Pulau Moro Kecil, Riau Archipelago

C. Dec 2022.

I accompanied my colleague who builds networks and relationships with local village leaders to a small village we will be working with in the near future. In this small village of about 50-70 homes, many families provide for themselves through Agar-agar farming (seaweed).

They set their trellis’s into the sand at low tide for the seaweed to grow into. Here, men are working their farms at low tide, making sure their crops are growing correctly. After harvesting, they will set it out to dry under the sun and then sell to a middle man to sell to buyers in other parts of Indonesia, Singapore, and SE Asia.

In the second picture, you can see the largest city in the entire area called “Moro”. This city is where the one bank is and all the community services and government flow through. If you observe closely, you can see large cell towers that provide mobile internet to the entire surrounding community including to Telunas. One running oxymoron is that even though most of these villages do not have running water and only have electricity at night time, I can consistently get quality mobile 4G internet anywhere I go (enough to stream videos and video call people).

This trade provides for subsistence living. Life here is simple and the communities are bright and warm. I have learned to see every community through a lens of charity and a place to learn more about our shared common humanity. If you look past the differences, we are all more similar than we think. Politics, power, family, work, wanting better for ones children, and how to deal with modern technology, climate change, and globalization. We all share in these common issues just in different environments and settings.