Going
to the dump has been one of my favorite and most eye opening experiences in
Guinea thus far. One of my many Dutch friends, Mirjam, goes to the local dump
twice a week to do wound care and basic first aid. Last week she brought me a
long on what I hope will be my first of many visits! Built on the heaps of
trash, are homes made out of sticks, old doors, old metal sheeting, tarps,
bags, and pretty much anything else people can find. The living conditions are
absolutely appalling and unsanitary. People live at the dump and sift through
the trash in hopes of finding anything at all that they can sell. They live,
work, construct their homes, and even find food, from what other people throw
away. The air is thick with the smell of burning garbage and raw sewage. There
are also large pigs, goats, stray dogs, and other animals roaming around. Most
of the people in this particular area are refugees from civil wars in Liberia
and Sierra Leone.
When we arrived at the dump the first thing I saw was a
group of about 10 or 12 children running towards us. They have seen Mirjam every week since
October and she is a welcome presence. I
was greeted immediately by a smiling little girl eating a partly moldy fish,
covered in flies. The kids all showed us small scrapes on their knees and
elbows, in hopes that we would have something special for them! Even though
they were in no real need of treatment, we handed out a colored Band-Aid or two
to quell the masses. They then went playing on their way. It is always amazing
to me to see the joy that children have wherever they are. These kids are
living in deplorable conditions with literally nothing, yet they are just as
happy and content to run and play as any American child! They don’t see the
poverty. They are just happy!
We made our way through the maze of shacks and trash to the
“treatment” room. Each week a man offers offers up his one room home to be used
for a makeshift clinic. There was a dirt
floor and two wooden benches, with curtain separating a sleeping mat from the
rest of the room. The patients were already lined up outside waiting. We
didn’t’ see too many serious injuries, but just very basic wound that had
become infected because of poor sanitation and lack of resources. There were
some burns from cooking over fires, foot ulcers, and other basic injuries. We
also so plenty of people with ring worm, rashes, and parasites. There is such a
lack of preventable medicine and resources, that these people have no access to
the very basic supplies or medicine at all.
After finishing up with our mini “clinic” (I use that term very loosely)
We just spent some time sitting with the kids and chatting with the adults. You
can tell that these people are starving to be treated with the dignity and
respect that is so often denied to them because of socioeconomic status.
I hope to make the dump a regular hang out during the rest
of my time here in Guinea.
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