Jakarta, 31 July 2019.
Ended my day of street photography photowalk and food adventure in Glodok and Jalan Sabang areas today with a dinner at a narrow alley full of street food vendors, sitting in front of this man. He had just finished his dinner and was sitting there resting and smoking.
He saw me shooting with my camera while waiting for my food to arrive, and he commented about how film photography was no longer a sustainable business now. He went on to share about what he knows about 5G technology. He then talked about characteristics of metals: copper, aluminium, silver and gold. Such a knowledgeable guy.
He shared how in the days of Pentium 1 processor, scavengers liked to collect them because of the high content of gold inside and could be sold for about 50K Rupiah.
He said, once, there was someone who collected discarded items from a room full of electronics, such as computer, tv, etc. and managed to extract 1 kg of gold from the components inside those electronics. It was a jackpot.
That someone was him. He was a scavenger of metal items before.
Now, he works as a waste collector. He removes waste from the nearby office buildings and from the street food vendors operating at the narrow alley we are sitting at now.
Today is supposed to be his day off, but his father in law is sick, so he works to cover for him. His day will end later at about midnight when all these street food vendors call it a day.
This was originally posted on my Facebook on 31 July 2019.
