Media intern swept up by bustling Jakarta

During her internship, Isabella travelled to Bogor where she interviewed an elderly woman about her life and working as a waste picker

I didn’t know the full-blown love affair I was in for as I took my first steps on to the tarmac at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

All I knew was the heat smacking me in the face, my brand-new pack digging into my shoulders and swarms of drivers smiling at me outside the airport, grinning and saying Miss, Miss, taxi! You need a ride?  

The next morning when I woke up in my hostel in Glodok, Jakarta, all I knew then was the green warteg (food stall) I ate my first breakfast at. It sat thirty metres down the street, a wheelbarrow of red chillies dumped on the table outside and dried, herbed fish hanging up in the windowsill.

I sat inside at the bench, with a plate heaped with rice, vegetable soup and an iced tea to counter the beads of sweat sliding down my face. The family who owned the warteg laughed at me the whole time from behind the counter, and when I left they grinned and lifted their arms in goodbye.

Atma Jaya University was where I got to know my small but feisty journalism class on floor 14, the journalists who came and spoke to us and the clever and insightful conversation that followed.

I knew I loved my language class, 11 of us with knees squeezed under tiny desks built for smaller people, our five foot teacher Ibu Ima bounding around the room and making the mundane process of beginning to learn a language exciting, entertaining and at times (usually at the 3-4 hour mark) downright hysterical. Through peals of laughter we learnt the art of Bahasa Indonesia.  

Isabella (front right) with fellow ACICIS interns during a weekend trip to Bromo, East Java

These language classes meant I knew how to introduce myself and how to say 'no thank you I do not want sugar in my coffee. They also meant when caught on the side of the road in a flash flood with a friend we knew how to speak to the three girls at the roadside shop and ask to ask them their names, how old they were, did they live there, what did they do? They giggled hysterically in between responding, hid their faces behind their palms and asked us if we were married yet.

At my placement at Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), I knew my wonderful team, who took me out to eat plates of gado-gado, satay and countless rice and noodle dishes. They were curious about New Zealand and we swapped stories of family, work, friends and food. I learnt about the complex nature of South East Asia’s plastic pollution problem, and how the informal waste sector plays such a huge part in the movement and flow of plastic.

In my last week, a friend from work and I took two trains out of the city to Bogor, where we interviewed two eighty-year-old women ‘scavengers’, or ‘waste pickers’ for a story to be shared on international women’s day.

They would go out several times a day to collect dumped waste and plastic litter and sort it into recyclable categories. There were several tears during these interviews and moments where I found myself staring into the eyes of these women, picturing their lives worlds away from my own. Lives where they didn’t have access to education, were married at 19 years old, had three children by the time they were my age.   

I was especially touched by these women, and others I met along the way.

The experience and skills you pick up while navigating yourself in a foreign land are invaluable, and in the calm waters of returning home I just feel entirely grateful to everyone who made it happen. All I know now is that I’ll return one day, it’s just a matter of when.

I heard stories that made me grateful for small things back home I took for granted, and hyper-aware of certain privileges I carry. But I also heard stories that put me in awe of the girls and women in Indonesia who were changing the world around them.

I now know there are amazing women forging the way in the business side of the waste industry, science and journalism – it makes me excited to think one day I might return and work alongside them.  

Isabella (fourth from right) on the last day in the office with the team she worked with at Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)

The more I learnt about Indonesia, the more I realised there is to know. In the turbulent six weeks spent diving into a place so rich in culture and personality, it truly was a love affair I never expected and now can never forget.

The experience and skills you pick up while navigating yourself in a foreign land are invaluable, and in the calm waters of returning home I just feel entirely grateful to everyone who made it happen. All I know now is that I’ll return one day, it’s just a matter of when.

The Asia New Zealand Foundation supported Isabella to undertake the 2023 Australian Consortium for In-Country Indonesian Studies (ACICIS) Journalism Professional Practicum and intern at Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia.