Indra Harsaputra and ID Nugroho, Sidoarjo – For 50-year-old Subiyanto, this year's Muslim fasting month of Ramadan is cause for both despair and hope.
"What else do we have to stop eating? We've been fasting for the past two years. We eat so little, and only once a day," said victim of the Lapindo mudflow disaster.
A father of three, Subiyanto and his family have had to live for more than two years in a kiosk in Porong market following the disaster that began on May 29, 2006. As a parking attendant on the Porong highway, Subiyanto earns Rp 10,000 (US$1.10) a day.
Like most of some 600 victims who call the market home, Subiyanto said he was fully aware of how little the money was. And yet, he said, it was just enough to meet their daily needs.
"The hardship teaches us to give up to God. It's a good religious experience that will move us closer to Him. In fact, we can greet Ramadan cheerfully, as we did last year," he told The Jakarta Post as he broke his fast on Wednesday with a glass of tea.
His wife Ronik, 49, told of having nothing but their threadbare clothes, living in a three by four meter kiosk.
"Initially, I doubted this was really our life, but later I realized we had to accept the reality. We find we are still surviving. We have to be nrimo (accepting)," she said.
Ronik admitted she never considered celebrating the upcoming Idul Fitri holiday, simply because she had no savings to buy new clothes or bake cakes for relatives and neighbors.
She said her family used to own a house in Renokenongo village, but have had difficulty getting compensation from Lapindo because of a lack of documents.
Her husband lost his job after the factory where he worked fell victim to the mudflow. "That is why we fast everyday – because of my husband's low daily income," Ronik said.
The mudflow submerged 19 factories employing more than 1,800 workers, mostly residents of the four villages now buried beneath the huge sea of mud in Porong, Sidoarjo. Each worker received Rp 700,000 in compensation from Lapindo.
Subiyanto said his family did not suffer much because all victims received Rp 300,000 each per month from Lapindo and the government. But the situation worsened after the financial assistance was halted in May this year.
The victims, mostly Muslim, attend Tarawih prayers at the market each evening during the fasting month.
During these prayers, worshipers call on God to open the hearts and minds of the government and Lapindo to their suffering by paying them the compensation due to them, as stipulated in a 2007 presidential decree.