12 days of christmas for the trash lady...

first of all, i hate that i call someone the 'trash lady,' but it is actually what i do call her, and i don't know what else to call her. she is the woman who goes through my trash. let me explain.

everything in wuhan is reused. people here are terrible about littering, but there is always someone who comes along to pick up. there is still tons of litter everywhere, but it is hard to imagine what it would be like without all the people who pick up and sweep. if i am drinking a coke, or a bottle of water, there is always someone nearby, waiting for me to finish so they may have my bottle. i have seen people breaking apart blocks of concrete from torn down structures to get the tiny metal reinforcements inside. people pick through the trash cans on campus, and rescue all storts of stuff.

so, as you can guess, when i take the trash out from my apartment, there is someone there to go through it. i always take it to the same woman. last year, when my friend kellee was here, she was really upset by the idea of having someone pick through her trash. she'd take it out at night, after the woman had left 'work' for the day. at first, i felt the same way, and it is still odd, but i really like this woman. she is always so happy to see me or duff coming. we try to keep our recyclables from the stuff that we think no one will ever want again. sometimes, though, we are still wrong. i though no one would want our old used paper noodles bowls and used disposable wooden chopsticks. wrong, the lady picks them out. i still haven't figured out what she wants and what she doesn't. the trash doesn't go to a dumpster or anything, by the way. it goes into a three sided concrete enclosure. the woman sits there all day, every day, on a little stool under a tree. next to her is her bicycle. the back of the bike is a trunk, or a bin, which she fills up with everything she takes out of the trash. i am assuming she then carts it to the bottle recyclers, or the paper recyclers. who give her some money for what she brings in. even beer bottle caps are worth 2 jiao. what she doesn't fish out, is burned. i have never heard of anyone doing anything with the trash other than burning it. it is part of the reason our air quality is so bad. this fall, they normally burned in the evening, around dinner time. i would come home from class, realize they were burning, and run the last bit home to get the laudry off the balcony. the laundry gets to smell terrible anyway, like pollution, if it is left out too long. the trash burning smell is awful, and it suffocates me. it burns my throught and my eyes.

this week, the trash lady is really happy with me. last year, after christmas, i hoarded all the boxes and wrapping paper from presents in my room in case.....what? what was i every going to need that for? silly. this year, realizing that i will never again need these packing materials, i take them to the trash lady. she loves it. my parents had the greatest idea for christmas for me this year. one day i got a call from the office where our mail comes, and they said i had 7 packages at the office. when my dad called the next time, he directed me to one to open first. inside was a note that said, "on the first day of christmas....." it is so exciting, especially since i haven't opened them all yet. it is such a great idea. i am so loved and lucky. when i open one, i take the packing materials to the trash lady. it is better to take it a little at a time. if i take to much at one time, she won't be able to get it all on her bike and someone else may get it. i realize i am getting christmas presents and she is getting the wrapping, but the wrappings here are valuable, and she runs to meet me when i bring out a box.