The Hidden Life of East Bali

with his sister and other working children. “I liked it in the city,” Mardu recalls. “There was electricity, television, lots of motorbikes, and smart people. But I ­ missed my mother.”

A few months after Mardu arrived in the city, his sister started working as a housemaid for a middle class family, who offered Mardu a light job, as well as a chance ­for both of them to continue their education. At first , Mardu was ecstatic. He was paid Rp 100,000 a month for small domestic chores, plus free food, school fees, and books. But he still felt lonely. Soon he left for Tegallalang looking for his old friend Kacrut.

After two years work, Kacrut, now 12 years old, was making Rp250,000 month, nearly as much a school teacher. He enjoyed his job, for although the hours were long and the work repetitive and tiring, he laboured with a group cof other children from his village. After trying to go back to school with Mardu for a while, he quickly lost interest, and started skipping school to hang out on the streets. At 14 years old, he felt ready to be independent, and went to live with his older brother, a street vendor and petty criminal, in Kuta Beach . “I heard that he can already drive a motorbike and that he's dyed his hair red,” says Mardu. “ Sometimes I get sad looking at the school books he left behind. I'm still saving them for him.”

Mardu is now in his first year of high school in Denpasar. He reads voraciously and he says he want to be a writer when he grows up. He hopes that when the time comes, he'll have enough money saved to go on to buy a small piece of land in his village for his mother and sister . does he regrets his experiences as a child labourer? Mardu says that he is happy about the way his life has turned out, for working kept him from becoming spoiled. “Of course, I wouldn't be happy if I hadn't been able to go back to school,” he adds. He says that he has a message for Ind onesia n children : “If you just go to school it's not good. If you just work, it's also not good. For life you need both.”

few were surprised

Competition among handicraft

hunt for frogs

started skipping school