One of the services we took for granted in the United States was trash pickup and removal. Now that we live just outside of Chichicastenango, the municipal trash truck doesn't arrive at our door like they used to before we moved further out of town. And there is no public trash dumpster available. So for the last two years we have been taking our trash weekly to a missionary friend's house in town, and she would set our bags out with hers. But recently her landlord asked her to stop helping us.
So we decided to venture out to the area's trash dump. It is about 20 minutes away, down the curvy highway into a ravine and back up again on the other side, and then down a narrow dirt road towards billowing white smoke.
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| Vehicles can drive in and drop off their trash, where it is tossed into the ravine on the left and burned. The smoke is thick and smells bad. |
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| This man came to charge us the Q10 fee (about $1.30) for dropping off our 6 bags of trash. The fee is higher for larger loads of trash. It isn't healthy for the workers to be breathing this smoke all day! |
When the coronavirus lockdown started in Guatemala a couple of months ago, we heard that there were many children and adults waiting in this trash dump to rummage through the trash and see what they could find to eat. I don't think our safety was in question, but since we are trying to avoid gatherings of people for any reason during this time, we decided not to go back for now.
Michael had found a couple of public trash barrels in the market in town, so for a few weeks he took our trash there when we were in town for shopping. But when the government closed all markets, he no longer had access to those trash barrels!
Our current temporary solution, which we are very grateful for, has been to take our trash to ASELSI, a local ministry. Before their clinic closed for the coronavirus lockdown, they weren't able to add our trash to theirs because they were already at the maximum volume of trash allowable for the municipal trash pickup. But since the government closed their clinic for now, they have room for our trash! Thank you, ASELSI!!!
Who knew trash disposal could be so complicated? Hahaha!