Morning Thoughts--Sorry, but more thoughts on garbage

 

This is my corner. Photo taken about ten minutes ago. No sign of a garbage truck in sight. We have gone for days without seeing one here. The schedule was always six days a week they would pick it up. No pick up on Sunday.  Now, if we are lucky, we get a pick up one day a week.   So what is going on here? Does anyone know? All I know is that corners all over the town are looking like this.   I have two pieces of rumor that I will write. No telling how much either of them is true. So don't attack me if you find out that they are not true. They are just RUMORS.....

First one came from a man named Eddie. He lives in Canada but knows everything that happens down here of any importance. Don't ask me how he knows so much because he won't tell me.

He wrote this, "If you want to get your garbage picked up, you will have to bribe the garbage men. Pay them extra and they will come by your corner more often. That is what the wealthy people are doing down there."

"What???  Eddie, you live in Canada. How do you know that? Is it posted somewhere on one of the chapala web boards that I don't ever read?"  No answer. He never reveals his sources.  

This situation reminded me of when I was in the major earthquake and stuck in the attic in Santa Cruz, California. For days. We were told not to leave our houses, or attics.  The only way we knew that our town was in ruins was from the radio. People, thousands of miles away, knew what was going on just a few blocks from my house and I knew nothing. So is that also the case here???? Or is Eddie just making up things?

 If it IS the case, then something seems very unfair that the garbage men would pick it up in wealthy neighborhoods and leave the rest of the poor people swimming in this filth.  What about diseases? Cockroaches already invade our homes. Now it is worse. And rats. I could go on and on about garbage but why? The photo above looks pretty much like the other ones I put on a few days ago. I was even thinking of moving out of this neighborhood because of all the garbage. 

At that point, I hadn't noticed that there were piles of it all over town. I was just concerned with my own little corner. Pretty typical self centered human behavior. I can understand why wealthy people would pay to bribe the drivers to give them extra pick ups although I think it is extremely unfair. I don't mind that the wealthy live in big houses with beautiful views and drive nice cars and go out to fancy dinners, (I have lived like that at various times in my life and what goes on between couples behind those doors can be hell worlds) But for them to get extra garbage pick ups? I DO mind that.  That is a health hazard!

Okay, now here comes rumor number two. Another friend said on the phone last night that there are seventeen garbage trucks for this area and fifteen are broken down. And whichever section of the government is responsible for fixing these trucks says they can't afford to fix them. They are out of money!   Out of money? Did some government official run off with it? Did they forget to put it in their yearly budget? 

The value of the peso is going UP not DOWN.....    So why do they have no money and can't fix garbage trucks?  Do they think we should all, (except the wealthy who pay for special pick ups), sit in this filth until the next high season? Then they might put out the money to get rid of the garbage all over town???? They certainly aren't going to be getting a lot of tourists with garbage everywhere. Reminds me of photos I have seen of the New York garbage strike years ago. What a mess that was. And what a mess it IS here now. 

So who knows the truth. The only truth I know for sure is that we are not getting our garbage picked up very often and neither are the other poor areas of town.   Anyone else have any rumors you would like to pass along??????

P.S. The garbage truck just showed up.  I would go out and ask them but I don't want to stop them from working. They have a lot to do and they might be expecting me to bribe them with some money for another pick up.  That is, IF Eddie is right. 

One more photo. 

 

 This is what my corner looks like just AFTER they picked up the garbage....... I could decide to spend my morning picking it all up and putting it in big plastic bags so whenever the next pick up rolls around, it would be taken but I would feel like Sisyphus, rolling that rock up the mountain. 

As long as people living in this neighborhood throw their garbage directly onto the street instead of tying it up into plastic bags, it will always be a mess here. There needs to be a larger solution, like maybe bins? Except they probably would get stolen. I don't have answers, just concern. Think I will try to forget about it and go swimming instead. All this garbage doesn't seem to bother the neighbors, so I will have to just go along with it.