Barbados Life: Trash Day

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I am not sure if it's because I don't have a lot going on, or that trash is a sensitive topic for me, but I really look forward to Trash Day on the island.

I think it is partly the unpredictability of it all. Our current trash day is designated for Friday. However, since we have lived in this house, it has been usually Tuesday. Not always but mostly. When we moved here they said to us that trash day is not consistent and they just come when they come. So it's quite exciting when they finally do. I guess that is island life.

Perhaps I need to share more so you can really appreciate my excitement for trash day. Living the island life you don't think we worry about such things as trash (some monkeys just magically come get it right?), but you soon start to recognize the benefits of a steady trash schedule that we took for granted state side.

An anecdote I love to share (insert sarcasm) is when we first moved to the island, we were in a short term rental place. It had a small yard so we made every effort to clean up after the dog to ensure the gardner didn't find himself with 'surprises'. In an unrelated but related story, the dog was spooked by the monkeys when we first arrived so I would need to escort him with a torch (flashlight) in the evenings so he would do his business.

So one evening we are out for our evening escorted bathroom break and because the gardner will arrive early the next day, I felt it prudent to clean up and take it the trash. At night. In the dark. I have my trusty torch and get to the trash cans and open one to dump said baggy into it and my light reveals ....hundreds of maggots. I immediately scream/freak out and go to throw in the baggy and slam the lid shut only to throw in the torch by mistake (in my defense it was in my throwing hand thank you). 

I sit for a good 7 seconds deciding do I grab the torch from the now swarming mass of maggots or just walk away. I can't bear that I would have to explain why I have 'lost' the house's torch to the management company so I quickly open the bin, grab the torch, throw the Correct bag in, and run back inside.

I took about 4 showers and disinfected the torch 9 times. I feel I am prepped for surgery almost, we are so clean.

As you already surmised, island life is, well warm. Also they don't use garbage disposals here, so all the food goes in the trash. So take some food scraps, add some heat, and some flies, well you have what I now call a traumatic event. 

When we moved, I thought I had gotten past my trash trauma until one morning we go to walk the dog only to find our trash now spread across the driveway and street. After the first incident, my husband, luckily is gross adverse, picks it all up. We decide perhaps double bagging will help solve our issue.

Trash day gets delayed due to a holiday and we have another evening of the trash can being tipped over and garbage distributed. This happens about 4 more times and then husband has to leave the country so I decide to take matters into my own MacGyver hands. I research that it is either monkeys or cats. The locals assure me it is cats so I feel I have a good defense system for something without opposable thumbs. 

I double bag all the food and spray down each bag layer with a bleach cleaner as well as slip a large garbage bag over the top of the trash can. This method works and I go several days without incident. 

Husband returns and brings back with him bungee chords so we can manage it the American way (I feel like we bungee everything there) and problem solved.

That afternoon trash guys arrive and I am literally waving to them as they pull up. Trash Day has Arrived!! It was a Wednesday by the way.

I think the amazing thing about Zen, is that it can find its place even in the most yuckiest of places like the trash.  I have not only grown to appreciate my own trash day but as we drive around during a holiday or like recently a news release announced many trash trucks had broken down on the island, I feel pity for those in the neighborhoods that trash is piling up and flies swarm and cats run the streets. I appreciate now the hierarchy of keeping your trash clean, keeps the maggots at bay, keeping the cats at bay, keeping the neighborhood clean. 

Sometimes as I meditate in the morning, on most Tuesdays, I hear the trash truck arrive and back up and it's the most glorious sound next to the ocean waves and birds that I could possibly hear. I love trash day, no matter what day it falls on.

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