Trash

There are many hard things to get used to about living in Africa - one of them being trash. There is trash everywhere. I grew up being part of an organization called Children of the American Revolution - a patriotic youth organization where we learned about our country. One area we learned about was conservation. I remember many meetings where we focused on litter. It was drilled into my head not to be a "litterbug". Even if I had wanted to, I could not have even thrown a gum wrapper on the ground. Here, everywhere you look there are little clear sacks, black bags, little coffee cups, bottles and many other miscellaneous wrappers strewn on the ground. You see people eat their snacks and drop their trash on the ground. It pains me. There are whole lots of just trash. When it gets too high - they burn it. On Saturday, the middle schoolers went and worked at an area by the local hospital. They were there to paint a wall and to pick up trash out of the ditch. They had hired some horse carts to removed the trash. By the end of the day, they had removed over 10 loads of trash, for a relatively small area.

We have heard that not all of Africa has this problem, but that it is particularly bad in West Africa. It is hard sometimes to find a trash can outside. I found myself on one occasion throwing my trash on the ground. I felt guilty. It is something I have to get used to, but I know that I will never like it and will do my best to not be a litterbug!