The Cart People

I see them from my window and this morning I walked through their midst. The cart people who live on a street near us. Their 6-8 feet wooden carts are their livelihood and their life. They are our area’s recyclers. They go through the garbage looking for wires, cardboard, bottles, steel, iron, soda cans and anything else that may bring a few pesos at the end of the day. A few of the kids may be lucky and find half a banana or a few chippies at the bottom of a bag someone threw away. A young man may find cigarette stubs that he savors as he lights up and feels “like anyone else” and not like he is- street dirt poor. At night they have emptied their wooden carts of recyclables and it becomes the instant bed for the family. During the day, the ones watching the stuff at the “camp site” find shade from the trees or an old tarp nailed to a nearby wall or tree.

As I walked by this morning the “community was abuzz”. A dad had a baby on his knees giving him a bath under a community tap. Two ladies were sorting the already full carts of “merchandise”. Another lady was washing clothes in a small broken plastic basin. One little tyke probably 3 or 4 played with a stick making circles in the muddy stream that was running down the street- a stream full of soapy water and from the smell, someone’s overfull sewage. Another youngster was face down on the sidewalk watching her older brother play in the stream- both stark naked. Another young man was in the grassy part of the median between the street laying out the day’s laundry to dry in the sun.

The only thing any of the young children are wearing was the amulet on a string around their neck to ward off evil spirits. Life as lived on the sidewalk in Manila.