Specifically, let’s talk about the system of garbage collection here, in our neck of Bari. As mentioned, we are located in the center of downtown Bari and as such we have to dispose of our garbage like everyone else on the block. As you walk around the neighborhood, it is impossible not to notice at just about every corner are a collection of dumpsters and cans. There is a dumpster for cardboard, paper, and wood (wood mostly comes from local shops who get shipments of produce in flimsy wooden crates). Then there is a dumpster for trash, which is basically anything that is not earmarked for the can of recyclable glass, recyclable plastic, or compostable organic material. And I actually don’t think I have noticed a recyclable can receptacle, but some blocks have a collection bin for used clothing. All of the cans and dumpsters have hinged tops that make them accessible to all who need to deposit into them...except, for some reason, the organic/compostable has a lock on it. We asked our landlord if we could get a key for that can, but he said he does not have one...and it seems, is disinterested in looking into how to get us one, so every day or so we head down with our bag of trash and bag of recycling and leave it off on our way to wherever we are headed. All well and good...except for one slight fucking incredible annoyance. We have been here going on two weeks and are now starting to see a pattern of the pick up schedule. After midnight, the city is ultraquiet. Almost zero cars on the narrow streets, making it the ideal time for the garbage trucks to snake their way through the one way streets picking up that week's haul of items. Well, Sunday morning around 5:00am is the time the glass collector shows up. And let me tell you, when you are sleeping soundly in a quiet neighborhood, a truck driving up and dumping an entire garbage can of glass bottles into a truck full of glass bottles is a startling sound. Yeah. Sunday. At 5:00. AM! However, he is only the glass collector.
Last night was Sunday night into Monday morning, I had woken up in the middle of the night and was having a little trouble getting back to sleep. I laid there with my eyes closed with thoughts running through my head. I was thinking that I could write a blog post about the relatively convenient garbage disposal situation coupled with the inconvenient collection time. As I lay there in the dark, I heard a thump. It was outside, but far enough in the distance that I didn’t think twice about it. About a minute later I heard the thump again, except there were a couple of them, reminding me of a battered storm shutter slapping back and forth against a house in the time just before the tornado strikes. As soon as it started, it was over. About a minute later, again, multiple thumps, this time closeby, as if at the corner of the next block. Then I realize that about a minute later I should expect the sound of a garbage truck lifting a dumpster to pour into its hauling bin and shaking it so the hinged top slaps between the truck and the top of the dumpster. And, right on queue, the relatively quiet sound of the hydraulics lifting the dumpster, and then THUMP, THUMP, THUMP as the hydraulics bring it back to ground level and the truck moves on and the pattern repeats albeit softer and softer until it is out of earshot. The whole process takes only a few minutes, and while I think about it, I reach for my phone to see what time this all takes place...3:17am!
There are many sounds in any downtown that are unfamiliar to the suburban ear. Eventually people get used to these kinds of things and think nothing of it when they are happening. I, on the other hand expect the day I sleep through either of these cacophonies will be the week we leave. Until then, if anyone wants to know what I am doing next Sunday at 5:00am, I will be trying to get back to sleep as the glass collection truck makes its way down the block.
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