Imaginative Possibilities
I have my days off on Sunday. It is the day when I try my best to learn anything and everything I want.
By Arumy Marzudhy
My name is Arumy. I have been working as a domestic worker in Hong Kong since 2005. Being a domestic worker isn’t my dream, but I had no choice. Poverty forced me into this city.
I never regret that. I know even if I am a domestic worker, what I am doing is legal and I am here to earn money just like other blue-collar or white-collar workers. Even if there are people who look down at me, I don’t care.
I have my days off on Sunday. It is the day when I try my best to learn anything and everything I want.
In 2009, I started practising Taekwondo. My coach invited me to join several competitions. I won them all. I love martial arts because it builds and balances my body, mind and soul. It gives me confidence. And of course, it helps me fend for myself if I meet bad guys along the way.
I also joined some English courses. I finished my basic and intermediate classes with a teacher. Speaking English is difficult for me, but I am eager to master this language, one baby step at a time.
And now, I am in love with photography. I think I am somebody who is always thirsting for knowledge. I crave new lessons, new challenges and new understandings of things that I have never encountered.
Sometimes, working in Hong Kong makes me feel lonely, tired and bored. But somehow, inspiration comes to me when I am washing the toilet or doing other cleaning work. I try to keep them on my mind and write them down when I have time.
My interest in photography began when I freelanced for a magazine in Hong Kong. I usually write for the social opinion column for an Indonesian newspaper. But what I enjoy most is letting my imagination flow, and constructing fictions. I have written a lot of short stories but only few of them were published.
I am now trying hard to understand what photography is. The beauty of photography is that it can speak — without uttering a single word.
My dream is to take good pictures around the world and tell the stories of the people behind those pictures.
We now live in a global age due to technology. Social media shapes a big part of our lifestyle. People who can use social media and pictures to tell their stories, have great power to influence and help other people. Especially for women, who are still denied opportunities simply because of their gender in many places, technology has allowed us to do more than what we have previously thought was possible.
Arumy is 27 years old and has been in Hong Kong for 10 years. Originally from Blitar city, the hometown of the first Indonesian president, she is also a freelance writer for the Indonesian newspapers. Upon her return to Indonesia in September 2015, she wishes to finish her degree in mass communications with the Open University of Indonesia. She can be contacted at arumymarzudhy@gmail.com
