropical sun made the villagers lethargic. We would have thought this was a Shangri-la, except for the garbage along the riverbanks and the offensive odor.

We all wondered how such a beautiful river as the Kali Angke had been become so completely filthy.

Life depends on the river

A man was selling drinking water in tins loaded on his pushcart. All the villagers bought their drinking water from him.

"When you see a villager, you simply use the international language--a smile," said Chen as we followed him into the village. The villagers built their homes with crude boards on both sides of the dike, and the top of the dike became the street.

Stores and residences lined the street. People crowded the narrow street and chatted away. Since Tzu Chi had helped them, they immediately recognized Chen and his Tzu Chi uniform of blue shirt and white pants, greeting him as warmly as they would a family member.

We came to a house where a man, assisted by Chen as translator, demonstrated how they used the river water: first pour a bucket of river water into a filtering bucket with a sponge inside, and then get another bucket to store the filtered water. The filtered water was used for bathing and washing dishes. As I was watching the man filtering one bucket of water after another with the shiny black river beneath us, an uneasy feeling suddenly took hold of me.

We then went to a factory that produced yellow-bean cakes. The workers used the same filtered water to wash away the skin of the yellow beans. "The cake is a main Indonesian dish--quite nutritious," Chen told us. "Most people fry it and find it very tasty. I've tried it already." With the manager's agreement, Chen showed us a half-finished product. Wrapped in tree leaves, the cake was full of white hypha, indicating that the cake was fermented.

Chen explained that the factory used the filtered water only to remove the skin, whereas clean water was used for the rest of the production. Indeed, the villagers were aware that they could not trust the quality of the river water. They did not dare drink it, and they avoided any use of the water if possible. They hoped they could eventually live in a clean place.

A few steps further, we came across some people crouched on the ground sorting and packing garbage. These were scavengers making a living by recycling various materials. Before the garbage collection system was set up here, these scavengers depended on the river for their very lives. We saw how helpful they were in unburdening the Kali Angke River.

Huatung New Village in Jakarta

"Terima kasih," the Malay expression for "thank you," melts the distance between people. Although we didn't fully understand what the villagers were saying to us, we responded to their warm treatment with our smiles.

A little boy, chubby and brown-skinned, sat in a basin under the roof of his house playing with the water. Seeing us as we approached, he stood up and looked at us curiously with his two big, round eyes. "Oh, he is so cute!" But as I raised my camera to take his photograph, a group of children suddenly swarmed before me, enthusiastic as TV stars. "Yeah!"

These board houses reminded me of a recently dismantled village called "Huatung New Village" back in Taipei County in Taiwan. The village used to be home to Taiwanese aborigines, who belonged to the same happy, kind Austronesian race as these Indonesians. The aborigines went far away from home to the cities to look for a better life, but they also faced the same problem of becoming marginalized in city society.

In Huatung New Village, people often used candles for lighting because they did not have electricity. Their houses were made of wood boards, so fires often broke out. We wondered whether Kapuk Murua Village faced a similar risk.

"Do fires occur often?"

"There's usually a fire once every two months."

"How does it happen?"

The villagers connect electric wires illegally to their homes, and the lack of proper installation often results in a fire. One such fire happened just two days before. The situation was the same as in Huatung New Village! These two illegally built villages faced the same problems. Kapuk Murua Village feared floods and Huatung New Village feared typhoons. Without water and electricity, these villagers have to live a hard life without any protection.

Currently, the people of Huatung New Village have moved to nearby government-subsidized apartments. The Tzu Chi Great Love Village for Kapuk Murua Village has begun construction. We hope that the villagers will be more careful during this period, since they will soon move into their improved homes.

Reserve a Shangri-la

Stephen Huang, a senior volunteer, told us that Tzu Chi would give the villagers rent money so they can move to another place in November this year. Tzu Chi will clean up the area and then plant trees along the river in December. Hopefully the first phase of the Great Love Village project will be completed by next April. Then the villagers can move in.

While listening to Huang talking about Tzu Chi's assistance to the villagers, I felt that the foundation was pumping a continuous fresh force into the river. The Kali Angke River has been stressed too much for too long. How will its new appearance affect the public? It will be a surprise at the very least.

I think the most natural landscaping plan would be to let the river return to its original depth of seven meters and width of seventy-five meters of clean water, with green trees waving on the banks.

Now is the time to reserve a space at Shangri-la!