The Umbrella Boys - Looking For Bless Of Rain

What pops up in your mind when you read “umbrella boys”? Perhaps, you may imagine that they are the male version of “umbrella girls” who you always see in the TV protecting Valentino Rossi or Marc Marquez from the sunshine before a MotoGP Race.

Well, you are WRONG.

An umbrella boy refers to an informal job many Indonesian kids and teenager, especially from poor family, to use the opportunity when rain falls to get some income.

When rain comes, they will bring any working umbrella from their home and run to any place where there are crowd, such as shopping mall, station, bus stations. Then, they will rent their umbrella to the ones who forget to bring it.

When someone rents their service, the umbrella boy will pass the umbrell to be used by the renter and will accompany them to the destination.

Most of umbrella boys bring only 1 umbrella withour reserve. So, in most case, while the renter is protected from pouring water, the boy must walk under the rain and get heavily wet. Only if the renter has a heart, they will ask the boy to walk under the same umbrella.

From their service, the umbrella boys will get few thousands rupiah (around 10-30 US Cents).

The opportunity of the job is sometimes very short. Depending on the length of the rain. If the rain stops, then usually umbrella boys will go home immediately.

That;s why they always pray for very long rain, because they will have more chance to get bigger income.