Szemétálmok

Amikor a tervünk megvalósítása elindult, és a mi kis befüvesített városunkat vittük a program helyszínére, kihasználtuk az alkalmat egy flashmobra. Ahogy "végighúztuk"a gerilla kertészetünket a Váci utcán, szinte egy ember sem ment el mellettünk anélkül, hogy meg ne nézett volna bennünket. Igaz, hogy ezzel nem sikerült embereket bevonni, ennek ellenére nagyon élveztem az egészet!

A Fővám téren pozitív meglepetésként ért, hogy sokan ismerték a mi projektünket és figyelemmel kísérték tevékenységeinket is. Sok érdekes megjegyzést tettek témáinkkal kapcsolatban, és szép számmal be is álltak közénk segíteni.

Mivel a program nagy részében interjúkat készítettem, számomra a legnagyobb élményt az jelentette, hogy a riportalanyok többségét nagyon érdekelte a mi témánk. Habár egyesek nem voltak hajlandóak interjút adni, rengeteg személy pozitívan fogadta a kérdéseimet, és örömmel válaszolt rájuk.

A csapatmunka létfontosságú egy ilyen projektben. Igaz, hogy már az első hetekben is jó volt a csoportmunka, de mivel a Szemétálmodók csapata különböző korú és képességű emberekből áll, eleinte nem volt könnyű összeszoknunk. Ehhez képest mostanra rengeteget fejlődtünk a koncentráció és az együttműködés terén is.

Szöveg: Dóri
Kép: Pati, Dóri 

1. akció – Egy irányba nézős

Egyesével bementünk a Váci utca közepére, és egy irányba néztünk, felfelé. Oda is mutattunk. Leültünk, felálltunk, es megint mutattunk. A cél az volt, hogy felkeltsük az emberek érdeklődését.

A szórólapos lány azt gondolta, hogy valakitől elköszönünk. Ő mást értett, mint amit eljátszottunk. De kétértelmű is volt a játék, mert lehetett így is meg úgy is érteni.

Lány: Valaki elmegy és neki integettek?

Mi: Érdekesnek találtad, beálltál volna velünk játszani?

Lány: Simán.

Mi: Szerinted élvezték a gyerekek, amit csináltak?

Lány: Igen, látszott az arcukon. 

*

2. akció – Kötélhúzás

Haider es Dávid elkezdte húzni a képzeletbeli kötelet. Egyre többen csatlakoztunk hozzájuk, és próbáltuk bevonni a járókelőket. Ez sikerült is, mert sokan átléptek, és sokan megkerültek minket.

Egy német házaspár azt mondta, érdekes volt nekik látni, hogy miképpen reagálnak az emberek. A férfi beállt volna játszani, a nő nem.

Mi: Önök szerint mások élvezték a játékunkat?

Házaspár: Igen, láttuk ahogy részt vesznek benne. Volt, aki átlépte, volt, aki felvette.

Mi: Láttak már valahol hasonló játékot?

Házaspár: Igen, mi Münchenben élünk, ott a piacnál láttunk hasonlót.

Mi: Csinálhatunk egy közös képet önökkel?

Házaspár: Igen, persze.

Körkérdés csapaton belül: Hogy érezted magad a játék közben?

Dávid: Voltak helyzetek, amikor nem kapcsolódtak be, de mindenki humorosan reagált.

Mahmud: Jól éreztem magam, és az emberek is élvezték.

Hanna: Az emberek nézték, amit játszunk, es sokan megértették, hogy mit csinálunk. Sokszor nem értettem, hogy miért kerülik ki a kötelet, miért nem akarnak csatlakozni.

Lili: Nekem a kötélhúzás olyan volt, mintha igazi kötelet húztunk volna.

Haider: Tetszett, hogy bekapcsolódhatnak mások is.

Rodrigó: Azt látom, hogy az bekapcsolódnak a csoportunkba, mindenki megfeszítve húzza a kötelet, és az emberek reagálnak rá.

*

3. akció – A képzeletbeli labda

Egy képzeletbeli labdát adogattunk egymásnak, és próbáltuk a járókelőket is bevonni azzal, hogy nekik is odadobtuk, hogy hátha elkapják és visszadobják.

A meginterjúvolt külföldi lány értette, hogy mit csinálunk, de szerinte ez nem egy vidám dolog, inkább olyan emberek szórakozása, akiknek nincs mivel játszani.

Megkérdeztük a járókelőktől, hogy visszadobták volna-e a képzeletbeli labdát?

A szórólapos lány visszadobta volna, de jobban tetszett neki az egy irányba nézős akciónk. Sajnálta, hogy nem vettük őket észre, es nem vontuk be őket, mert szívesen beálltak volna.

Az eladónőknek tetszett a játék, be is álltak volna, csak sajnos dolgozniuk kellett.

*

A csapat:

Nineteen young seminar participants gathered together with the task of creating the Planet Paprika. This planet is the ideal society, the kind of world in which we hope to live. We followed the example of the lomizos, and searched for the ingredients of our planet in piles of paper, armchairs, and appliances lining the streets of Budapests’ 10^th district.

A lomizo is a collector, one who searches through piles of recently discarded objects (aka garbage). When the people of Budapest throw out their unused possessions, the streets turn into a kind of flea market with the lomizos searching for something of interest or value among the paper, armchairs, and appliances. We also joined their numbers and took to the streets in search of useful items for the construction of a group art project. We expected to find poor people searching for anything they could sell. We learned and discovered a different picture.

One woman from the local neighborhood shared freely with us. She talked with pride about her three children: a daughter living in the US, her son being musician and finally her second daughter who lives with her. She comes occasionally to search for vases or other beautiful objects to inhabit her home.

Another boy had come with his family from a village to make a good bargain. But unfortunately they didn’t have luck so he was a bit disappointed. His initial nervousness gave way to curiosity about our group and what we were doing there.

In the end we tried to engage a man who was standing guard over his newly claimed objects. He was reluctant to talk and regarded us with suspicion.

Our conversations showed us that lomizos come from different places and for different reasons. For some it is a significant source of their income, for others it is a hobby. Our presence caused various reactions from shame and suspicion to friendliness and openness. Our feelings also transformed. Our insecure questions from the beginning developed to pleasant conversations with the lomizos. But we also learnt that we have to be open and honest to be able to start a conversation. While we first saw only garbage, by the end of the afternoon our eyes instinctively searched out colorful and interesting artifacts within the piles. As we walked away a woman passing by sized up the items filling our plastic bags. We were among the lomizos. 

The items we collected may not have been valuable, but now empty containers, umbrellas, baskets, tinsel, and plastic flowers are part of houses or rooftop gardens of our Planet Paprika. 

Rachel, Kristi and Marina

In Hungary numerous people, mostly belong to the ethnic group of the Roma, make their living from reselling garbage. Each year, from district to district, people put out their garbage and others can come to take or buy it. This has made a living for many families, and we set out to explore this concept and to meet these people. We went to the area of Kobanya, also called the 10^th district, where our journey began.

When you come to Kobanya the first thing that strikes the eye are the tall, colourful apartments. On the walk to the 10^th district you get a strong feeling of both poverty but also you feel a link to the time of communism. It is difficult not to let the preconceptions affect the result or the process, but we tried, and with this in mind we continued our explorations.

We first approached a couple sitting on the sidewalk collecting garbage. We were apprehensive, both afraid to offend them, and wanting to show our respect and that our intention was not to point fingers or judge but simply to learn. We talked to an 71 year old woman, you could tell from her face that she had lived a hard life, but still a friendliness and an openness shone through. She told us that the reason why she does this is because of poverty, and she is not proud of what she does but she looks like a woman who has accepted her conditions and makes the best of what she has. In the background sits her husband, a little more hesitant, with less openness or willingness to talk.

We were all surprised of the enormous piles of garbage that showed up everywhere, and in our curiosity we continued our walk in district 10. On our walk we talked to many people, different backgrounds, different lifestyles but with the one thing in common that garbage is their way to make a living both for themselves and their families. A question I think came up to everyone’s mind is why people can be forced to do this job, how people can be satisfied with this way of living.

Next we talked to a middleaged man who have made this as his living for many years. He told us how the districts are strongly divided . He only have himself and his wife to feed, so I think a burden left his shoulders when his children married and moved away from the house. He is an extremely friendly man, and very open to talk to us about both the rules of territory and why he does this. He had a job that he was fired from and then he found this the only possible way to make an income.

From the place where we talked to the man, we could see five children playing football and when we came closer they were very eager to say hello and we went over to talk to them. They had a very different view on this.. Their opinion about the garbage was very torn. On one hand they liked the fact that you could get rid of your garbage and on another hand they found it disgusting that all the garbage were laying around on the street. They all had big dreams and hopes for their future, one wanted to be a lawyer and another a doctor.

At the end of our walk we met two men, probably in their 40s, who lives in their cars when they work. One of the men proudly told us how he once found 5000 ft. in between a couch he found on the streets. One of the men gave us a book from communism time, full of stamps from good behavior. A good symbol of our journey – at the end we felt so confortable with them and they with us that he would even give us a personal belonging of his.

Our preconceptions were very different but I think for all it was very new and eye opening experience. Before this journey people were told how to behave and for many people there was a nervousness and hesitation that dominated our behavior in the beginning, which we felt affected the people with whom we were talking.

This shows much about human nature. No matter where the person comes from and what background he or she has we are all one and at the end this will be dominating, if you meet people with an open mind and an open heart.

 Jasper & Christine

Thursday afternoon in Budapest. Blocks-of-flats residential area in the suburbs. This is where we are headed to talk to the lomizo – people collecting the garbage that is purposefully thrown out by the tenants.

What exactly is lomizo about? On set days in specific districts of the city the citizens are allowed to get rid of the all the things that are no longer of any use to them – by literally putting them out into the street. On the end of the week those huge heaps of garbage are taken away – but before that they are sure to be thoroughly examined by the people scavenging for anything they could use or sell. All the items they found are collected and put aside – now it's not trash anymore, but a property.

The first moments are not very promising. We are not welcome there; the first lomizo we meet among the stacks of stuff do not want to talk to us. Are we going to pay them? No, we're just volunteers, we do not have any money. This doesn't win their favour. Another person reacts angrily to the sight of a photo camera and hurries away.

Fortunately, things get better. Some of the other collectors, as well as the local citizens, are very polite and eager to contribute to our work. They openly share their opinions and describe their lives, even with personal issues. We feel they just want to talk to us – that they are happy that someone is finally interested in them, and they can talk to other people. It's like finding an open door in another person and jumping into it.

We talk to various lomizo. Most of them collect garbage, because they have no other way of earning money. This the only opportunity they have. “We won't be rich”, one of the men says, “but at least we won't steal”. They see it as alternative to crime. Some of them treat it as a real “job”, for other it is just a hobby or a way to earn some additional money when a normal work is not enough to care for their families. One of the older women confesses that this is how she gets clothes for over 30 grandchildren of hers – otherwise they would just run around naked. The hobbyists mainly look for unusual items, which they can later sell on flea markets or remake into pieces of art.

The tenants are not really delighted with this. “This is a circus”, one of the men says. According to him, because of this the area looks worse than 30 years ago – meaning, in the communist times. A woman working in the local shop is complaining about how such a nice district is spoiled by huge stains of trash on every other corner. Should it be organised in a different way? Yes. But how? There is no answer. Who is to blame? We are not surprised, when this question is answered by a long rant on politicians. An invisible, but at the same time impenetrable wall seems to be standing between the government and the people.

This is not the only wall, however. While the two men who blame the politicians refer to the garbage collectors simply as lomi, the shop owner has another name for them: "Roma". She insists that she has nothing against them, but this political correctness is quickly ruined by the complaints about their stay near her block, which consists mainly of drinking alcohol, peeing everywhere and stealing. The shop owner claims to be very tolerant, as she even has one Roma colleague and thinks them a very nice person, but according to her the lomi scavengers are a whole different matter. Are there any non-Roma collectors? No, she has never seen any. Only Roma.

She may have not seen them, but we have - just a several blocks away we meet Hungarians looking for usable items among the abundant old toys, ruined furniture and countless pieces of cardboard. A smiling Roma couple who came to the city for several days - the collecting process can take long, so to save time they do not go back to their village for the night, but sleep in the car - confirm that it is not just a coincidence: there are many "proper" Hungarians between them, searching through and gathering exactly the same stuff as them. So how come they are not seen by the tenants? Are they invisible? In a way, this may be true - the clear distinction between the people who throw out things and those who collect them, between the citizens and poor lomi, between Hungarians and Roma, between "us" and "them" makes it difficult for some to believe that the line separating those two groups may not be as clear as it seems. That it is not that simple.

We look up from the littered ground, up from the faces of the lomi - to the blocks around us. The balconies are empty, which is a bit unnerving, but whichever direction we turn, we see quick movements behind the windows. The curtains are hastily drawn, a dark silhouette looms from behind them. Suddenly we realize that we are being watched. The tenants, hidden in their apartments, are observing the garbage collectors outside. But we are also under constant surveillance. In this "us and them" situation we become lomi as well. The outsiders.

Or maybe it is different? After all, despite all the complaints, the tenants here gathered their old things and threw them out for other people to gather, even in it hurts their aesthetics, makes the district look like garbage dump and attracts people whom they seemingly disdain. We recall the conversations with the tenants who said that lomi live on the items they find in the trash. So deep down, those hiding in their apartments and distancing themselves from outsiders, in the end value other people higher than their own comfort. Is that a shame? Something than needs to be hidden behind a window curtain? We have no answer, but the warm, open smiles of lomi make us wonder about the way of the world.

Dorota & Silvi