Resourceful

Poverty gives rise to the most interesting forms of resourcefulness. Or perhaps more accurately, wealth makes people dependent on commercially available products.  For instance, you need to clean out your gutters, but you can’t reach the gutters.  What do you do?  Well, you hop in your car and you drive to the nearest Lowe’s or Home Depot and you buy a ladder.   In the U.S., you would be a Do-It-Yourself-er.  After all, you didn’t hire someone to clean out your gutters.  What if you don’t have money for a ladder and even if you could scrape together enough cash there isn’t any ladders for sale?  Here, you would walk out into the woods, cut down a couple of bamboo stalks and make your own ladder.  Now, I know this ladder does not meet OSHA health and safety standards, but it will get you up to the gutters (though, it might bring you to the ground a little more quickly than you would like). 

How about a rake?  Target?  Wal-mart?  Why not use a piece of an old flip-flop and poke sticks through it.  When the sticks break off, you can use them to light fires (like your kerosene cooking burner or the fire for burning your trash). 

Need a funnel?  Why not cut the top off of a plastic bottle, take the cap off, and turn it upside down.  You can use the bottom of the bottle as a scoop to water your plants. 

Is the grass getting long?  You can just use scissors or a machete. 

Need a rolling pin to make your own flour tortilla, because your craving for a breakfast burrito is so strong you might hop on a plane and fly to the nearest McDonalds for imitation egg and sausage off the $1 menu?  A large beer bottle works really well.  So does a piece of bamboo.

Does your loose change and your wedding ring long for a nice place to rest while you sleep or wash your dishes by hand?  Seashells make lovely change holders.  One tip, though: Be sure to clean them thoroughly.  Any lingering fishy smell will drive your Sumbanese puppy wild and she will steal your lovely change holder – change, wedding ring, and all. 

Check out the guy who comes by once a day to sell us fresh tempe and tofu.  He made his own cart with scrap metal, bamboo slats, old bike parts.

I am not saying that the conveniences we have become accustom to in the Western world don’t have their good points.  Seriously, a can opener is a thing of beauty.  Unlike the lone sailor who had to abandon his trip across the Atlantic because of a misplaced can opener, people here seem to open cans without them.  I will admit that I am more than a little concerned about Novi’s digits while she is banging that knife into the top of Colby’s canned chocolate milk.  We have since started purchasing powdered chocolate milk in a box.  This way we do not have to worry about tetanus, amputation, or the fact that the metal can doesn’t burn in our trash fire.

How do you fix a clogged drain if there is no plumber (human or liquid) available?  Why not use a ridiculously long vine to snake the pipes with?   It did the trick for Esti when are shower drain became clogged.

Purchasing clean water is mahal sekali (expensive) here.  Like many other families here, Esti and Novi rigged a plastic gutter to catch the rain water and funnel it into our water tank.  When it isn't being used for this purpose, it becomes an ultra-fast race track!

Chris even made us a floor lamp out of a rice bag, two tire rims and bamboo.