Here we are in the third world in the year 2011. What does it look like?

The trash was taken out. They don’t take cans out because those would be stolen, so they leave the bags by the side of the road. The garbage truck comes around sooner or later and all is removed.

There is a whole industry for people who are known as ‘recyclers’. They pick through the unsorted trash and reap the benefits of cashing in on what is recyclable. So they go through the bags sitting by the side of the roads before the garbage truck hauls it away.

I just watched one pick through the trash in front of the church, and at the end he reached into an inner pocket and pulled out his cell phone. Then I saw the headphones. Then I realized he was changing the music. And last of all I was struck by the incongruity of it all.