The other side of Egypt that is not seen by tourists: an extremely closed community that lives in garbage from birth

“Garbage has been with me all my life. Even Dad found my first toy in a garbage heap. It was a loosely defined racing car with the number “11” on the hood. Someone threw it away and I used it for maybe a couple of years. I loved that toy very much and I didn’t care at all that it was out of the garbage pile, ”recalls Zakarius Gamal, a forty-three-year-old man used to using what becomes unnecessary for others. In the garbage, he has found a mobile phone, a tape recorder, dishes that the entire Zakarius family still eats from. More than once, money was found among the discarded items, although the amounts are usually not very large: 20-50 Egyptian pounds – 1-2 euros in our currency, only a few times had he detected “larger” amounts. Such findings do not surprise you at all, they have become a normal part of life for many years. This man has been in the trash for forty years. Like many of his friends and neighbors, he started from a very young age.

No slum in Africa or South America looks so poor and sad as the “garbage city” of Zabalin on Mokatam Mountain in Cairo. It is a maze of streets and streets filled with tons of different types of waste. Plastic, glass, paper, food scraps, household garbage, old and broken appliances, broken furniture, etc. Since the 1940s, at least half of all waste in a city of more than 21 million people has been flowing here. Some sources say that around 10-12 thousand tons can be brought in per day. However, this place can in no way be called a landfill, as it is not an official landfill in Cairo. There is also no garbage recycling plant on Mokatam Hill, although it could be, it would be badly needed there.

This place is more reminiscent of a sleeping area, like Karoliniškės in Vilnius, Dainava in Kaunas or South in Šiauliai. Only in our areas is there a perfect order, good smell, walking paths and well-kept flower beds. And here on Cairo’s Mokatam Mountain, instead of all good things, just rubbish. And for that, the city’s public services cannot be blamed. They are not transported there, it is the residents of the district who do it, the men and women of Zabalin. When he translates the word “zabalin” from Egyptian Arabic, he means that: garbage people. In fact, it is quite an offensive word that Egyptians use to bury disorderly friends or family. “It just came to our knowledge then zabalin“The mother says to the son that he cannot tidy the room, and the offended man will tidy up.

However, in the Mokatam mountain that I mentioned, this word does not offend anything, it is completely normal here, it is used on a daily basis. And the people who live here call themselves “Zabalin people.” It is a relatively closed, low-income community whose members are trapped in mountains of garbage from birth to death. Not because it’s fun for them, just their business, work, lifestyle all rolled into one. The inhabitants of Zabalin do not have holidays because the garbage chain does not stop, they come from all over Cairo, the most remote parts of the city, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And if only that garbage was not collected, if the chain stopped, the situation would be out of control.

It all started in the middle of the last century, when a community professing the Christian faith moved to Cairo from the remote mountains of Egypt. Having no money to buy a normal home, these people settled at the foot of Mount Mokatam, where there is now a sea of ​​waste. And at that time, it was empty land, no one needed it. After building the first houses, the settlers had to think about what they would work for and what to earn a living for. Then they had the idea to become garbage collectors. One family started, then others joined, and finally the entire district. More and more family and friends started driving here from the villages. The Zabalin community has expanded enormously, now the city of Basura is said to be home to around 70-80 thousand people, whose average age is quite young, about 60 percent of the locals, under 40 years old. You can also see this walking through its streets.

The number of people in Zabalin has increased, the amount of garbage brought here has also increased. The purpose of these families is to sign contracts with the people of Cairo, or simply to verbally agree that their garbage will not be the responsibility of the public services of the city, but of them. Let’s say you live in an apartment building, you have several containers near the house. They are not emptied with a conventional garbage truck, but with a semi-trailer from the Zabalin district. Several guys jump out of it, break the containers and take all the contents. Basically, the garbage people work as if they were a competitive company for municipal services. But the most interesting thing is that the people of Cairo are much more satisfied with the Zabalin garbage than with the state garbage collection company.

Everything that the people of Zabalin themselves bring in trucks, semi-trailers, wagons or horse-drawn carriages is translated right next to their house, on the street. Then the whole family is invited to help, sometimes even the neighbors. A large amount of waste needs to be collected again in 5-6 hours. Plastic is tossed in one bag, glass in another, and there is always a box ready for valuable finds. After reelection, only completely useless food and garbage remains on the street: used sanitary napkins, diapers full of children and similar waste. In the past, there were many pig disinfectants in the area; his job was to eat organic leftovers so sweaty chicken, rotten bananas or the like wouldn’t get thrown out on the street. But about ten years ago, due to the threat of swine flu, the authorities ordered the destruction of all the pigs in the district. Now the remains of food from the streets are eaten by goats, sheep and cats. But according to Zabalin residents, these animals do much worse than pigs.

One of the biggest problems in the district is the spread of various diseases with the city’s garbage, including COVID-19. The Zabalin community suffers greatly from this, but does nothing about it. It does not have special protective equipment or disinfectant liquids. Although almost all families have been affected by the disease, they continue to separate the garbage with their bare hands without covering their faces.

Zakarius Gamal, an elder from this area that I mentioned earlier, calls himself a plastic collection professional. You even have a contract with a plastic recycling company that pays you good money. “I earn around 200-300 euros a month, so we can’t complain. My whole family always has something to eat. We also buy a TV, a washing machine and, most importantly, I have a smartphone,” praises Zakarius. children and their father, who is almost 70 years old, to work together, and the husband’s mother and wife have other responsibilities: they make the food, manage the house and themselves, and sew garbage bags with their own hands.

Zakarius, unlike many of his friends and neighbors, has some English language skills. But he is still developing this capacity, and he does so by visiting a voluntary crisis center that helps those who live more difficult lives. In exchange for help, he receives free language courses. The man also likes to play soccer and watch funny videos on the Youtube platform. “Many people are afraid of our district because they think we are dangerous and bad things are happening to us. But it is actually a completely normal area. We live very friendly, we help each other as much as we can, “he explained to me. He showed his neighborhood, which he loves madly, despite the fact that there is always a terrible smell in it.” Here is a beauty salon for women and our bar, ” Zakarius is proud.

The biggest celebrities of the people of Zabalin are those residents of the district who find some especially expensive items or large sums of money in the trash. Such is the case of Fahim Raftal, whose father found savings thrown by someone, probably accidentally, many years ago, about 20 thousand euros. For that money, Fahim’s father bought a car and repaired the family apartment.

Although money is earned for a living, the people of Zabalin cannot afford science, so many cannot read or write decently. They do have some of those schools though. It is true that the lessons are not carried out according to the Egyptian educational system, but as some of the older members of the community did.

The most important thing is to teach children to work with garbage, to select it correctly, to prepare it for delivery, etc. Thanks to the same garbage, he is also taught to count and read. For this, old magazines, books or labels of various products, such as a shampoo bottle or cookie containers, are used.

I also recorded about the life of the Zabalin people and their environment in the new part of the show “Orius Journey” (season 2, show 13). Be careful: some images may not appeal to the most sensitive nerves.