TUK TUK KOPI

 TUK TUK KOPI (GRINDING COFFEE ACTIVITIES)

A few days ago, I watched a program about a traditional village in Flores, East Nusa Tenggara Province. The village called Wae Rebo and it is one of coffee production area in Indonesia. When it came to a scene when women in this village was working together to grind the coffee at open space near their house, I just remember a photos that my lecture showed when I was in my landscape architecture class a couple years ago. That photo showed BALINESS women gather, chat and laugh in tiny back yard porch while preparing the offering for ritual ceremony. At that time, the lecture talked about the meaning of public space. It is about a space where all people can appropriate and use. No matter if it is a tiny or vast. The soul of the space comes from the positive activities that are created by its existence. I think, this concept is pretty much similar with this TUK TUK KOPI scene.

I just imagine that women can share their feeling while grinding the coffee. It may their complaints about the increasing grocery price in market, or their happiness because their kids just got married, their worried of relatives in foreign lands, or their anger about this morning quarrel with their husband (I bet the coffee will be grinded perfectly because they will express their anger by strengthen the beating power, ha..). It is vibrant and dynamic community space, a therapeutic social arena where community can accommodate their social needs while doing productive activities. 

Then, when we look in to today context, this kind of space may rapidly extinct, especially in Indonesia urban area. People become more individual, tend to buried their own problem and sadness inside (the house and heart) and it is very sad fact. I hope this kind of space will get more attention in the future and we brave enough to say more than ‘hi!’ words to our neighbor.