Garbage, again

Let us talk of something significant, important and of great value, let us talk of trash, refuge, and waste, good old garbage.  That's right garbage.  There is an entire culture living entirely on the stuff we throw away.  Never has this been as visible to me as it is here in Turkey. 

Celebrating a big win in Handicap Boccia Ball
I won and this young man was one of my opponents.
He just barely lost.

Now before I comment further, I must reference a new book for my mandatory reading list, Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo.  Her story, set in the slums of Mumbai will make my experience paltry.  Nevertheless, it validates garbage as a life-sustaining commodity.

You should try this.  It is not easy.  These are
the game tracks we designed and bought.

How many times someone goes through our garbage, I really do not know.  However, I do know it is several times a day.  It is amazing that there is any left in the can to be carted off.  If you place cardboard in the dumpster someone throws everything on the ground around the dumpster and takes the cardboard.  If you want them to not empty the trash all over the street, you have to empty the box and set it by the side of the trashcan.  Then they only dump part of the rubbish on the street.  At least Ankara has dumpsters.  In Istanbul, you just dumped it on the street in a designated location and in Izmir the garbage cans were so small that you could not put anything bigger than a grocery bag in.

 

Vacuuming cigarette butts, the streets are littered

All dumpsters and garbage containers are left out in the open at all times.  The trash collector comes every night, but the dumpster site is visited by a plethora of people every day.  Just yesterday while I was attempting to flatten some of our moving boxes, two trucks pulled up and then the people argued over who actually got to take the boxes.  As I was walking off, they were still fighting while their children were climbing into the dumpster and throwing all the garbage out on the street.  They retrieved a single plastic bottle and scattered litter everywhere.

We had a blender with the bottom gear broken and the cutter would not spin.  We had placed it in a box by the back porch and no less than 5 people came through the gate and wanted the glass jar.  We had promised to let Brother?????? take it so we refused to let them have it.  It was like denying candy to a spoiled child.

Remember the line in Aladin, “new lamps for old!”?  Well every day you hear the callers on the street pushing a broken down cart yelling, “ahşap, metal, kağıt!”; wood, metal, paper.  If you do not put it in the trash, they are out trying to get you to bring the trash out.

This lady on the buss struck me as she
sat and mumbled non stop prayer, I think.
Notice the cheerful demeanor?

It makes me realize what tremendous waste we create.  We are so blessed and so gifted with physical goods that we have no notion of anything we dispose of.  We simply realize that the effort to repair or find a part for a blender would exceed the value of a new unit.  How did we get so calloused?

Question for you all, what does the acronym MLS mean to you.  We will discuss this in the next posting about our new life in Ankara.

Also for the few interested parties, our new address is:

Kazım Özalp Mah.

Kuleli Sok. 26/2

06700 Çankaya, Ankara, Turkey

 

I am so intrigued with the old ladies of Turkey
The young women are quite attractive and then!