Eddie Sangian took us for a 15 minute walk.
Our house, across from the U.S. embassy residential housing, is safe, clean and not stinky.
We drink out of 'posh' plastic water bottles and conveniently throw them away without another thought.
We throw away broken glass, empty pop cans, old and tired electronics, tattered clothing, boxes, cartons and bags of garbage, tie it up, put it to the curb, and think about it no longer.
Turns out, our garbage is in the slums, just a 15 minute walk away.
Piles of it are littering their streets, yards, walkways and living areas.
We met a lady who spent hours and hours a day twisting off bottle caps, removing labels and squishing plastic water bottles. She puts them into a large bag, and then sells them to recycle. Her hands are contantly dirty, and she sits amoungst the trash she sorts. A fire nearby, burning garbage leaves a thick smoke in the air which mixes with cigarette fumes, animal fecies and of course, decaying trash. She makes a mere 15,000 rupia for her efforts which amounts to about $1.50USD.
People can be seen carrying heaps of garbage in these carts. A man, whose physique shows his hunger can pull a cart a great distance to bring it to the slums. Maybe some of the trash in those bags was the dinner of someone who was 'too full to finish', yet he sorts through that heap of trash and earns just enough for one meal that day.
The children are often seen wandering around. They have little, but their faces and their laughter show contentment. Sometimes you can see the hurt in their eyes. Sometimes their eyes look star-struck as three foreigners swoon over them.
All they really need is love.
The slums have the most lively street community I have ever seen.
As I said before, almost anything can be mounted to a bicycle and be made a business, including this children's ride. There's no coin or motor involved... just man power, and the kids love it!
Pictures cannot capture the smell this man was enduring. To give you an idea, a boy "pops a squat" up stream, while people are bathing down river. The water is black. Garbage, being dragged by the current, bobs up and down as it flows down stream. Here we used a "pull boat" to get to the other side.
Life amoungst the garbage is so hard to describe.
You almost have to see it for yourself.
Grandeur / 'granjer; / 'gran,dyoor/ noun:
splendor and impressiveness, esp. of appearance or style : the austre grandeur of mountain scenery
- high rank or social importance: for all their grandeur the trash collectors have a existance substantially bigger than the refuse they live with.
Most people would say, how can you see slums as something beautiful?
Garbage heaps, smell and filth isn't on the top list of "lovely things". That is true, I agree there.
However, the true grandeur is not the environment, but in the people who call it home.
To caputure in a photo the granduer of life amoung the poor is, for a photo-missionary an easy thing to do because we choose to see past the trash, and into the hearts of humankind.
Oh, the elderly! I had to put this one in there. She claims to be 65 (highly doubt it). Her name is Sieda. She climbed up two sets of stairs to show us her room. When she opened the door, we saw a small room (in the background of the photo) with a bed on the floor. It reeked of urine. There were half a dozen clocks, none of which told the right time. She had her sparse wardrobe spread out behind the door. She claims that she has a lot of money and buys things for people in her community. She's adorable!
Thank you for visiting the slums with me,
where one person's trash is truly another person's treasure.
-Anita
