Trash has been accumulating on the corners around the overflowing dumpsters in the municipality of Diez de Octubre and others in Havana for days, since in many cases the trucks that should be collecting it can’t pass. Naturally, after the vermin come looking for food, with their repulsive presence and the threat of disease transmission. Several mounds of garbage flanked the dumpsters at the corner of Freyre de Andrade and Juan Delgado, en Vibora, looking more like a mountain range of filth, when they sent a bulldozer, with a pair of teeth — like a giant carrion bird — to pick it up.
I found it amazing to see the faces of relief from a group of neighbors who gathered around the device and the dump truck that would transport the waste. Also the pharmacy workers across the street, those next door, and the bodega on kitty-corner from it, showing their approval of the act. I understand they were tired of such filth and the stench.
I went and talked to several of them and they spoke in low tones of the two times they came for the trash previously, of how they cut the sidewalk with iron claws and made a hole where the planting strip was. The hole is notorious. I asked that we all to sign a document the Commune and other Party entities and the municipal government and it was like a repellent spray. The crush of people was dispersed in a few seconds.
They pulled out the shovel and the operators did their job with huge mechanical hand, carrying away much of the sidewalk along with the trash and leaving just a narrow rail of cement for everyone to walk along. Between the recurrent pests and the balance needed to walk along there, it’s better that I get a license plate for myself and put it on my behind and walk in the street.
Rosa Maria Rodriguez
December 26 2012