Getting Your Hands Dirty
by Dr. Marian Boehr
Most of you know that I collect empty cans and
bottles and use the money for mission. People
ask me, with horror in their voices, “How can
you reach into a filthy waste bin and take out a
used bottle or can? Do you wear gloves?” I reply, “No, but I do wash my hands frequently.”
Getting your hands dirty is part of life for many
people. In India, where I served as a missionary
doctor for 38 years, people picked up cow dung
which they used for cooking fuel. They mixed
the dung with straw, made it into balls, and
smacked these on the outside of their mud huts
to dry in the hot sun. Dried dung cakes make
great fires for cooking purposes! As a doctor I
have had to handle many leprosy patients and
gangrenous arms and legs with my hands, and
wipe up blood and vomitus from the floor when
nobody else would do it. Yes, I am not afraid of
getting my hands dirty.
Once I visited the eastern side of Cairo, Egypt
where there was a huge stinking garbage dump
which stretched for miles, lined with shacks—
the homes of the garbage collectors. Here thousands of people collected, sorted and generally
lived with garbage. The amazing fact was that
90% of the thousands of garbage collectors in
the garbage community of Mokatam Mountain
were Christians. As you walk up the mountain,
alongside the chirping rats, you enter into one of
two cave churches built on this mountain. One
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seats 2,500 and is too small for the regular services. The larger cave seats 10,000. Crowds of
people came from all over Cairo, through the
garbage community, to this church to worship. I
often wonder what has happened to these Christians today, after all the turmoil and rioting in
Cairo.
Yes, millions of people, even in Egypt, get their
hands dirty every day!
I am now collecting about 17 cans/bottles a day
(earning $25 a month) from my own picking up
cans/bottles on my daily walks, plus gifts from
others which appear in sacks on the door-latch
of my apartment, on the floor by my door, or on
my car trunk (parking space #50). Not long ago I
got a huge bag of Coke cans by my car which I
could not get in my car trunk, or even lift by myself. I worked there in the parking garage putting
those sticky cans into five large garbage bags,
hauled them to Fred Meyer, and 40 minutes later
turned the receipts in for $17. 90. That was good
money, but friends, I don’t want that many cans
at once after this—it was too challenging. Anyway, thanks to the person who gave me that bag
of Coke cans.
My mission work around the world continues
through collecting pop-cans and bottles, and getting my hands dirty! Thanks everyone who
helps!!
The Plaza Review
August 2012