Eating local culinary by extraordinary ways in Palu Bay. Suck the cold sea breeze. Then women from Kolakola offer roasted sago coated by anchovy, tuna or palm sugar to enjoy the evening go home.
It was then. Before the tsunami struck the beach with anger.
Still the faces of the hooded women sat neatly lined up in a dingklik in front of a smoldering furnace. On top of the stove, small cauldrons are ready from the ground. Like a fireplace, there is no cold sweeping sea breeze.
The lavender dusk gave her face a natural color. Behind them the waves of Palu Bay overtook the sun that was leaving. What a harmonious blend of natural harmony.
The women are the typical Kolakola Dange sellers. Dange is Sago mixed with grated coconut and then roasted over the pot of pottery earlier. If there is a order, then they put the sago mixture on top of the pot of pottery earlier. Then it is roasted on the stove with firewood. The price is only IDR 5,000 per plate.
This is where the story begins. Departing from Kolakola, Banawa, Donggala Regency then knits the story in Palu Bay.
“Me and my friends from Kolakola used to open at four or five in the afternoon. Back to Kolakola it could be up to twelve nights. It depends on the buyers and dange materials,” said Minah, to me at dusk. He is one of the female Dange sellers who claimed he was around 37 years old.
The dange sold is coated with anchovy, tuna and palm sugar. But according to him, people prefer dange anchovy and tuna instead of brown sugar.
I recorded the Minah story well. He said, every day they departed from Kolakola at around 14.00 Central Indonesian Time. No less than 1-2 hours by riding in rural transportation they just arrived at the Taman Ria pedestrian, Palu Bay. They pay rent for transportation around Rp. 40 thousand.
“If you calculate your income, this can be for food. Usually when you are busy we get three thousand rupiahs. Exiting for transportation costs and fifteen thousand materials is our advantage,” said Munirah, another Dange vendor.
Muliana, who also came from Kolakola, said at the time, “rather than we just sit quietly at home, we better make money selling dange.”
It could be that there were two dange seller women who survived the tsunami rage. Or it could be that all of them survived. Unfortunately, I have not had time to visit them. It could also be, in the new lapak on Jalan I Gusti Ngurah Rai, Tatanga, Palu, there were two of them whom I met at dusk.
If I have time, I will tell you all about them again. Even though the waves have changed with the roar of motorbikes and cars passing in front of their stalls now. ***