(Jeremias, Ross, some town kids, and I)I am really sick right now, head feels like crap and my stomach is following suite, so I apologize for how horribly unfun this entry is!.... Oh ya, My pops (Betu) gave me a buzz cut. I a have a military look with the new dew and thick framed glasses....yup
For the last month or so my fellow Environmental Education trainee and I have been arranging a trash pickup project in our town of Ribeirão Manuel. The logistics of a little project like this are on a whole different level than they would be in the states. We were working with the local “county government” and the local town organization named after our mountain “Brianda.” We hoped that we would be able to have them provide all the supplies including trash bags, gloves, and snacks. Also, our community has never had any sort of trash removal program. All the waste is thrown outside on the ground and sometimes it is burned. So, there is waste everywhere you look, and another part of the project was to have a trash truck come and remove all the collected trash instead of letting it be scattered again through the city again.
The local government ended up hooking us up with some money, and after weeks of pressure and hundreds of visits finally handed over about 50 large black trash bags. They never came through with the gloves, and so we cleaned out Assomada of every last latex glove we could find (about 30). We also bought some plastic bags to use as gloves if we had more people show up. Gloves are essential for trash pickups and working outdoors here, because many people don’t have or just don’t use restrooms and you don’t want to have that crap all over you.
Well that’s enough of a background; I’ll give a little rundown of the events!
I headed up the meeting spot at about 8am, which was the starting time on our posters. The first person showed up eager to clean around 9am. We had a very small crowd by 9:30ish, and so we decided to let them loose with bags and gloves to clean! With such a small crowd it was decided that we would give speeches after the work was done and we were enjoying a little snack with everyone. The Peace Corps training staff and country director showed up to clean a bit which was nice. A bunch of other trainees also turned out to lend a hand for a while. Around 10:30 am we had 1 more plastic bag, of the fifty, and beginning to wonder what we would do for all the trash and the rest of the time. A man who I recognized from an earlier town meeting, who lives in Praia now, showed up with tons of more plastic bags and work gloves!! I was happy for the support and we ended up filling close to 100 bags of trash,. The town was really excited for the work gloves, which was difficult, and I was almost attacked for the gloves. Eventually everything calmed down and we got back to cleaning.
I spent most of the day tying little plastic bags around kids’ hands. Most of them just wanted to have what everyone else had, Bright pink plastic bags, but we had to roll with it. They were helping and chanting “We don’t want trash, anymore!(Nu ka kre lixo mas)” I had a blast hanging with them!
Around noon we came back together at the freshly cleaned school, and encouraged everyone to wash their hands in preparation for a little snack action.
The town association ended up spending the project money on bread, butter, spam, and Soda! So we all herded inside and after a brief presentation by us the trainees, and the town association, we had a brief talk from ETMA. Luzia, a lady who works with ETMA in Assomada, does many events to build environmental awareness. She gave an amazing quick speech! Thanks so much to her!! She is also a great contact for my town to meet in order to arrange having trash pickup bins.
Then it was lunch time, and I chowed down on the victory spam sandwich, and sipped on some orange soda. I am so glad everything went off so well!
Community and event organizing are way more difficult than I had ever thought. Throwing language and culture differences into the mix do not make it any easier. I am happy that we got everything worked out, and it was a great learning experience…yada yada yada. I am ready for more!
For the last month or so my fellow Environmental Education trainee and I have been arranging a trash pickup project in our town of Ribeirão Manuel. The logistics of a little project like this are on a whole different level than they would be in the states. We were working with the local “county government” and the local town organization named after our mountain “Brianda.” We hoped that we would be able to have them provide all the supplies including trash bags, gloves, and snacks. Also, our community has never had any sort of trash removal program. All the waste is thrown outside on the ground and sometimes it is burned. So, there is waste everywhere you look, and another part of the project was to have a trash truck come and remove all the collected trash instead of letting it be scattered again through the city again.
The local government ended up hooking us up with some money, and after weeks of pressure and hundreds of visits finally handed over about 50 large black trash bags. They never came through with the gloves, and so we cleaned out Assomada of every last latex glove we could find (about 30). We also bought some plastic bags to use as gloves if we had more people show up. Gloves are essential for trash pickups and working outdoors here, because many people don’t have or just don’t use restrooms and you don’t want to have that crap all over you.
Well that’s enough of a background; I’ll give a little rundown of the events!
I headed up the meeting spot at about 8am, which was the starting time on our posters. The first person showed up eager to clean around 9am. We had a very small crowd by 9:30ish, and so we decided to let them loose with bags and gloves to clean! With such a small crowd it was decided that we would give speeches after the work was done and we were enjoying a little snack with everyone. The Peace Corps training staff and country director showed up to clean a bit which was nice. A bunch of other trainees also turned out to lend a hand for a while. Around 10:30 am we had 1 more plastic bag, of the fifty, and beginning to wonder what we would do for all the trash and the rest of the time. A man who I recognized from an earlier town meeting, who lives in Praia now, showed up with tons of more plastic bags and work gloves!! I was happy for the support and we ended up filling close to 100 bags of trash,. The town was really excited for the work gloves, which was difficult, and I was almost attacked for the gloves. Eventually everything calmed down and we got back to cleaning.
I spent most of the day tying little plastic bags around kids’ hands. Most of them just wanted to have what everyone else had, Bright pink plastic bags, but we had to roll with it. They were helping and chanting “We don’t want trash, anymore!(Nu ka kre lixo mas)” I had a blast hanging with them!
Around noon we came back together at the freshly cleaned school, and encouraged everyone to wash their hands in preparation for a little snack action.
The town association ended up spending the project money on bread, butter, spam, and Soda! So we all herded inside and after a brief presentation by us the trainees, and the town association, we had a brief talk from ETMA. Luzia, a lady who works with ETMA in Assomada, does many events to build environmental awareness. She gave an amazing quick speech! Thanks so much to her!! She is also a great contact for my town to meet in order to arrange having trash pickup bins.
Then it was lunch time, and I chowed down on the victory spam sandwich, and sipped on some orange soda. I am so glad everything went off so well!
Community and event organizing are way more difficult than I had ever thought. Throwing language and culture differences into the mix do not make it any easier. I am happy that we got everything worked out, and it was a great learning experience…yada yada yada. I am ready for more!
Local kids helping out (notice the pink gloves!!)
Washing our hands at the school after the event. About to chow on some spam sandwichs!
Hanging up announcements for the Trash Pick up with my sister Katia!
1 comments:
WOW!! WHAT A PROJECT. i CAN JUST IMAGINE THE EFFORTS BEHIND FINDING VOLUNTEERS AS WELL AS NEEDED SUPPLIES. sOON THEY WILL BE DOING TRASH PICK UP EVERY DAY/OR WEEK NOW AS LONG AS LONG AS THEY GET PINK GLOVES--HA HA HA..
I BE ALL SLEPT WELL THAT NIGHT..REALLY GEAT SORTY AND EVENT AND PICTURE WERE GREAT--SAVE FOR HISTORY OF EVENTS FOR SURE-NEAT IDEA AND SOUNDS LIKE MUCH NEEDED THERE ALSO...
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