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Small home, large screen AN UNEXPECTED CONTRADICTION

Rain creeps slowly inside, children play loudly outside, the smell of scraps from the night before consume the room as the fan struggles through the thick air to drown it out. But all these things don't matter, because it's sunday afternoon and after seven hard days of work, all you want to do is sit down and watch your television.

You are Eva and you've lived in this small village in Jakarta, Indonesia your whole life. But you don't just live here, you work here too, right from your home. Life is simple, but thats how you like it or maybe thats all you know. You don't own much, but you do own a television.

Eva, resident of village in Jakarta, Indonesia smiles as she watches her young boy playing in the courtyard.
Evas television

The flies bounce around your face. It's dark in the markets, but the light from your stall floods the area. You are tired from working, but you cant complain, all you had to do was walk downstairs and you were at work.

Your name is Sudrdo and you've sold phones in this small village in Jakarta for the last eight years. You don't just work here, you live here too. You sell about 15 phones a month. You don't own much, but you do own a television, and a phone.

Surdrdo, scrolls through his phone while he waits for customers from the markets inside his village

The sweat slowly drips down the back of your neck as you make your way home from work at the hospital. You are one of the only people in the village who doesn't work from home. The dip in the pathway, the hole in the wall, the scent of freshly cut vegetables combined with stale cigarettes is all too familiar as you walk the same streets as you have for the last 21 years.

Your name is Ima and you also live in this small village in Jakarta. You dont own much, but you do own a television.

Ima, 21, sells food out the front of her home with her parents in Jakarta, Indonesia
Ima is very happy to live in this village, this is where she was born

In a village that lacks clean water, safe houses and proper infrastructure the last thing you'd expect to find is a television.

"Everyone has a television, it's for entertainment, because if you don't have one its just work," said Eva.

A women in the village sits and watches the television

This strange contradiction, is seen outside the village too. Jakarta, located in Indonesia, a declared developing country, is overflowing with mobile phones. In 2015, Pew Research Centre found that 54% of people across 21 developing countries were either using the internet regularly or owned a mobile phone.

In a village with limited access to clean water and health services, it seems easier to sit down in front of the television to drown it all out.

The television isn't the only contradiction, the narrow alleys of this small village are drowned in motorbikes. Hundreds of them. It may not seem surprising considering Jakarta is home to some 15 million motorcycles, according to the Transport Council. But it's another small contradiction that adds to the enchantment of this village.

Young boy waits for the rain to pass so he can continue playing with his friends

In the age of the 21st century, when media usage is at an all time high, it seems a large screen is more important than a large home.

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