The mountain glistened like oil and
brown plastic. Trucks crawled across the uneven terrain. People were up there
too, although they could not be seen from so far below. I looked at the sludge
creeping onto the edges of my flip flops and imagined fingernails ingrained
with the same sticky filth.
Below, everything was made of rubbish;
the ‘cleaner’ pathways, the houses that rose in domes and cubes and cuboids; a
little order amongst the chaos.
We walked, eyes keen, nerves tense,
cameras hidden.
Their house was leaning and cramped with
possessions. I ducked my head and entered, smiling at the eager faces that
welcomed us in. The children took our gifts and put them on. The top was too
big for the boy, but he fingered the folds as though he were dressed in gold.
The grandmother dipped her head and smiled her toothless appreciation. They
showed us their home and they were proud.
When the mother returned she hid her
muck stained hands behind her back and met our eyes with flickering glances.
Her children ran to her, showing off their new gifts. She dipped her head just
like her mother had done, but there was no smile to accompany. I looked down at
her feet and saw they were bare. Suddenly a little sludge on my flip flops
seemed trivial. Walking on the rubbish dump with bare feet was only the smallest
of concerns for the people here.
We walked on through narrow corridors of
corrugated iron and sweating boxes. No one spoke as we tried to digest the
world around us, the world portrayed on television so often and yet the truth
of it only becomes reality when you stuff your senses into its heated core.
We rounded a corner and came across the
worst of it all. I didn’t care about my flip flops anymore. I wanted to kneel
down, dig my hands into the rubbish and clear a space for life to breathe.
That was when the music started. Right
there, in the bleakest of all spots, it rang out crisp and loud and joyful.
Music to give thanks for the many blessings the people had. In the shadow of
the mountainous rubbish dump, humility, fortitude and happiness sang
unfaltering like the faith of children.
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