Shelia is starting a fire to burn the garbage. On a sheet of metal blocked by two sideways wheelbarrows she lays pieces of partially burnt wood and a few twigs, setting out to burn the plastic from the week. Each household has one of these pits usually in front of the house by the road. Piles of charcoal and burnt wood chips covered by makeshift wire mesh. In the evening you can smell the burnt plastic and scraps of food that if not burnt are tossed into the gutter or sometimes just the street for wild dogs or warthogs to fight over. Walking home past dark if your lucky the embers will still be glowing as to fight the growing darkness.
There are very few waste bins and so throwing out trash is not common practice. Trash lines the ditches of the streets and mixes in to the landscape under sand and a few scattered leaves.
No comments:
Post a Comment