Rupak helping families at Bantar Gebung, the largest landfill in Asia. It is located in Jakarta. June 15, 2023

June 15, 2023

Hi Marc,

I'm in Jakarta now spending the last few days in Indonesia here. I will fly back to bali tomorrow and then to SF on June 30th. Today I visited Bantar Gebung, the largest landfill in Asia. It is located in East Jakarta about an hour by motorbike from my hotel in the city center. It is like what we have seen in documentaries horrific and stunning at once. 

My friend Fifi and I tried to climb the mountain on motorbike to speak with the trash pickers at the summit but the mud and rubbish were so thick we decided to turn back. We drove to a medical clinic at the base of the summit and spoke with the doctor there who directed us to the house of a 100 year old woman and her son in law with lung cancer, 5 minutes from the clinic. On the way home after meeting with and giving financial assistance to the old woman and ailing man we met a man selling snacks who we helped as well. All in a day's work.

Hope you're well and having fun in Bangkok.

Rupak

100 year old woman. Blind.

Location: Bantar Gebang, Bekasi city. 
The Daughter did most of the speaking as the old woman is senile. The woman was however able to tell us she cannot eat much and showed us her emaciated body. I asked her what life was like when she was young, she told us the trash dump was not there.  We gave her 600k rupiah ≈ $40

Man with fruits and snacks, age 50ish. 2 kids in middle school. If he sells all of his snacks he can earn 5 dollars per day walking miles around the perimeter of the landfill . But we met him at 4pm and he had barely any sales, as you can see he has almost all of his goods still unsold, so we took a wild guess based on how many snacks and price per snack and this man averages about 2 dollar per day income. We gave him 200k rupiah ≈ $13