As I have mentioned before, when workers leave Ukraine, those who remain have a free-for-all on the household items left behind. After this, there are always things that no one really wants, yet seem useful or at least too good to throw away. These items are stored in Zaporozhye, in the MCC garage.
Last weekend I went to Zaporozhye to help clean the assorted items that were piled up there. Liz, Andre and I spent the afternoon on Friday and the morning on Saturday deciding what to keep, give away, and throw away. I found that the criteria for “useful” or “too good to throw away” differ greatly from person to person.
We found a lot of things such as sets of dishes, small appliances, and bedding that we were fairly certain future workers will be interested in using. We tried to clean, sort and package these in order that workers can avoid wading through boxes of junk to find something useful.
We also found random things that workers may want to use, but would probably be put to better use in an orphanage or children’s center in the area. These things were mainly mismatched mugs, bowl, and sheets that we already had plenty of. We didn’t want to insult the recipients’ dignity by giving them things that they would turn around and throw away. I found it the distinction very difficult. Which things would we bring to the partners (as sort of humanitarian aid) and which would we put in the dumpster?
Once we got started, we found that most things that we put in the dumpster were removed by dumpster scavengers by our next trip there. Some of the stuff that we thought was totally useless was being used. I even saw some of the things we threw away on Friday, being sold at the market Saturday.
Dave
