At 9 a.m. Momo showed up and lead us to a place about 5 minutes driving apart: the dump site of this borough. Each of Bamako´s s boroughs has their own dump site, and there are still huge piles of waste along the fringes of the city. Momo introduced us to the custodian of the place, who explained us the system of the site: he got a permission from the mayor of Bamako to take care of the place and organize it. People with carts full of trash kept coming, running up the mountain of trash with high speed. They get paid from the private househoulds to collect their trash regularly, and they paid the custodian a small amount for deposit it on the waste site. The custodian and his family lived in a shack on the dump site, and he knew, that it was a lousy job, but he had no choice: when he was young he was in a street gang, got arrested and spent about 20 years in prison. So it was an ok way to survive.
Suddenly a herd of cows appeared and went up on the hill of trash, “browsing”.
Men, women and children where allowed to “browse” there as well: the inhabitants of the nearby huts were looking for food and “valuables” like plastic they can sell, or metal. A cart brought rotten oranges, and cows, children and women were happy.
Stefan interviewed a women who told him, that she had 6 children, and she lost her husband last year. She walked 10 km to come here and look for things to eat, use or sell. And there are more and more people living like this.
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