We are living next to a whole little community who lives and works in garbage. They go out and collect it, bring it home, bring some of it into their home, then spend their days sorting it to sell off recyclables. They have children who sit on piles of garbage to eat breakfast, and play on piles of gabage during the day as they don’t appear to go to school. I didn’t take pictures as they are always watching us and I didn’t think it was polite. Their homes are maybe 12X12 carboard and metal shacks with garbage spilling out the front doors on to the ground which is made of garbage. I don’t know how many families live there but there are at least 12 front doors. There are babies learning to walk and old men who spend hours in the sweltering Indian summer heat sorting dirty, grungy, smelly, money-making piles. It brings new meaning to the saying, “One man’s trash is another’s treasure.”
The other day some of the kids who like to spend time looking into our kitchen poked a stick through one of our doors which is like a gate and stole paintbrushes from us. Some people were pretty p.o.-ed as none of us like to be stolen from. Then I looked back outside, across the alley, into their little garbage dump called home and realized that the stealing is not the issue.
How and why is there an entire people group across the entire vast world who live in garbage dumps? I saw it in Haiti, Guatemala, Peru, and now India, not to mention all the other countries I have not visited.
The other day some of the kids who like to spend time looking into our kitchen poked a stick through one of our doors which is like a gate and stole paintbrushes from us. Some people were pretty p.o.-ed as none of us like to be stolen from. Then I looked back outside, across the alley, into their little garbage dump called home and realized that the stealing is not the issue.
How and why is there an entire people group across the entire vast world who live in garbage dumps? I saw it in Haiti, Guatemala, Peru, and now India, not to mention all the other countries I have not visited.
Read the book The New Friars for more insight into this issue.
Just something to think about, I suppose. I know it has caused me to.
