On Thursday with the community class kids we decided to educate them on their environment & have a litter picking session! We informed the kids that rubbish would pollute their streams where they wash their clothes etc. This went down well with the kids, the adults around the community watched on, starring like we were mad! Thinking afterwords we decided they associate picking rubbish with rag pickers! Rubbish in India is a big problem, not only is it everywhere even in the beautiful mountain towns but people actively just drop litter anywhere & everywhere. It doesnt matter what type of person (caste, class, rich, poor etc) they all do it, dropping litter as they go!
After we spent a good hour collecting we then had the problem of where does it go next. I asked where Ispiice rubbish went, no one was sure. Then before we had time to work out what to do with it, the family had lit a fire & the rubbish was promtly burnt! Oh NO!!!!! Plastic & all, there was a terrible smell all evening because of the plastic.... Whats worse rubbish in the streams, roads etc or fires everywhere polluting the atmosphere!
In a way we cannot have a go at poeple in INdia as there is no alternative to burning rubbish, if they were provided with bins, they do not have the infrastructure in place for collections to take place, the roads are so bad generally, how would collections take place & then where do you put rubbish in a country so overpopulated with people! In the mountain hill stations & towns there are signs to get people to buy filtered water from shops rather than buying plastic bottles. I have started doing this when I am in Mccloud but sadly thats not where i live. I decided that I couldn't go on buying plastic bottles but on the same day i decided this Aoife decided she needed to start drinking bottled water. After months of her drinking filtered water she has recently continually been sick! What a dilemma! It reminds me all the time of Slumdog Millionaire!
Later that night I did the most stupid thing, I know everyone reading will think what a muppet but i thought i would share anyway! I managed to do a real Helen thing, I set my tv on fire in my room! Whoops!! i haven't ever switched it on but now i managed to burn quite a large significant hole in it! Luckily i caught the fire before it got to the electrics & it just caused a lot of burnt plastic & bad smell in my room. I managed to look up in time to blow it out but it did shock me a little, the thought that I could have set my room & Ispiice rooms on fire was a little wake up call for me. Lesson of the day:- Dont burn candles on top of a tv! The bad thing is that i was aware that what i was doing was wrong & new I should move, if not blow the candle out but I didnt & then it was too late!!!
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