Conservationists...

The nationals here are kings at using things until they can’t be used anymore.  I guess it comes from knowing the reality of having little.  They say people in the states who lived through the depression have a similar mindset.  But I’ve never known anyone quite like this; especially an entire culture that gets the most out of everything.  Let me give some examples.

What you and I would consider trash in the states often doesn’t count as trash here.  It is never littering to throw an empty plastic bottle or Pringles can out the car window.  It is actually quite fun for us.  The children look as if Christmas has come early when they see one skidding down the road or bouncing across the grass having just come from a moving car.  Bottles are good for multiple things after you and I finish our filtered water.  They are toys for children.  They carry water for laundry, drinking, washing, etc.  They make good storage containers.  One in my own cabinets stores tea or something my house worker uses.  

Speaking of trash and my worker, my trash is never safe from scouting.  It is probably gone through multiple times after leaving my hands to go into the trash.  My house worker goes through it first.  I have found jars, jugs, Ziploc’s (I don’t even bother throwing these away now as I know they will be washed and reused), and Pringles cans to name a few things in the room she works in.  After her my guard checks the trash.  Then he gives it to the collection ladies who surely check it again.  They take it to a collection point where it is surely checked again.  Then it is hauled to a dump where I have often seen scavengers perusing.  

Today as I was driving down the road I saw a young boy playing with a toy.  I was never very good at flying a kite.  I could figure out the hold the string and put the kite in the air thing, but I could never get it to fly unless I was running with it trailing a few feet behind me.  The boy I saw was doing something similar.  He had tied a piece of brown cord to a plastic bag.  He ran down the street with his blue bag floating in the air just behind him.  Plastic grocery sacks have multiple uses here too.  My favorite is to see them used as rain hoods.

This shows a bit of how well they reuse, but let me share with you a couple illustrations of how they use things well the first time.  It is typical in the states to go to a restaurant and find a ketchup bottle on the table.  If it isn’t there originally it at least makes its way out once it is needed.  Here it is rare to see the bottle.  The nationals eat every bit of food on their plate and use every bit of any condiment available.  Ketchup is usually put on the plate with fries.  If you ask for more it is often brought in a dish.  I go once in a while with a friend to have a burger; he loves them.  I watch as he eats every bit of ketchup on his plate.  He even licks up what he doesn’t finish with his fries.  Now my sister is weird about ketchup, but this isn’t a ketchup thing it is a using all that is available thing.  I am told that if the entire bottle were brought out, it would finish the meal empty no matter how much was in it at the beginning.

I could go on and on with stories of how well things are used and reused here.  However my desire isn’t to bore you here, it is just to give you a taste of the culture.