talking trash

The other day my aunt and I came home and as the trash was going to be collected the next day we knew one of the things we needed not to forget was to - to take the trash out. So now she looks in the trash can in the kitchen to take the bag out and tie it up then I would take it out. The bag was in there, but EMPTY and also dirty. Mhhhmm What was going on? She was a bit confused and went outside to the drive way where the big bins are and lo and behold......

For some context, that day it was about 90 something degrees and because it had rained extremely hard for no damn reason (flash flood warnings and all) it felt like a cauldron of humidity and almost like one was breathing hot steam from hovering over a pot. That sticky! AND the sun was out. Now imagine...I'm cracking up at the mere thought of it now! Imagine that what you typically and usually put in a trash bag like meat packets, vegetable and fruit matter, random paper, leftovers sitting in that heat and add about 2 buckets of water in the sweltering heat. Got it?! Ok back to the story...

THERE THE TRASH WAS!! Sitting nakedly and exposed and perfectly cooking itself into a hot mess of LITERAL hot mess. As in that trash had been poured OUT of the bag and directly into that big plastic thing. It must have been there a few hours, but there were maggots crawling and swimming and being born in there. DEEE-SGUSTING!

Now bless my granddad's heart in his being his active self was taking some initiative since he now knows the day the trash people come. He meant so well so after my aunt was numbed in shock and disgust at the sight of the trash we now had to pour that hot mess back INTO a trash bag. Lord, I done seen some things. It was a mess

Interesting culture exchange because my grandad thought the trash bags had to be saved. He also didn't know where the rest of them stay. To be fair in Zimbabwe most people just dump trash directly into the big bins and when mabim (trash collectors) pull up in the truck with gloves, overalls and face masks on the mess is a part of the job. Au contraire here, being a trash collector is quite protected with a lot of sanitary and safety measures in place to protect the workers. The way that trash was sitting it definitely would NOT have been picked up and we probably would have been fined by the county.

Not culture shock per se, but definitely something to be observed.

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*@afropolitaine*