Trip to the town dump

NONE  thats NONE of the kids, or their teachers,  even knew there was a town dump...so, at least now they know.  We took about 35 kids on this hike, out dirt roads , about 6 km out of town, I think.   I am not sure how  shocked they were as there was not just one big steaming pile..( as there is in Managua with about 100 families who live there to scavenge) but.there were lots of little piles all along this long road with shoes, tires, plastic bottles and other non organic stuff very visible. One kid found a place where they had thrown a bunch of cattle carcases and before we knew what he was doing, he had wrenched a set of horns loose from a head that was still pretty much in tact. yuk !!!

Apparently, they dump everything in one big pile and then set it on fire !!! So, all the plastic is burned creating all that toxic smoke.  They don't bury stuff the way our landfills do....this is not a landfill, its a dump !!!  With virtually no system....

  The biggest affect of the dump is invisible.  About 8 years ago, so Im told, the water under the dump got too toxic to use and it was part of the town water supply, so the town had to find another source and lay pipe a long long way to get it.  I am told some NGO footed the bill for the water system..it seems NGOs have done a whole lot over here.  So, when I go back to the school next week we will have some follow up to see if they learned anything at all.  Hopefully, they will at least start recycling their plastic bottles...if nothing else.


 Here are a few photos from this morning.  The guy in the red shorts is Raul Obando, a local young man who is concerned about the environment and leads a group of young people to do enviromental projects.  I think they have mostly gone on camping trips to some of the really beautiful places around here but i am trying to get them more interested in recycling, too.  Picking up plastic bottles along the road is a hard sell when compared to swimming in a lagoon in a volcano crater and sleeping under the stars in a hamock. I am going to try load a video of an activity Raul led this morning, well see if that works.  I tried it and it was taking too too long.  Just stills !!!