The Cleanup

Today, my master plan was put into action!

When I arrived, as I may have mentioned, I was shocked by the amount of rubbish to be found everywhere, as well as the apparent lack of any kind of waste disposal.

On the bus to the village, when I first arrived, Francis and I were discussing solutions to this problem. It isn't final, but we kind of decided that, to try to change a whole country's habits in 5 weeks isn't that realistic. So, what we decided to do instead was to educate some kids for when they grow up…again, I know this isn't much, but it seems just about all that 3 people can manage in my 5 weeks.

I can assure you, you won't find the details interesting, so in short, my master plan involved bribery. In this case, a lolly each. After a quick lesson in what to pick up and why…

…And in exchange for a lolly (afterwards of course), the kids would go around the village and fill up their bin bags with non-biodegradable lixo (litter in Portuguese). There's a shit load of plastic bottles, plastic bags, glass bottles, clothes and a surprising amount of flip-flops. 

The results were pretty surprising; the areas we covered look a lot better already. The area behind the house (where Francis' pig lives) is completely clear. Picking as we went, we also made our way to and through the market, in an effort to show all the adults there that we mean business. 

In the end we managed to fill, and properly dispose of, 10 bin bags full of waste. Not bad for an hours work and a total of 20 kids.

This week is going to be a whole week of lixo related colouring, identifying and picking. Hopefully Francis will carry this on for as long as he can. Seeing how bad their parents have let it get without seeing the problem, I feel that teaching these kids the right way to be is almost as important at this age, as learning their 1, 2, 3's and A, B, C's.