Me; the HATW office; and more about rubbish !!

 

 

The arrival of a photo from an acquaintance in Canada I met at Mill Hill House, has prompted me to do a bit more blogging.   These are the baskets I bought to bring back to Monmouth to sell in aid of Hands Around the World.  (Gosh, I was HOT walking around Kibuye market carrying that lot !)   We have an open morning every Friday, with some African items for sale that volunteers have brought back.    Some of my baskets are just visible. 

 

 

 

 

~   ~   ~   ~   ~

 

A couple of weeks ago, we had a village clean up; a team of about 25 villagers went along all the lanes and ditches, picking up rubbish.   This was the result ....

 

 

 

.... quite incredible; there was even the proverbial kitchen sink !!

 

So it got me thinking again about all the rubbish, especially plastic bags, that I see increasing on every visit to Kenya.  Kenya used to be a beautiful and clean country; not any more.  Can you imagine all those safari adverts saying "Come to visit the tropical coast, the game parks, the deserts .... and see the rubbish" ??    

 

I've previously posted photos of the enormous rubbish dump of smouldering, rotting food, plastic, human waste, etc. which is behind the largest super-store in town.    This is not specific to Kisumu; rubbish and disgusting dumps are all over the country, and friends who visit other African countries, and India say its the same there.   Rubbish, particularly plastic rubbish, seems to be a curse of the modern age.   Plastic rubbish is found in every ocean, and inside fish, whales, penguins ....

 

In Wales, and other parts of the UK, we now have to pay for plastic bags in the supermarkets and shops; a small sum, but it has drastically cut by around 90% the number of plastic bags used and dumped.   Africa has wonderful hand-made shopping bags and baskets ... yet people expect a plastic bag every time they go to a store.  I spoke to the manager of the big store about it; he says if people take their own bags into the shop, they steal goods !   It cannot be beyond the intelligence of man to find some way of stopping that problem.   

 

And I frequently see cattle and goats scavenging for scraps on rubbish heaps and in ditches - UK vets report the danger of cattle and other animals eating plastic bags.   But African owners don't seem to care ....