One man's trash is another man's- - - Nightmare!

One of the most complicated things about living in Belgium is the garbage collection. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind recycling and it's not that big of a deal to separate your pmd (plastic, metal, drink containers), cardboard, glass, and biodegradables. Okay, yes it is. But, it's all good, right. Our cardboard gets collected once a month. We sadly found that the outside garage where we kept our old packing boxes (in case we needed to move ourselves back to America and could reuse the boxes--hmm) was flooded. The boxes were molding and disintegrating and smelled awfully bad. So, the day before cardboard pick-up, we hauled some of them out front to get picked up.

The next morning, like every other morning, I threw my coat on over my pjs and took the kids to school. As I drove into the driveway, I all of the sudden thought I should get the rest of the boxes out there. It was raining, of course. The boxes, which had become dwelling places for several hundred fast-moving, creepy spiders, were making quite a large stack along the side of the road. I could sense neighbors' eyes watching me as I kept dragging more and more out there--in my pajamas. The last boxes had to be scooped up with a shovel and made a moldy, smelly oozing pile of sludge. Gross. After about an hour, we were free from the boxes--well, not quite. They were still out front.

I nervously waited for the garbage truck. Soon I saw it pull up at the same time the doorbell rang--not a good sign. A man stood there looking at me like I was nuts telling me it was too much. I explained that we had a flood and I needed as much hauled away as possible--preferably the oozing ones. He said, "this once" as I thanked him profusely and then he went to his truck--and drove away. I thought maybe he was sending another truck, but after a couple hours, my hopes fled away. Calling the trash collection company was the last thing I wanted to do, but finally knew it had to be done. With my broken dutch and her broken english, I explained the situation and asked if a truck was coming to pick up the cardboard. She made a call to a truck and said they were coming. A while later, the doorbell rang again. Shoot! Can't they just pick it up and not bother me? It was a new guy with 2 others. There was confusion about why they were here. Not surprised. They explained how it was too much and usually you would have to pay extra to have it moved away. Really? I asked. Then the man said, "Well, if you give us a tip, we could move it for you." I ran to my purse hoping I had some cash. Found two 5 euro bills--needed three--one for each of them. Ran to our european coin collection chart and ripped off three 2 euro coins and gave them to the now pleased Belgians. Two scurried off to labor in the pouring rain while the other man talked about how cold it was and mentioned how nice it would be to have some tea or coffee. I got the hint and asked if he wanted some hot chocolate. He enthusiastically said, "yes". I put a pan of water on the stove to heat up and started putting the chocolatey powder in mugs. It was taking a long time to boil, of course. I kept wondering what else I could give them. I remembered the bottles of fake wine we bought for Christmas that turned out not to be fake. They could use those. I also had a bag of Hershey's Hugs brought clear from the land of the free and figured that was the best hug I could give them. Finally, the water was hot. I poured it in each cup. I loaded them on a platter and went to see if they were ready. They weren't even close. It had been over 15 minutes and it was maybe half done. I needed more cash! I searched my purse again and found a ten euro bill. After about 15 more minutes, they were finished and came inside to drink their hot chocolate. They were very nice and asked me all about America--whether I like our new president, if things are more expensive in Belgium, and similar topics. I gave them the other money, the wine, and the Hugs and as they walked out the door, they told me if I ever needed anything else picked up, just watch for their truck--#134, and they would pick it up. Before they jumped into their truck, they picked up every bit of leftover trash out front, put my glass recycling container over the hedge into our yard, and pulled my garbage can into the driveway--nice and neat. And that is all it took--26 euros, some hot chocolate, 2 bottles of not-so-fake wine, and some Hugs.