13 Jun 2009, Posted by jessie in the category, 0 Comments

Scraps from a Bin

After taking in the luxury of waking at a leisurely time on the first morning in our own apartment (and getting used to the fact that no-one would walk into the room at any minute!), I sat down to a hot coffee and fresh bread for breakfast.  The reality still hadn’t really set in that we were finally in our own place.  After reflecting about how long we’d had to wait to get here and the challenges of living at the OM office for over 4 months, I reminded myself of how much we deserved this place – a good reward for our hard work and sacrifice.

Yet as I walked into our bedroom and looked out the window, I was struck by the sight of a middle-aged woman searching through the garbage bins.  After sipping the dregs in the bottom of a few bottles, she continued searching and was obviously looking for something in particular.  Eventually coming across a small piece of paper, I wondered to myself about the purpose of something so common.  Making her way to the back of the bins and looking to the left and right, before checking a second time, she then lowered her pants and bent down to go to the toilet.  Behind the bins, right outside our apartment.

And suddenly it struck me that I was here, thinking about how hard our last few months had been, and that this woman has probably lived a life of hardship beyond anything I could comprehend.

To be honest, I didn’t know what to do.  Should I go and offer her my breakfast?  Invite her into our new home? Leave a loaf of bread in the bin each week to avoid humiliation? Simply go down and say hello?

And I wondered how many others live exactly like her, from this same bin.  And from other bins all around Chișinău.

While resources are poured into enabling free wireless internet in central park, people all over the city are living from scraps in a bin.