The Floating Plastic Bag
This wooden house barely fitted the six of us—me, my husband, and these four young people who must be no more than 25 in age. There’s no more space left even for us to move a bit. The folded cotton mattress occupied what’s left of this room. While the other room belonged to the pan, black kettle, stove, some plates, spoons, and any other stuff. “We are from AYVP, ASEAN Youth Volunteer Programme. We are here to invite you to our performance and distribute hygiene kits,” they said. Then they asked me a couple of questions. “I’m Tik, 52 years old and my husband is Net. He’s 39 years old. It’s only the two of us who live here. My husband used to be a fisherman, but he’s not doing anything now. Well it’s been a year since he got a foot problem that made him unable to walk. As for me, I collect plastic bottle. I get 500 Riel for a kilo. And every day I got 2000 riel that I can merely use to buy rice and water, nothing else. We live in the moment. Can’t think about tomorrow.”
Sweat droplets on their skin began to run down their face. The plastic ceiling must have invited brutal heat to join us in this room. I told them, “As you can see, most of the woods in this house are termite eaten. This house is about to collapse. We don’t have enough money to build a good one. And here we only have two rooms. No toilet. How do we poop? Simple. We do it in a plastic bag then throw it away to the river.” Right then I saw their eyes widen. Their mouth gaped open.
They also told me how to wash my hands properly, a concept that I found strange. Perhaps as strange a concept as how they felt about the way we poop. Never did I think about washing hands as an important thing to do. These hands are meant for work and only work. It wouldn’t matter whether I wash them or not, it wouldn’t make us rich.
But they began to tell me the importance of it. Or why anyone would do it. That day was the first time I realized the causality of my husband’s foot problem and our “unhygienic”—to borrow their word—way of life.
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photo credits: Akara and Adibah
This blog also posted on AYVP Blogs, http://www.ayvpukm.com.my/blogs/2015/08/24/the-floating-plastic-bags/
