Wednesday Sergio led Sr. Roseanna and I to the garbage dump that is about an hour’s walk from our house. From what I’ve been told, it is nothing like the big dump in Managua, but the Jinotega “Basurero” and the people who live/work there certainly made a lasting impression.
Only five families live full-time on the dump. Other people come there during the day to search for goods they can use and recyclables they can sell (mostly plastic, glass, and metal). They told us that they might get 10 cents for a pound or two of plastic, and maybe 30 cents for a couple pounds of aluminum.
Those who live on the dump have houses made of metal pieces or plastic sheeting (not all than uncommon to see this housing outside of the dump, by the way). A few have constructed shelters to protect them from the rain, but return to their own homes at night.
I was surprised that so few live there, since I had heard at least a couple hundred live at the Managua dump. Then again, this is a small basurero in comparison.
Francisca told us some foreign doctors visited them a while back… to study them and check their lungs, as they breathe in the harmful smoke from burning plastic and other toxic trash. We asked if the doctors had come back to follow up, and she said no.
We met Anacely and her family. Anacely is seven years old, lives at the dump, and does not go to school, but her brothers do. Next time I’d like to talk with her dad about that. It may be that it is considered safer for her brothers to walk the long distance, but not for her.
This was our first visit to get to know the people at the dump. It is part of our parish, so rightfully we can pay pastoral visits there. We don’t know if we will be further involved in the future, or if the parish will.
If you come up to visit us after flying into Managua, you’ll pass the dump… and you’ll think you are seeing an active volcano with flowing rivers of lava. Yep, that’s just burning rivers of garbage flowing down the side of the mountain.
Living there… I just can’t imagine it…but this is Anacely’s home.
(Don’t know if you can get into my Facebook page to see more photos, but the images are impressive… search Dolores Mikula in FB.)
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