Meet the Zabaleens!

Garbage city, particularly Mokattam, is the largest settlement of the garbage collecting system, thriving on a daily basis in Cairo - A slum, whose economy depends on garbage sorting and recycling.

Unlike the set system of garbage collecting and recycling in the first world, in Cairo, the recycling system is ensured by the Zabaleens, who come and collect your trash in their trucks and bring it to Mokattam, their part of the city, to sort and recycle it. Their role is essential as Cairo is in a state of filth that was unfathomable to me before our arrival. The Zabaleens are the inhabitants of Garbage city, a maze of snaky streets, filled with garbage, but also flats, shops and a school.

What takes one to Mokattam is a strange mixture of curiosity, will to understand and fear. As wonderful and rewarding as travelling is, it also sometimes leads you to possibilities of being confronted to conditions so harsh that it might be unbearable for you to witness.

Inside the city, you will find the A.P.E, the Association for the Protection of the Environment. The APE provides an opportunity for women to learn how to weave all sorts of items, from blankets, to carpets, to bags and all sorts of little hand crafts, all out of recycled materials. They are ensured to be paid a set amount of Egyptian pounds daily and taught different eclectic skills.

You can also see the paper recycling process, through which used paper is washed down with water, mixed together again and screened in order to make recycled paper.

 

 

After donating some money and purchasing surprisingly cheap yet hand crafted items, it is now time to enter garbage city.

And from here on, most of your senses will be touched, one at a time.

The first one is through the prism of your eyes, on two distinct levels:

As you walk around, on the ground level, there is trash everywhere. Every street or corner has piles of different materials. Amongst the trash, there are animals such as rats, cats, dogs, donkeys carrying some of the sorted garbage from point A to B.

 

 

If you glance up, you start to see the places where people live, with painted balconies, decorated with different icons or items and a multitude of colourful clothes hanging. This is where the Zabaleens live. The women are mostly uncovered (without a head scarf) busy with their jobs. Men are also working and carrying bags full of garbage, whilst their children are running on the streets and playing together. Everybody is dressed ‘normally’, ‘decently’, no shreds or ripped clothes.

After the visual stimulus, comes the scent. Understandably, it is a very nauseating place and some places are harder to pass than others; one street was indeed pretty challenging and there are urges of covering your nose, which you will not do, by respect for the Zabaleens. I cannot imagine the smell that emmanates from Garbage city when Ra unleashes his heat and rays, during the summer time!

Your ears will perceive the endless honking of Egyptian cars, people talking loudly and the occasional moan of a donkey carrying a load of garbage. And here they come, a few laughters, in the distance, running towards you, which leads us to the sense that touches your soul, the most important one.

Most of this entry will be dedicated to the people, because as always, it isn't about where you are, it is about the people around you.

After walking around for a few minutes, children appeared from the labyrinth of little streets and garbage piles, with the most radiating smiles, grabbing your hands to shake it, asking for your name and willing to take photos. Not only would they pose, but they would ask for a photograph with their friends and one alone. So you bend over to show them the picture you have taken, and as you look around again, there are about 5 more children, willing to have their pictures taken! 
 

 

The anecdote from the trip will be the lady, who saw us walk past. She was sitting on a pile of litter and sorting it into three different bags. As she saw me and my camera around my neck, she waved at me, smiling and then pointed at my camera, indicating that she wasn't willing to take a picture. She was very friendly but simply not comfortable with the camera.

I understood I had mistaken the Zabaleens for something else. I had anticipated extreme poverty, people and children with tired and unhealthy silhouettes, who would run towards us to beg for money; I had also packed a bag of the Buls' clothes, as my way of helping out. The reality is that they are indeed living in harsh living conditions, extremely doubtful for children in particular, but they are not desperate people - they are a strong community, with a job, which isn't easy to do, but they are organized, committed, essential to the Egyptian society. 
 

Their children touched my soul, like "Catherine, Marie" and it made me want to bring my own Buls here, later, when the time comes; when they need the newest shoes and the latest phone, I will go back to Garbage city and make them reflect on what it is one needs in life. I will make them look at the offspring of the children I saw, and ask them if they are as happy as the Zabaleens, with their comfort and expensive toys.
 

Catherine and Marie are names that I heard a lot, given the Coptic traditions. Our walk around ended with the visit of a church, carved in the rocks with beautiful mosaic and engraving celebrating Jesus.

 

Cairo did it again!

Some days, when I hear about the lack of security and its victims, I wonder why I have come here, given all its problems; and then, I go to Garbage city, bracing for the impact against the wall of poverty and filth and instead, I am stunned by the maze of love, life and faith at each corner...

I live in Cairo and I have never felt so culturally aware and satisfied!

Don't you just judge Egypt !!!

In Egypt, People are warm and welcoming, and they love laughing and smiling; their smiles are genuine and radiate so brightly that it forces you to smile back (not the perverts though, it doesn’t work with their smile!). After a few encounters, you can easily talk about your family or yourself in details, without feeling awkward about it.

In Turkey, a lady who I had just met on the bus told me: “We don’t have psychologists here, women sit together and talk it out, between friends, we don’t need some sort of therapy or a weird looking sofa!”. And she was right, I learnt lots about and from some people on a bus ride because the idea of intimacy is different.

I feel it is pretty much like this here – people seem ‘solidaire’ and one of my Egyptian work colleagues here in Cairo told me during my first week at school : “we are a family here, if you need ANYTHING, you just let me know”.

Recently, I have felt a sort of “patriotic” Spleen for Egypt; I have started to stop focusing on my lovely guarded microcosm, and think harder on what is going on in town today, what brought this place onto its knees.

As much as you can talk about many things here, religion and politics aren’t part of it. Keeping in mind the purpose of my blog, I can objectively say that I have met people from both sides of the triangular political fence: the ones who feel injustice in the current situation, the ones who are pleased by the recent changes in leadership; there is also the third kind, the ones who didn’t and still don’t support any of the regimes. As expats, the best thing to do is to remain quiet, as your views are obsolete and your understanding of this nation is limited.

I have just watched a documentary entitled the Square and it makes me feel even more touched by Egypt, by the struggle of its people. The square, referring to Tahrir, I feel should be renamed for “circle”. On the outside would be the symbolic roundabout in Tahrir, where most protests, tears, rapes, euphoric chanting, achievements, beatings and deaths have happened, and the understatement, the lurking truth, would refer to the vicious circle in which Egypt is trapped.

From Istanbul, I watched the Egyptian revolution, the same way as people outside this country do nowadays; I felt happy for Egypt as the revolution unfolded until I read about the violence on the square, then I patronised. Today, seeing the conditions in which people live, getting closer to the issue, observing the way life unfolds in Egypt and knowing how everybody else judges this country, I feel anger and sadness.

Anger, because despite the despicable current acts of violence and chaos, you have to give it to the people of Egypt, for their history and resilience. Their revolution was such a brave act, when, for once, people stood together and overthrew a regime that seemed invincible! The first world should learn from their actions, their unity against a bigger power, and respect how much strength, determination and belief it took to the people! Perhaps, we, Westerners, should learn from rebellion and revolution, perhaps we should use the 2011 actions as a source of inspiration. As a French person, I think of 1789 as a great turning point in the history of my country, as well as the recent May 1968 national strike as a proud moment when the people made history – I only wish that the protests would quell here too.

This documentary shows how, time after time, the people have been manipulated, used as pawns, on the grand chaotic Egyptian chessboard. It shows you how people once stood together against a cause, but ended up being played against to become divided, against one another.

That also generates deep sadness because it didn’t work the first time, nor did it the second time and people, from all sides, are demoralised, tired and rightfully afraid of what lies ahead.

If you read this blog, don’t you just dare judging Egypt like I did a few years ago and still do sometimes now!

Don’t you look at your TV screen in a patronising way and criticise this country; don’t say a word if you do not have the strength of doing the same for your own nation! We are all pawns, the only thing that changes is how much light is shed on the chessboard you are being played on!

It’s always darker before the dawn, and I wish to Egypt as much light as possible, as soon as possible – so should you!