4. cleaning outside

Because people were going to come and make the roof, and because the walls were going to be plastered, and because it was a mess, we started the big clean-up at the site.

The problem here in Ghana is that everybody just drops all the trash on the floor, even though there's a trash bin 1 meter away. The whole country is therefore full of swirling plastic bags, empty bottles (which are often picked up again to be reused), empty cans and other rubbish. There is now apparently a garbage collection service, but how that works exactly I do not know (yet). It seems to be only for the companies.

The intention is that you burn your own dirt: in front of my house is a burning spot. The watchman sets fire there in the evening. For the animals I throw the green waste & bones and so on in a different place: then they also find something when they come looking for food, otherwise it is just burned. The watchman doesn't like that, because the animals keep sniffing everything over and he must clean it up again! 

Back to our clean-up campaign. The children of Naasa have participated in it and also a bunch of teenagers. That was nice to see because they didn't really feel like it at all. It wasn't until I arrived with my camera that they became a little more active. The primary school children, on the other hand, were super enthusiastic. They did skip whole parts! But that was because they often don't even recognize plastic as waste! You can imagine! So, I have pointed out some rubbish here and there; the children have collected it in a place away from the building. There fire is started. And if it burns well, they just let it burn: no one pays attention to it anymore! 

Of course, we paid the children a little something! They did a great job!