Indramayu is sustained by three industries: rice growing, sending people to countries such as Saudi Arabia and Malaysia as migrant labourers, and remittances from sex work.
As we leave the classroom and walk out to the dusty road, we are stopped dead by a ceremony that reminds us just how far.
Son is the pimp from central casting.
At 16 months old, the boy died.
Unable to face the reality that she also was sick, she sought no treatment for herself.
Other prostitutes become mistresses, second wives of polygamous men, or even ayam - literally "chicken" - a word used to describe local girls who glam up in the attempt to catch rich, often Western, husbands in the bars and nightclubs of Jakarta.
About 60 per cent of the sex workers in this part of the city say they are from Indramayu.
They say it doesn't feel good.