Straatwerk

Rubbish bins. Every city has a lot of them, although their presence is mainly ignored, until your big old bin disappears without a trace one day and your life suddenly becomes messy and complicated. Every day you ask every bergie that passes about the disappearance of your big, black rubbish bin- but no one know anything about it.

You don’t really feel like the effort to go and report the theft as the police station and a new one is very expensive. And so it happens that a late night hunger grabs you and your family and you decide to go and buy something to eat. And there, in front of you eyes, on the right hand side of the road, in a dark alley, sits five rubbish bins next to each other. Wheels towards the street, lids half-open and blankets peeking out. You wonder for a moment if you’re going to disturb someone’s sleep if you take one of the rubbish bins and fasten it to your car’s roof. After you’ve eaten you think: Maybe the price of a new bin isn’t that expensive. Let the bergies sleep.

My personal thoughts about rubbish bins also changes a while ago after I received an sms from a friend. The sms went more or less like this: Lisa, is the church failing the world so badly that people dump their babies in rubbish bins rather than leave them on the church’s doorstep like olden times?

Another uncomfortable meeting with the rubbish bins, a while after the drama, made me think about this for a while. We went to a famous (infamous) nightclub in our city to try and rid it of graffiti. We removed this with a struggle and some fun in between and afterwards decided to wash the floors and clean the toilets as well. We found torn underwear, confoms and other unmentionable things in the rubbish bins- every bin tells its own story...

A few months after the nightclub escapades I was on may way to the station in a hurry, as usual late for the 17:45 train. I walked past two men, who were busy rummaging through the rubbish bins. I was already a few metres past when I suddenly came to a halt. I turned around and ran closer. The one man had only one leg and was trying to keep his balance while going through the bin. “Are you guys hungry?” I asked (this was a stupid question, now that I think back- of course they’re hungry otherwise they wouldn’t be going through the bins) “I have a few apples here in my bad, sorry I don’t have a sandwich. Do you want it?” My eyes welled up with tears as I gave the apples, because you see, these men’s eyes were so desperately hungry and desperately thankful for a few apples. I turned around and continued running to the station. I looked back to see them laughing and chatting while eating the apples, the rubbish bins forgotten.

The most recent time I paid particular attention to the rubbish bins was during our ‘Dawn Patrol’ at Project OPRUIM/JESUS SAVES . I joined the team to clean the streets on a Friday morning between 03:00 and 05:00 (the real workers worth until 7:00 for the dawn patrol shift) Cans, bottles, papers and even more. And don’t forget the empty eggshells. Our team was still crawling on our knees between the rubbish bins and eggshells when we came across a drunk woman who needed our attention urgently. While we were trying to help, a man who walked by called out: “Just throw her in the rubbish bin. She is good for nothing. Throw her away!”

And so it seems that every trashcan has its own story.
Where I stay, in the Parow-area, the municipality forgot (?) to come and pick up our bins. Monday morning everyone’s bins were pushed to the sidewalk, as usual. Monday came and gone. Tuesday hope was still there, but alas, no one picked them up. Wednesday was voting day, so there was no hope for that day. By Thursday our hope was thin, the worms alive in the trashcans and the extra refuse bags were gathering on top. “We need to make a plan” everyone thought, but no one did anything. Luckily towards the evening everyone’s bins were emptied and put back. Wonderful.

With all the rubbish bin stories, I wondered if the Church’s place might be between the rubbish bins of our city. Shouldn’t we be there when babies are thrown out? Shouldn’t we be there when young girls lose their innocence between the night clubs and the drunken men? Shouldn’t we be there where people have given up hope for their own lives and the lives of others and – throw her in the rubbish bin – becomes the only answer? I believe that we need to get our hands dirty and start to be the church in the rotting rubbish bins of our city.