"Before, my mom hit me. She didn't want me to become a lady boy. Then I started to send some money to her. When I send some money to her, she would never complain."
Aidel is the youngest Waria of the group at sixteen years of age. She began working on the street when she was thirteen, and told me proudly several times that she has not had to ask her parents for any money since then, "I don't want to ask money from my parents. Since I was 13 years old, I never asked anymore." Aidel's father passed away when she was seven, and around the same time she remembers starting to feel like a girl, "Just a 'banci kaleng.'" Aidel uses "banci kaleng" to describe herself, which is more of a derogatory, negative term for being a transgender.
When Aidel started working on the street, she tried to stay in school, but that quickly proved difficult, "After school, I worked (on the street) then slept for a while, woke up and went to school again. After a while, I forgot to study. So, I stopped going to school." Aidel has a younger brother and sister, and is very clear about being the only transgender in her family, "If he [brother] want to become a lady boy, I will choke him to death. Just me, is enough. I will finish him directly. It is only me who can become a lady boy, not you, my bro. If they do something 'stupid' I will finish them because I'm the oldest."
During one of my first visits, Aidel has just started taking hormone injections to grow breasts and become more feminine. She also likes to wear makeup and is conscientious about only going out at night, "A lady boy does not want her face to be seen in the afternoon." Aidel's dream is to have her own hair salon.
It is hard to know whether it is because her young age and immaturity or her personality, but Aidel does not appear to try and align herself with the rest of the Waria group. Almost everyday, she drinks alcohol to find the courage to work on the street, "If you're drunk, you're skillful to get a guest. It makes me confident and not shy." She was the only one of the group who would drink regularly. The alcohol she drank as a local "solution" that is often toxic. When asked if she liked working on the street, Aidel said, "Yes. Because of the money."
At the end of my time with the Waria in 2017, Aidel has been asked to leave the group. She had gotten beaten up, and came home drunk and belligerent, making a lot of noise in the neighborhood. As a result, the local Imam asked the entire Waria group to leave the area, so they all had to move because of Aidel's wild behavior.
