In Lieu of the Salvation Army Store

When we first moved to Nitra 14 months ago we were told about how to make good will-esque donations. There is no thrift store that we know of, but there are dumpsters outside of the apartment blocks. In order to make a donation, all one has to do is leave the item (old clothing, appliances or furniture) near the dumpster. Local gypsy families keep an eye out for good finds.

This system seemed a little loose to us. We occasionally see people in our dumpsters early in the morning, but there is no ongoing surveillance - but we tried it out. Putting some clothes in a bag we left it and went to our language lesson. Two-and-a-half hours later we returned to see a gypsy couple, about our age, trying the clothes on. Our clothes made it to someone who needed it = the system works.

Though spring may be late in coming here, we're turning on spring cleaning sights onto our clothing and then onto the dumpsters. Just another little facet of life in Nitra.