Littering? No...well yes
Yesterday I realized I have yet to talk to you guys about this, and i wish i had a good picture to portray my thoughts but anyways here goes:
Well, here in Kampala, and in other parts I'm sure you can pay a weekly fee for someone to pick up your trash. You just set it right on the curb and they come and pick it up no problem right? well not exactly. First of all, every kid in the neighbourhood will go through it for any scrap of food, any reciepts that might say how much money goes through here etc, basically creating a mess most of which im sure the garbage man doesnt bother to pick up.
So I've lived my entire life in Texas under the "Don't Mess With Texas" campaign, and really i don't litter and I'm sure that's a reason why. I leave trash in my car and make sure it all gets in teh dumpster/trashcan/etc. and i can trust that it all goes to a landfill somewhere far away from where anyone lives right? Yea for the most part, or maybe it's an "out of sight, out of mind" thing. Either way, here I don't actually know if real landfills exist perse, and I KNOW they don't dispose of certain trash items the way we would at home. This realization really hit me when Mark and I were cleaning out the refrigerator where we have been living back in early June. We filled up our trashcan and had no idea what to do from there. So we asked the guard, he came in and grabbed it, poured it in a pile behind the guardshack, and lo and behold the next morning the pile was burning, plastic and all.
This is completely normal here, as can be evidinced by the smog and smell all over (which is why i loved being out in the country at the end of June so much, i guess in the IDP camps they can't afford things that create trash to burn). So I'm thinking, well, i could throw this trash in the trash can at the office which supposedly goes to a landfill, which is more than likely just a poorer neighbourhood....So this house of white people is throwing away garbage sending it to a poor black neighbourhood (soudn a little racist? I think so). Or perhaps there is a landfill, or the more likely word to describe it woudl be a "dump" but i can garauntee people live on or near it and probably aren't benefitting from the trash coming from every direction. Also when i was on a taxi coming back from Mabera forest back in June i was drinking from a water bottle and put it in my backpack, because experience tells me to saveit and put it in the trashcan so i don't litter...But when i get home i'llput it in a trashcan that will get poured in a pile outside and burned...
All this to say, I guess i have justified littering here. Everyone does it, I mean one time i was on a taxi and had a bananapeel (bad example but hte same thing would happen with any sort of trash) and was holding it and hte lady next to me said, "you throw away" and opened the window.
The Ugandans are equally unmodest about throwing trash out of cars as they are about public urination, which i saw alot of last weekend. [Sidenote: I love what the Ugandans say (probably an english thing really) to describe where they are going, either a "short call" or a "long call" ill let you use your imagination to figure out what that means. But when you're on a bus for 8 hours inevitably you have to stop and take a "short call." So imagine a bus of 200 people all filing out women/men/children to pee on the side of the road, it's definitely a sight to be seen!]
So yesterday as I was walking with Mark to the bank, i realized i needed airtime for my cell (which had about 10 shillings on it, i.e. half a cent or absolutely no ability to make a call). So i stopped to buy some airtime cards and after i took them out of the plastic wrappers and dialed in my time to my phone i gasp!! threw them on the ground. I was thinking, that's definitely an aspect of life here i have not shared with you guys, so there you go!
oh here's a really bad example of a trashpile, or what is left of one, but it will suffice I guess, ill do my best to get a picture of a big one next time i see it.
i love you all so incredibly much, have a wonderful day!
Well, here in Kampala, and in other parts I'm sure you can pay a weekly fee for someone to pick up your trash. You just set it right on the curb and they come and pick it up no problem right? well not exactly. First of all, every kid in the neighbourhood will go through it for any scrap of food, any reciepts that might say how much money goes through here etc, basically creating a mess most of which im sure the garbage man doesnt bother to pick up.
So I've lived my entire life in Texas under the "Don't Mess With Texas" campaign, and really i don't litter and I'm sure that's a reason why. I leave trash in my car and make sure it all gets in teh dumpster/trashcan/etc. and i can trust that it all goes to a landfill somewhere far away from where anyone lives right? Yea for the most part, or maybe it's an "out of sight, out of mind" thing. Either way, here I don't actually know if real landfills exist perse, and I KNOW they don't dispose of certain trash items the way we would at home. This realization really hit me when Mark and I were cleaning out the refrigerator where we have been living back in early June. We filled up our trashcan and had no idea what to do from there. So we asked the guard, he came in and grabbed it, poured it in a pile behind the guardshack, and lo and behold the next morning the pile was burning, plastic and all.
This is completely normal here, as can be evidinced by the smog and smell all over (which is why i loved being out in the country at the end of June so much, i guess in the IDP camps they can't afford things that create trash to burn). So I'm thinking, well, i could throw this trash in the trash can at the office which supposedly goes to a landfill, which is more than likely just a poorer neighbourhood....So this house of white people is throwing away garbage sending it to a poor black neighbourhood (soudn a little racist? I think so). Or perhaps there is a landfill, or the more likely word to describe it woudl be a "dump" but i can garauntee people live on or near it and probably aren't benefitting from the trash coming from every direction. Also when i was on a taxi coming back from Mabera forest back in June i was drinking from a water bottle and put it in my backpack, because experience tells me to saveit and put it in the trashcan so i don't litter...But when i get home i'llput it in a trashcan that will get poured in a pile outside and burned...
All this to say, I guess i have justified littering here. Everyone does it, I mean one time i was on a taxi and had a bananapeel (bad example but hte same thing would happen with any sort of trash) and was holding it and hte lady next to me said, "you throw away" and opened the window.
The Ugandans are equally unmodest about throwing trash out of cars as they are about public urination, which i saw alot of last weekend. [Sidenote: I love what the Ugandans say (probably an english thing really) to describe where they are going, either a "short call" or a "long call" ill let you use your imagination to figure out what that means. But when you're on a bus for 8 hours inevitably you have to stop and take a "short call." So imagine a bus of 200 people all filing out women/men/children to pee on the side of the road, it's definitely a sight to be seen!]
So yesterday as I was walking with Mark to the bank, i realized i needed airtime for my cell (which had about 10 shillings on it, i.e. half a cent or absolutely no ability to make a call). So i stopped to buy some airtime cards and after i took them out of the plastic wrappers and dialed in my time to my phone i gasp!! threw them on the ground. I was thinking, that's definitely an aspect of life here i have not shared with you guys, so there you go!
oh here's a really bad example of a trashpile, or what is left of one, but it will suffice I guess, ill do my best to get a picture of a big one next time i see it.
i love you all so incredibly much, have a wonderful day!
posted by Kercho at 7:55 AM
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