In Monty Python and the Holy Grail there is a scene in which King Arthur encounters two peasants digging around in the mud looking for heaven only knows what. Not too different here in Shenyang. No, I haven’t seen
anyone dressed up like King Arthur and I don’t think the people are referred to as peasants, but same general idea. As I walk down the streets I can’t help but see people digging through dumpsters looking for treasures. Perhaps it is something that they could use; something cast out that still has some use left in it. Generally people are collecting recyclables that they can turn in for cash. It might be cans, glass, plastic, cardboard, newspaper, or any number of things. Sometimes the people have bicycles with carts on them, allowing them to ride from dumpster to dumpster as they pile the loot on the cart. When our cheap DVD player died I didn’t want to just throw it out in the trash here at the hotel. I wanted someone to get something out of it. Surely a broken DVD player can be repaired or recycled somehow. I made my poor husband put it in a dumpster on his way to pick up some soda at the nearby convenience store. When he came back only minutes later, it was long gone. I have some old shoes I want to get rid of. I wish 
someone could get use out of them, but let’s face it, what Chinese woman is looking for size 10 ½ shoes? I hesitate to trash them in a nearby dumpster because I am afraid my friend, Sewing Machine Lady’s Mom (I will have to write about her sometime), will find them and pull them out for me because she thinks they might fit me! (Her feet were once bound and are very tiny. We have compared her little deformed feet to my huge clodhoppers.) I don’t want the shoes as they are, let alone dirty and smelly from the dumpster! Now while dumpsters are the likely place to find things, they aren’t the only place. After a building has been demolished people scour the area looking for things that might be left in the rubble. There could be all kinds of good stuff! Of course if it is freezing, a nice fire helps warm up passersby and creates a nice hang out spot.
