The lives of the bottle cleaners
You have probably heard the sensational diva Christina Aguilera testing her larynx with the chart-topping hit "Genie in a Bottle." As a child, we've spent hours holding and rubbing the soda bottle hoping that in a blink of an eye a blue Arabian man would come out and would grant our wishes. As expected, we ended up bruising ourselves and sighing out of frustration. Of course, such irrational idea we copied from fantasy story Aladdin and the Magic Lamp.
Now that we are all adults, we've disputed such thoughts. We have set aside our childish behavior and settled for a more realistic one. Though sometimes when we need to hurdle hardships, we tend to seek refuge from our primitive beliefs. We hope and pray for a miracle to happen to escape reality. We are given not much of a choice but to accept that in our economically-challenged society there are no genies and the only magic that exist lies within us--perseverance. Though unequipped, we must face the battle of life to survive.
Such represent the story of the bottle cleaners in a certain junk shop in La Paz district.
"There are no jobs available even you've finished High School. That is why we engage in any job even as hard as this in order to have something to eat everyday," Ruby Acosta expressed her sentiments as she drenched the whiskey bottles on the round rubber tub. "Though it is very tiring, at least what we are doing is legal," the 32 year-old single added.
The bubbly lady from Bito-on, Jaro claimed that she had been cleaning whiskey bottles for about 12 years. She used to work at Camangay, Leganes but transfered to La Paz after the site was closed.
The almost-half-an-acre lot was full of bottles enclosed in sacks. The huge tent supported by bamboos housed the more than a dozen workers who patiently washed the empty bottles for a living. A motor pump nearby served as the major water source. Gray rubber tubs lie side by side forming two parallel lines. Audible sounds of bottles bagging each other filled the area. Workers were cracking jokes and laughing out loud though exhausted.
Ruby's day would start at 7:00 am. Upon arriving at the site, she would immediately change her clothes and put on her improvised rain coat made out of plastic from a fertilizer bag, and the pair of thick hand gloves. "I took these from the garbage," she confessed showing off the pair of teared gloves.
Fully geared, Ruby would start filling the gray rubber containers using a pail and untie the sack with 80 used bottles of whiskey inside. With gloved hands, she would start dousing the bottles to soften its paper label. She uses a "paleta" to scrape the labels until 6:00 in the evening. A "paleta" is a piece of thin quadrangular A-shaped metal found in hardware stores and used in leveling cement surfaces.
At P 6.00 per sack, Ruby can finish an average of 20 sacks per day. Taking home more or less P120.00 at the end of the day.
"We often end up wounded by the broken pieces. We have to stand here all day and soak our hands in water. We have provided ourselves with plastic boots to protect our feet," she explained while asking her co-worker who was standing next to her to show her damaged hand.
The old lady took off her gloves and raised her nearly rotten hand. The spaces between her digits were peeling exposing the flesh beneath. "It is itchy and painful at the same time. They just heal. I don't put anything on them. I just soak my hands in a lukewarm water," she stated as she went back to work.
Dodith and Nida Melos, a couple with four children, worked on the other side. Behind them is a brown cardboard teared off from a huge box. Etched on it are different figures representing the number of sacks they have done cleaning that day.
"In a day, I can usually finish more than 20 sacks. Our back aches but we need to put food on our table. At the end of the day we have something enough to buy a pack of rice and fish," Dodith, who also works in constructions when there are opportunities, remarked.
The couple worked together seven times a day to be able to feed and to send their children to school. During holidays, the children would help them clean the bottles to earn for their daily allowance.
"We don't have any source of income other than this. That is why I am helping my husband. We have dreams for our children and we are working hard to achieve that." Nida, a 43 year-old mother, cleared her throat in between the lines. She is hoping that someday her children's fate will not end up on the bottles.
The fact is heartbreaking. These people make their living out of the society's trash. They had to endure the physical pain and withstand its consequences to survive. For them, there is no genie in a bottle but undoubtedly there is hope in it.