Tajur Biru Shoreline

We are still in Tajur Biru Island, approximately 2 hours by speedboat south of Bintan Island, where a bunch of good souls from The Humanity Forum is giving education support to both the sea nomads kids and other local children on the island. Here is a quick preview of the living condition over there.

Similar to other small islands in Indonesia, population is concentrated on the shoreline, which is a logical local wisdom of Carbon reduction in terms of transportation. There are two wooden jetties, one for passengers and another one for cargo (which constitutes mostly of seafood catch). All the government offices are also here. Less than 5 minutes walk uphill there is a primary school with what seems (to us who have been living in cities) to be a meager setup.

There is only one shop, and this small shop, for them, is what Hypermart or Carrefour is for most of us. We can find all sort of things from construction materials and kitchen utensils to fashion and plastic jewelry to snack, homemade lollipop ice and beer. The shop also provides meals at a reasonable price. The choice of meals, though, depends heavily on what is available (which, sadly, most of the time will be instant noodles, eggs, chilli and cabbage). The good thing is that the owners of the shop, both husband and wife, are very kind. As a matter of fact, the Humanity Forum has managed to promote A Sui, that’s his name BTW, to become the local coordinator for the education support.

If you are interested in what is happening in terms of educational support to the sea nomads and other children over here and ways to participate, please click The humanity Forum.

A view of the fisherman's jetty from the passenger jetty. On the far left is the house of the middleman, I believe the richest on the island. This picture is taken from 5 individual frames and stitched with Autopano. You can click on the picture to get a higher resolution image.

A closer look to the end of the fisherman's jetty in the early morning, with empty seafood containers stacked at the end. This picture is an HDR of 3 frames.

During low tide, the hidden trash is more prominent, but they are mostly organic such as dead logs and broken branches. Freshwater is close to non-existant here, so people buy from other island 30 minutes away by boat and store in big containers like this one on the left. Another HDR of 3 frames.

A Sui's super duper shop is strategically located at the left side of the passenger jetty. There is ample space for a gathering which happens almost every evening; people will drink coffee and play cards or dominoes. The view to the open sea is a little bit spoiled by the chicken wire fencing, but this fence also prohibit people from throwing rubbish to the sea.