capitalize me.

i know i should probably get consistent with posts, so i will try to write more often! you might also wonder why i rarely capitalize letters. well. it is because i feel that letters, names, words, etc are just words. each one is important so why not capitalize them all? or none of them? capitalizing would make me seem like i am yelling, and i am quite soft-spoken, so i prefer just to not capitalize. ANYWAYS. jk. anyways. well now that i think about it, i capitalize somee words for emphasis.... moving on.


on june 25, 2010 i had one of the most humbling experiences of my life.

ushma and i shadowed a rag-picker named geeta. however, to me she is not just a woman who collects trash for recyclables for a living. she is a strong mother who will go to any extent to take care of her kids. luckily i could communicate with her since we were both gujarati. she talked to me about her family, schedule, daily challenges, etc. just so you get an idea, here is her daily schedule: (why is there no "take a break" ?!)




5:00 am - wake up/freshen up
6:00 am - bathe the 3 kids
7:00 am - make food/feed the kids
8:00 am - go out and collect trash
10:00 am - come back and feed the baby
12:00 pm - sort the trash into recyclables and non-recyclables
6:00 pm - come home and cook dinner
7:00 pm - eat dinner
8:00 pm - take a bath
9:00 pm - put the kids to sleep and then go to sleep


as you can see, geeta's schedule is focused around her kids. what amazed me the most is that she got married at age 15. her niece daksha, who was with us half the time, was married off at age 13. she was quite young, still in the early teens and was about to get a divorce. she had a miscarriage and on top of that, her husband was abusive. that is a lot for a girl in her early teens to go through. that is a lot for ANY woman to go through actually. it makes me quite sad that situations like this exist in the world.
what makes me even sadder was seeing the reaction of people when she approached them. her job is quite difficult and people dont see that. some people even insulted her for it. i was with her for a few hours in the morning and she showed me her daily route for trash collection. a rag-picker has to be very strategic or another rag-picker could take the trash from certain places before him/her. some people were nice and kept stuff for geeta on the side, while others charged her money. who CHARGES money for taking their TRASH. it just doesnt make sense to me. and by the time she was done with the route, she had 3 huge bags filled. and they were HEAVY. i felt bad, i couldnt help her carry any of them. i need to become more buff. but yah, everyday she only makes about 50 rupees for 7 hours of work. that is equivalent to $1.


unfair. and i wonder what happens to the trash she cant recycle....