Boquete’s Trash

I’ve made about 20 trips the past few weeks to Boquete’s land fill, taking construction debris to the dump, so I’m becoming a trash expert!  The growth in Boquete, Chiriqui can be seen in many ways. One way is in the growth in the amount of trash we produce. When we first came to Boquete it had a little dump. Now it has a major sanitary landfill that is rapidly filling up. We’re now on our ninth big sanitary landfill ditch.

There is probably no dump in the world that has a more spectacular view!

As it happens this landfill is right across the street from a major gringo housing development. But I am told that if landfills are done right, there should be no problem even if the wind is blowing over the landfill.

The type of trash has changed over the past four years as well.  Now there is more construction junk, tons of packaging for plasma TVs and refrigerators, etc., and lots of old televisions, printers, etc.   The cost of a pickup load full of construction debris is $2 paid to the Nobe Bugle Indian caretaker.

One unfortunate aspect of the dump, which causes not only my concern, but also that of my Indian workers, is that the dump manager allows his daughter, who should be in school, to work the dump, picking over trash.

I try to understand this type of thing and not to be a cultural imperialist, but when my Indian workers are also upset, I feel I have a right to be upset as well.  This is no place for a little girl!

On a happier note . . .

I took a few pictures of the house at night . . . with the exterior lights now up.