Another Morning for the Lady behind a Rice Stall

It is 5 o’clock in the morning; the sun has just shown its rays, and the streets of Jl. Sumatera Depok 1 were still empty and quiet. The morning seems so peace and soundly. However, things look the opposite in a little stall in the crossroad – Mrs. Wahono’s rice stall – which has started its day earlier than anybody else in that area. However, it is not the stall that caught people’s attention; it is the lady behind the stall. Her modest attitudes has inspired people – and inspired me.

When waking up in the morning, and have nothing to eat for breakfast, people tend to be easily confused and upset. It is because everything in people’s lives, nowadays, race against time. Because of that, having an option to buy an easy meal for breakfast is really comforting people. This idea has opened up new entrepreneurial opportunities for some people whose lives are less prosperous due to the lack of job vacancies.

Mrs. Wahono is one of the people who take this opportunity by making a rice stall business, which is only opened in the morning. Since his husband retired from his job as public transportation driver, Mrs. Wahono opens this little business to help her husband feeding her family – Mr. Wahono himself is now working as a help in a plant and flower shop. Their family situation is what forced them to look for additional income, so that they can help paying their grandchild’s school. However, it is Mrs. Wahono that inspired me the most.

Although these works that this husband and wife have happens repeatedly every morning – just like an everyday routines – I found that, after watching them closely, Mrs. Wahono only opens her rice stall for 3-4 hours every day, which is from 5-9 a.m. It is because she only sells breakfast meals, and when sun rises higher, there will be less people pass by – and it means less people buy breakfast meals.

It is 5 a.m.; it is the time for this couple to start their days in the morning. After helping his husband preparing the plant shop to be opened, Mrs. Wahono prepares her stall – which is located across the plant shop – and foods before people pass and stop by. Oh, by the way, I am also one of her customer, the new customer.

I saw her in her little stall every morning, around 5:30, when I have my dog’s morning strolling routines. At the first times, I did not really notice her, but after several times, her morning routines catch my attention. I see this old woman setting up the stall and arranging the foods in the storefront glass shelves by herself with a bright smiling face – without any sign of sleepiness. Her face shows hope, a hope for more money to be taken home for her family – much more than yesterday’s.

A few minutes later, people begin to pass. Most of them are having their morning exercise or, like I do, take the pets for a walk. Mrs. Wahono starts calling these people to stop by and buy some breakfast meals. She smiles to everyone, even though they ignore her. Without waiting for too long, her stall is then flooded with dozens of people. They keep coming; some people are buying their foods to be taken away, while some prefer to have their breakfast there – in Mrs. Wahono’s simple benches and tables.

With her six years experience of selling foods in that crossroads, Mrs. Wahono and her breakfast meals has already well-known by people living around there – even some of her customer are not come from that area. This kind of loyalty can only be earned from a consistency of presentation and service, and also a constant quality of the foods.

After ordering my foods, and while waiting for her to prepare them, I do a little observation and interview with the people around the stall. I want to know what they think about Mrs. Wahono’s breakfast meals and the reason they buy the foods. Most of them say that the reason they buy their breakfast here is because they are attracted by the way Mrs. Wahono’s offering the foods, and get curious; while some of them were attracted to stop by because there are already some people there, buying the food. So they pauses their running activity, and try the foods, that they thought must be good.

“I was doing my morning exercise (running), and then I saw a little throng in this crossroad, and I wonder what makes them clustered there,” said Mr. Bambang (45), who tells me his first time experience of buying foods here, excitedly. “Then I found that they are buying breakfast meals! All of them, ha-ha. Then I decided to try the foods. Well, the taste is good, and it is really cheap; only Rp3.000,00 for a plate of coconut rice,” he added.

Then I go asking similar questions to some random people around the stall – a 8-year-old school boy, a 22-year-old girl who was walking with her dog, and a housewife. Tommy, the elementary school boy, told me that Mrs. Wahono is always nice to him, and she even let him pay less because he doesn’t have much money for lunch. While Vena, a young lady who passed with her dog and stopped by to buy her breakfast, said that “I don’t have to be bothered looking for breakfast that I can buy, because during my morning exercise I can stop here for a while to order for foods and pick it up when I want to go home.”

On the other hand, Merry, the housewife, mentioned that “This lady (Mrs. Wahono) is really kind – I saw her once giving extra eggs for an old woman with her little child. That’s a nice attitude, you know.”

Their answer is quite similar, and the point is that they love to be Mrs. Wahono’s customer because the stall is in a strategic area, the food is cheap and tastes good, and because the seller lady serve them kindly.

After getting my foods ready, I pay them up and stay there for a while to take a closer look on how Mrs. Wahono treats her customer; I am curious to prove what people have mentioned about her, myself.

Minutes after minutes, I have to agree with those people because Mrs. Wahono always looks nice all the time she serves the customer. She smiles, and her gestures are so polite, and it seems like she never get tired in dealing with many people that seem never stop coming. I believe these attitudes are the things that bring Mrs. Wahono endless blessing.

This little experience with Mrs. Wahono and her little rice stall really gives me a way new perspective of life – that from her simple life, which sometimes filled with misery, she can always present positive attitudes while serving her customers. People can see her as an ingenuous figure. By the way she treats people, the blessings come by itself – and her positive attitudes also bring blessings for other people.

In this life, we will not always meet the people we like, and not all the people we meet like us. That is why we have to present the best things that we got, without being afraid of shame or showing your true self in front of other people. Mrs. Wahono has taught me how to be myself and still have many people to like me. Just because you are not as rich, smart, pretty as the others, does not mean you have to be mean to them. Be nice, and the whole universe will be side by side with you. Look at Mrs. Wahono, her attitudes has inspired other people, without her realizing it.