goodmorningpapua.com – A figure of Ruben Maniakori deserves compliment. This native Papuan youth in the Yapen Islands has a very strong passion to move forward towards the future.
In the past, this 28-year-old youth was a worker from a fish seller at Pasar Serui with routine activities every morning. For the past 6 years, he has been a fish cleaning worker at the market.
The struggle from the bottom over the years has generated the fruition. The wages of cleaning fish continue to be save to knit a hope for his future.
Thanks to his persistence, Ruben has succeeded in opening a coffee shop that to become the foundation for moving forward. The old habit of wearing an apron with a long machete has finally been abandoned.
“Willing to have my own business even though it’s small, it’s been my dream for a long time. I collect salary (wages) from a fish seller to open a coffee shop at the Fish Market,” he told KabarPapua.co, Thursday, February 17, 2022.
Making and delivering coffee every morning has become Ruben’s new habit at the Serui Fish Market. Not only fish sellers being his customers, motorcycle taxi drivers in the area have become customers for every coffee he owns.
“My customers are fish sellers and motorcycle taxis, even though it is small, I’m the boss. So I can manage everything myself, I also do it myself every 6 a.m,” he said.
With a wick stove, coffee powder, a small display case, canned milk and several thermos of hot water, Ruben’s mini shop measuring 2×3 square meters is full of orders for milk coffee as well as other hot and cold drinks.
In a day, Ruben is able to get income of up to hundreds of thousands of rupiah. Even though his mini coffee shop has just been running for the last 5 months.
“Selling coffee has been 5 months, in the future I want to add more chairs (the shop) and want to repair the roof of the shop. So far, they only use tarpaulins, especially if they sell until the night and it rains, it’s a pity that they buy (our) coffee casks,” he said.
Ruben admitted that the trade spirit he got was an encouragement from a number of his colleagues and seniors who had made the first steps to successfully change their fortunes by trading.
“Papuan children can also be successful by trading, some have been successful in selling perfume, open stall and have many branches. Success does not always have to hold on to the project, selling coffee like this is also something to be grateful for, earning income every day,” said Ruben, closing the chat while throwing away his sweet smile.