BASURA

Basura

I have to admit that not everything is “hunky dory” down here. Yes, the sun shines. Yes, we live on the ocean. Yes, we are building our dream surrounded, by people we really like. We appreciate our workers and what we are doing for us...but they are driving me crazy!!!!! I CAN NOT STAND IT!!!!!

Do you remember in North America about 30 or 40 years ago when they started doing the anti-litter campaigns? They were educating people not to litter and to take care of your garbage. You began seeing signs on the road and the government starting imposing fines for people who threw out their garbage, or cans, or bags. I mean this happened so long ago it seems like we have also known NOT to litter. The thought to me is crazy!! Who on earth would litter???

Toronto used to be one of the cleanest cities on earth. It is still very clean for a city of 4 million people, but it is not as “pure” as it was 15 years ago. What happens is that people move there from other countries where people have not been as educated as the rest of us. They come from countries where people still litter. Since they were never taught not to litter, they come to Toronto and do what they know. Throw stuff on the street. It is a shame...

Here in Mexico they have never taught their people what to do with their garbage. You travel the highways and roads and see garbage everywhere. It is very irritating. You will be following a truck and the driver will toss his wrapper out the window. Some areas are covered with thousand of pieces of crap, blown around and deposited against some poor guy’s fence.

On our job site, literally from day one, I have been asking our workers to take care of their garbage, which in Mexico is called basura. I will say, “No basura, por favor.” I will try to explain the wind blows papers around and if I find paper etc stuck on a rock and I have to look at it since no one can reach it to pick it up, I will be very sad. I will go up there almost everyday and say, “No basura, por favor.” We will bring up garbage bags for them to use. Maurice even bought a huge garbage can for up top, and as you know we take everything to the dump for them.

So why does it shock me when everyday I still find garbage up on top???

This is what they do. They sit inside one of the rooms, or somewhere outside and they eat. They may eat corn on the cob. They may eat chicken. They may eat boiled eggs, or tortillas wrapped in tin foil with plastic bags filled with salsa. It really does not matter what they eat, or what type of container brought the food to them, since when they are done, they stand and walk away. THEY STAND AND WALK AWAY. They do not pick up the egg shells, or the empty ears of corn, or the chicken bones, or the wrappers. NOTHING. THEY STAND UP AND WALK AWAY. One day, in one of the casitas I found orange rinds from about 50 oranges. It looked like someone peeled all these oranges and had a food fight with the peels. NOT HAPPY!!

Retro LOVES going up there, as you can imagine. He sniffs and chews endlessly. I go up sometimes and some of them quickly start to pick stuff up when they see me. Lately, they do not even bother doing that. Saturday Maurice and I went into the main room of our home. Now to be fair, these guys work so hard it is incredible. I guess at home when they are done eating, their wives, or mothers pick up after them. I am not their wife or their mother, so on Saturday, after walking up the road and finding blown Doritos wrappers, plastic pop bottles, food wrappers, not to mention every empty cement bag for the last week, all just laying around we walked into our main room. There was food everywhere, since lunch had ended about an hour before. I WENT NUTS!! No more, “No basura, por favor.” It was more like “WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH YOU PEOPLE…..!!!!! BASURA AQUI (as I am handing our garbage bags) FINITO CAMIDO BASURA AQUI, NOT AYEE AYEE AYEE. I MEAN IT!! NO MORE BASURA!! NONE! NIENTE! NADA!!! NO MORE BASURA. I was hyperventilating so bad I thought I would faint. They just stared at me with their mouths open. You see, I do not think they really understand the concept of NO BASURA!!!! A few of the workers did go around then and pick up everything they could find....that they considered garbage. They did not pick up the small pieces of Styrofoam, or scraps of paper, but at least they filled a few bags full of stuff.

Have I now taught them to pick up their garbage?? Of course not. Out of the 23 workers only about 5 saw and heard my rant. Has the news spread??? Probably, but it will not be the news of “NO MORE BASURA” It will be the news of the crazy women who does not want them to leave their food around for the dogs to eat...or some such crazy thing.

I can not change the mentality of the people here but I DO NOT WANT GARBAGE ON MY CLIFF!!! Por favor……


P.S. Yesterday, Tuesday,was the workers first day back since they work Tuesday through Saturday. When we got up there, Don Jose, the BIG boss, who did not see my rant, started picking up the garbage from lunch. Really there were just a couple of things left around. I did not say anything. Then one of the workers came up to me and told me his job was to pick up all the garbage everyday (he speaks very good English) and asked me to bring him more bags. I asked him why HE had to do this??? I said, "Why don't the guys pick up their own garbage!!! It is easy. Eat. Put the garbage in the can!!!" He said they were not trained that way, but he was. I told him that was not fair. He said it was O.K. He did not mind. Hmmmm.....let's see if this new cleanliness lasts...I sure hope so! It was nice not to see garbage blowing around, although Retro was pretty sad!!!