"Garbage"

dd

When we were in Mae Sot, we were told that we should see a special place called "garbage."  Our friend who works at the clinic (not as a medic, but does jobs here and there - see his website at burmesepaintings.org) first took us for breakfast at a Burmese cafe near the downtown market where we got to sample some flavorful meaty pastry selections, and wash it down with Burmese coffee (which was basically coffee with condensed milk).  We got a tuk-tuk and all headed about 20 minutes out of town to the local garbage dump.  As we entered the dump we saw lots of children hanging out near an empty building that we were told used to be their school, but that it had closed down because there were too many flies in the building and teaching was too difficult.  

The dump is inhabited by quite a few Burmese people.  They're not technically refugees, they came to Thailand looking for work, not fleeing from persecution, so they haven't tried to apply for refugee status.  The people (men, women, children of all ages) live in shacks they've constructed both on top of the trash and on the roads surrounding the trash.  They dig through the trash that gets dropped off 4 times each day, looking for anything they can use or sell back for money.  

They make 10-20 Baht/day.  Tha's 30-60 cents.

As you pass the mountains of trash, you certainly notice the smell that tickles the inside of your nose, but there's so much more.  There's a lake facing the dump that is so green and peaceful looking.  There's the rainbow of colors that you see everywhere on the ground with all of the rubbish.  There's the blackened feet of the children that run around barefoot, and the inventive games they play to keep themselves occupied.

I asked one man we spoke with (I'm not including his photo here, the police occasionally raid the dump and destroy what little housing they have) if people ever get hurt digging through the trash and he said they do get cut often on glass and other debris, but that they have learned how to be careful.  They do utilize the Mae Tao Clinic for their healthcare, but it's a 50-100Baht tuk-tuk ride to clinic, so you can imagine, on 10-20 Baht/day, they're not racing to clinic for anything non-lifethreatening.

Kind of puts things in perspective, no?