I came to Cairo to see the real soul of Cairo. Before I embarked on this trip, I went on Gettyimages.com to check out pictures of Cairo. I didn't find any awe inspiring ones till I happened on some photographs of 'Zabaleen'. These were haunting images. I wrote in an earlier post about Zabaleen, saying that I hope I'll find someone in Cairo who would take me there. I thank God that I found a taxi driver, a Muslim, who has even heard about it. When we got into his taxi, he promised to take us where tourists would not dare venture. He suggested a tour of 'city of the dead' and 'garbage city'. When I asked if he meant Zabaleen, he was amazed that I even knew about it. Now we were both excited, he knew he found some willing clients and I knew this was what I was wishing for. He asked if we knew what the word meant. We said, no. 'Zabal' is a person who collects trash and 'Zabaleen' is a people who collect trash. These are the trash collectors of Cairo.
Even though the government has contracted the trash management of the city to some foreign companies, these companies can only handle a fraction of the city's trash. There are 20 million Cairenes living in a 20 km square of land. According to 'Cairo, city of sand', some 60 percent of the buildings in Cairo are illegal and probably have no services, since they really don't exist in city books. So the residents of Zabaleen, the men, comes door to door to pick up the trash everyday for a fee. The mornings are spent collecting trash which are then taken back to 'garbage city' where the women sort the trash on the ground floor of their homes. Zabaleen is a designated area where the trash is taken to and sorted, food waste is fed to the animals and recyclables are removed, sorted, packed and sold to recycling factories. When trash is dumped commercially, everything is compressed and nothing can be recovered from it. The people in Zabaleen makes an important contribution to recover the recyclables and therefore is a more Eco friendly process.
We drove through the area and took pictures from a moving cab. The people of Zabaleen don't like attention, to them it is a way of life. The place reeks of trash and this is how they live from cradle to grave. Our taxi driver told us, 'only the Christians do this, we, Muslims need to be very clean, we pray 5 times a day and cleans before praying'. Indeed these are Coptic Christians, displaced from the South who has come to Cairo looking for work and this was the only viable alternative. Our taxi driver also said, 'no Muslim women would have trash in their homes'. Indeed the trash is sorted out by the women and the children. He snickered and did not realise that we are Christians ourselves and that was why we were interested, I was interested in the plight of Coptic Christians in Egypt.
Jobs are scarce and the wages are menial. Our taxi driver said, he was an accountant but couldn't find work that pays a living wage. So a lot of people have turned to driving taxis in Cairo, it pays more, especially if one speaks some foreign language, they can drive tourists around the various sights and neighborhoods of Cairo. There is a lot of taxis in Cairo but even then it is not enough for the population. Cairo streets are choked with cars, taxis, mini vans, private cars, there is no order, they honk all the time. It is one big cacophony of traffic. It takes a little getting used to. The disproportionate distribution of jobs, wealth and any opportunities is so wide in Cairo. Life is hard in Cairo except for the very rich and the expatriate population. For us it was wonderful, our US dollar went really far. This is the first time our money got us more.
We saw trucks coming back, piled high with bags and bags of trash. There are shops doing a brisk business selling big plastic bags to hold the recyclables. The place reeks of rotting food and other trash. Here and there, a few donkeys and some sheep were feeding on some food waste. I was told they raise pigs here and these are sold to establishments that cater to the foreign population that do eat pork. Our taxi driver pointed out,'look, look, that christian woman is spreading out the trash in her own home.' Indeed she was. We saw young and old, men and women, adults and children all getting into the work. We passed a butcher shop, ' they sell pork here!' our driver was quick to point out.
This is a regular neighborhood, there are pastry shops, bakeries, pharmacies, tea shops, schools, homes and everything else. Our taxi driver was about now driving at a break neck speed through the narrow and filthy streets. We had to stop because just then a truck was blocking the narrow one way lane, it was piled high with trash, they have just returned from the city. I was able to take a picture with the taxi not moving. Next to me was this donkey eating some of the food waste of Cairo. Our taxi driver was quick to say again, 'look, look, at all the trash they're bringing back!' Then he sped off again, laughed gleefully,' we are leaving garbage city!'
I thank God that I had the opportunity to witness the lives of people in Zabaleen, Cairo. I really didn't go to Cairo just to see the Giza pyramids. I came also to see the struggles of the Coptic Christians, being a christian myself. I came to see the paradox of the past glory of an ancient people and the struggles of their modern descendants. Throughout our five days in Cairo we saw abject poverty, not just in the outskirts but right in Cairo. We saw poverty that to us was strange in a country that had such a glorious past, they were such an advance civilization in the days of the Pharaohs. We see their glory in the funerary and their cemeteries. Is it because these are a people more engaged in the after life than the present life? I don't think so. Truly there should be a more equitable distribution of opportunities.
Zabaleen is not in any guide book. I only happened upon it while viewing pictures on Gettyimages. I told our taxi driver that I'll write a guide to Cairo and put Zabaleen in it.
A pharmacy in Zabaleen, above pictures show a bakery and a pastry shop.
A sundry shop.
A tea shop where people hang out, drink tea and smoke the water pipe.
It is not only doom and gloom in Zabaleen. In the next post I will write about the people or the benefactors of Zabaleen, how they work to make life in Zabaleen more bearable. There are lots of admirable people in this world and also in Zabaleen.I'll never look at trash the same again. While traveling, I have gained insights that has forever changed me.
No comments:
Post a Comment