I should be paid to do a testimonial or commercial or something for baggillini. If you don’t know what this is, well, I will tell you. It is the name of a company that makes all kinds of overpriced handbags, travel bags and what not. I bought a purple (duh) one on a trip I took to Colorado to go to a Best Friends™ training. I had forgotten to bring a gym bag to carry my swim and gym stuff to the resort’s spa/gym/pool areas, so bit the bullet and bought one at the hotel’s gift shop, if that gives you an idea of how much I had to pay for this thing.
Ironically enough, it was in that very hotel room that I for whatever reason began my application to the Peace Corps. And now that very bag is my Favorite Thing. I’m no Oprah, but this bag is fantastic. It is made of indestructible (so far, and god help me if it isn’t true!) nylon material, about 20” by 12” by 6”, with two shoulder straps. It fits nicely into its own little bag (baggillinini?) when not being used. I use it when I go shopping and amaze the grocery store employees at what I can fit into it along with my day backpack. I use it when I schlep my sheets and blankets to either the washing machine at work or at my friend Tom’s in a nearby village. My 13 year old Batswana niece thinks I am crazy to carry my laundry somewhere to wash it, but then, she never has to wash the blankets at her house by herself.
I use it to carry t-shirts and supplies for tea break to the various support groups, also by bus and by foot. And lastly, and most importantly, though maybe not something the baggillini company would want to share with the world, I use it to clandestinely carry my garbage to the bus stop when I am not busy using it to carry something else.
There is a garbage pick up here in my village that I could sign up for, but like many things, it is very complicated and they don’t take baby diapers so a friend of mine wasn’t sure they would take my cats’ litter. People also litter (and not the cat kind) here a lot, so in theory I could just chuck a garbage bag somewhere and not worry about it. But I refuse to litter. I already hate that I can’t recycle, and while it seems silly to take such proper care of my refuge, that’s just how I am. Plus, I need to stay in training for when I actually do have to carry my groceries and laundry (not to mention the unblemished cat litter that I have to bring home in order to be able to cart it off again).
When I first got here, I just put the cat litter in neat bags in my garbage can, burned all the paper in my fireplace, and carried the remaining small bag of garbage to dump at work. I took extra care NOT to take alcohol containers to work, since the trainees live on site and I didn’t want them to see me do that or them to be blamed for it. I figured, eh, I will deal with garbage pick up at some point. Well, weeks turned in to months and I realized I wasn’t going to make it for 2 years like this.
I thought of digging holes in the garden and hiding the litter and cat droppings, but when I tried to move leaves to one side of the yard one day the neighbor next door was right on my case because he didn’t want them next to his fence (snake haven). He certainly would get cranky with a cat poop dump his side of my yard. The other side is too hard to dig and the other two sides border paths, so people would see me digging. Crap. Literally. So now, the cat litter bags are tightly sealed with duct tape, thrown into second bags, sealed again, and put in my ever trusty Baggillini.
Bus stops have large garbage receptacles. Why I don’t know, since there are very few anywhere else. They are usually empty, surely because they are regularly emptied by a civil servant paid to do so and not because people just don’t use them. Maybe we are supposed to cart our garbage there and the government is just waiting for everyone to catch on.
Sometimes I brazenly throw my litter bags in while I wait for the bus, so that people see me do it and wonder what the heck is wrong with me. Other times I take them on the bus and empty them at the Mogobane bus stop, since no one is ever standing there once the bus I arrive on has come and gone. That is my favorite place.
As I write this, I realize that I have been watching way too much Dexter. I am pretty sure the baggillini people won’t be interested in my obsession with taking out the trash. Forget I said anything. But it is a great bag.
We have a cat in China and people constantly comment about the litter and food and how expensive it is. We just put it in dark garbage bags and cart it out. People throw trash on the ground here too, with the idea that it gives someone a job. I still can't do that.
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