Garbage Dreams – A film about Christians in their natural habitat
** One person, who lost the right to leave comments here, objected to the headline – “Christians don’t live in garbage, a@#$%&@!” was his keen insight. He clearly didn’t read the article, or has more garbage around him than he’s willing to admit. **
I passed through the “Garbage City” of Cairo in 2006, on the way to see the cave church in the mountain above the city. (You will see additional footage of it in the final video below.) When I was there, young Egyptians asked to have their pictures taken with me.
The vast majority of the people who live in the garbage city are Christians. They do the filthy work, while (as I understand it) the Muslims consider it unclean.
Driving through the very narrow streets, glancing into open doorways to see the garbage piled inside the homes, with pigs and children mixed together, and then also noticing the Christian symbols drawn on the walls of the buildings, I had a distinct sense that this was a natural habitat for Christians. The people were living a harsh existence, were outcast, but were also living together and under the grace of God. I remember feeling very proud to be associated with the Zabaleen, the garbage collectors, through our shared faith.
My experience of filth and chaos and outcast-ness has little to do with poverty, and little to do with pigs, but I often find myself feeling similarly overwhelmed by the mess of my own soul, and the messes of the souls and lives around me. And perhaps in a way that runs parallel to the recycling done by the Zabaleen, I am fascinated by, and an ardent searcher for stories of, redemption within the mess and chaos. I believe that God loves – takes huge delight in – being present with people who are buried in the garbage of their own lives, and of the lives of others. I believe His favorite joy may well be the recycling and redemption of the people and situations He finds there. My sense is that the whole deal about “blessed are the poor” has everything to do with the joy God finds in redeeming overwhelmed lives, and with pouring joy even into dark and narrow streets indwelt by outcasts.
The friend with whom I traveled to Egypt recently told me about the Garbage Dreams movie, insisting that I will love it, and I’m looking forward to checking it out myself.
If you can get past the accent and some of the word choices of the narration, I found two other video clips at YouTube that will give you a further view of the Garbage City.
