Granada’s dump is the working place for men, women and children who are doing what they can to survive. An incongruous site are cattle wandering around Granada’s dump alongside the men, women and children who are scrounging for plastic containers, glass bottles, cardboard and metal. The acrid smoke of burning garbage that is on fire in different places in the dump cannot be escaped.
There is a sense of order at the Granada dump. When a truck arrives loaded with bags of garbage, the men, women and children who are making their livelihood at the dump begin pulling off the bags of garbage. As the bags are pulled off the truck, they are ripped open. Each family unit seems to have something specific that they collect. Near where the garbage trucks have their loads unloaded is an area where the different family units accumulate in bags or in the case of cardboard in a stack what they are collecting. Each family unit has to pay about $25 to the owner of the land where this area is located. This insures each family unit a more or less secure place to amass in a specific spot what they have collected. A recycling truck shows up from Managua about every six weeks to weigh, to pay the going rate and to load up what has been collected.
El Puente twice a week takes a noon meal to the Granada dump. The Lenawee Christian School team was able to join El Puente in visiting the Granada dump. While there, they assisted in distributing the food along with presenting the gospel message to those who were at the dump. A memory that was shared was the respect that was shown by those at the dump for their visitors.
