Don’t be scared by the title, it’s about ways of celebrating birthdays. I have been on several birthdays since I’ve been here, all different from the one I had yesterday (like I wrote about here). I was happily surprised that spending a lot of money on your birthday is not always spending it on booze or luxury. Begging streetkid in one of the traffic jams of Jakarta

Yesterday I congratulated Balqis when I met her in Dragon Fly (Kenny Dope came over from NY, he was playing nice). I asked her if she had done anything for her birthday, like invite friends and family as I would think the typical Dutch birthday would be like. She didn’t do that. Instead she had called a doctor to join her to circumcise boys in the streets. I was kind of amazed by what she had just told me, but it didn’t take long for me to understand what she ment; circumcizing kids. Being circumcised is something expensive for a lot of the kids on the street, so Balqis arranged a doctor to accompany her and help some of the kids. Circumcising is not only for Muslims. As far as I know in most tropical countries it’s a common thing to do due to hygiene. In the Netherlands I don’t have a lot of friends who had the skin removed. Instead of spending her money on expensive drinks, Balqis helped some kids in a priceless way.

I didn’t join Balqis, I have only met her a couple of times so far. I spend my day at the birthday of Cindy. Cindy also didn’t feel like getting hordes of people to her place. Having guests means cooking and a lot of extra trouble. She didn’t feel like that, also since the maids are gone for a short holiday. Instead she and her mother spend a day and a night in the kitchen cooking food. Yesterday around 11 I went to her place to meet up with her and San San. All the food was packed in little packages and she had some boxes of candy with her too.

Poor streetkids in Jakarta

We departed by car to cruise Jakarta. We stopped at all the begging kids and old/poor people to give them a little package of rice with fish. Kids got a snack with that too. It was the best birthday party I ever had; seeing all the kids sincerely smile and being happy, while calling their friends from the other street corners that would come running to the car to get some food too. Why did we give food to these kids, and why do I normally don’t give money to them? In The Netherlands I would not give money to homeless people because the probability they would by drugs instead of food is high. In Indonesia the kids often have to give their money to a ‘boss’ who will than give a very small part to the kids. Food is something the boss will not be able to use, so in this way it goes directly to the children.

Happy streetkids in Jakarta

A day like yesterday was.. priceless. And the costs were minimal. If you visit the traditional market, you would be able to make 30-50 packages of food (with the quantity of a moderate meal) for just 250.000 IDR (Less than 25 euros). I liked doing it so much, that I hope we can do this once a month. It’s not only a great way of spending time while having great conversation, it’s cruelly rewarding to see the faces of the people (probably even more rewarding because of the surprise to them that it was a bule giving them the food).

About birthday parties and me; I am happy with a little postcard, e-mail, SMS or a short call. I don’t like the masses of visitors at my place. A birthday is just as any other day, but my friends made it look different yesterday. If you want to spend your birthday hiding from people dropping by at your place, try spend it in this way. It’s so much fun to do.