scavenger

we have a project in our community where we collect pet bottles and sell them to scrap dealers - those familiar containers of coke, c2, mineral water or even cooking oil whose bottoms are raised up. after the contents are consumed, the bottles are normally thrown everywhere - in the backyard, on the streets, even on bodies of water like creeks, rivers and the seas.
they sell like P15-P18 per kilo. the caps sell for more because they are made of hard plastic.
what i know is that these plastics are shipped to china and recycled into buttons, other plastic products, such stuff.
anyway, what we have to do is to bring them up during our monthly fellowship and lump them with other plastic scraps collected by everybody else. we sort of create a mound when these plastics are brought together. the last time, if my memory serves me right, we collected something like P1-2k worth.
all the money that we will produce from the scraps will be used to fund the activities of our community, so that we don't have to ask donations every time.
at the press room at the central bank, i have asked the boy friday to keep in a corner in the room all the bottles of coke, c2 and mineral water that we consume.
that was about a month ago. last friday, the collection was enough to fill in 2 large boxes. my next concern was to bring them to the fellowship meeting.
first of all, i have to flatten the plastic to save space, as well as clear them of the wrappings.
Now the process of flattening them up is an act in itself. i used a thick yellow pages directory to jump on the plastics. i was doing that for the 8th of the about 20 large coke bottles i had targeted that night, when Papi, a fellow journalist who was in the room with me watching TV, noticed the crackling sound.
"What are you doing?" he asked. I said nothing, just getting rid of the thrash. but i tell you, the sound produced by my jumping on the bottles with the huge pldt directory on it was enough to cause a slight vibration on the entire 4th floor of the building.
after 12 more jumps, some profuse sweating, and with Papi twitching his head from the TV to my jumping act and perhaps occasionally jerking in amusement or irritation, i finished the odd job.
then i searched the cupboard for a huge plastic bag to put in all those scraps.
as i was leaving the room, I bade Papi goodbye saying, "sorry for the noise, you see i have to do this because i'm a scavenger."
a scavenger. as i boarded the jeepney for the ride home with the little weight of flattened pet bottles in my hand, i felt a tinge of joy.
i will be bringing the Lord a mound of trash, but it feels like i'm giving Him something very precious.