Un Ambiente de Crecimiento

“When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may

 begin to use it with love and respect.” 

~ Aldo Leopold ~  

A Sand County Almanac 

Last year at Creighton I took a class called “God is Green,” an environmental theology class. I really did enjoy the class and alongside work and trips with our Center for Service and Justice, the latter half of college sparked an interest in sustainability (global warming, public transportation, pollution, etc.). In those years I was blessed with access to a fair share of information, experiences, education, and in many ways I wonder how much that was backed up in action. I´ve been reflecting a lot recently on why that interest didn’t make its way into my everyday life in the way I know it could.

A few weeks ago our community decided we wanted to build a compost bin for the house. Last weekend Wellington (the same guard who got the Mariachi Band) and I built a large wooden bin so we could start composting at our house. I was told by an old volunteer that if we ended up composting we could talk to Felix and Aura, a neighbor and good friend of Rostro, about giving it to them when decomposed to use in their gardens. 

This past week I went to visit them and we talked about our new composting project. It was shortly thereafter I found out that the two of them are extremely into eco-friendly living, ecology, and natural recipes/medicines, etc. They showed me their water-free bathroom and I was absolutely fascinated. It is raised about 5 feet in a bamboo cane structure, and instead of water, they use sawdust. The excrement is then mixed in with the sawdust and sits over time in a tank hanging below the bathroom. When it is completely mixed it can be used like fertilizer/mulch for ornamental flowers and various plants. Fascinating. They were extremely excited to help us with the composting, and every week or so I will be going over to gather leaves and sticks and carbon-rich things to add to our bin of mostly kitchen scraps.

Felix and Aura have been an inspiration for me on many levels. Aura told me that when she sees the women and children coughing all the time it is a reminder of the reality she lives in and just how important “little, responsible practices” are. Here in Mount Sinai, pollution and environmental problems are extremely prominent. Every day people burn their trash and plastics in the dirt roads and the health of the people has been directly affected. Most trash that is not burned is thrown into the canal behind our house or on the corner of a block. Children play with garbage because it’s everywhere, and when the flooding comes the water they wade through is, therefore, polluted. I am living in a location where sustainable practices are not people’s priorities, as they live by what they can afford. Yet, Felix and Aura have taken an interest and believe in getting to know the land around you. They are in a similar economic situation as their neighbors and on top of that they have put into practice taking care of the earth as part of living a healthy life. 

Perhaps that is the problem. When we are not directly exposed to the effects of problems, or so blatantly so, it takes a different kind of discipline to take action. In downtown Chicago, despite the pollution from cars and buses filling the air, I can simply walk into a fresh, air conditioned building that is clean and allows me to forget for a moment about the reality of unclean air. When I take my garbage out to the curb, whether or not it is filled with plastic bottles that I forgot to recycle or with banana peels I could have composted, a truck comes and takes it far away so that when I retrieve my empty cans I can forget what is happening to my garbage, my plastic, my food. In Mount Sinai this is not the case. Environmental degradation discriminates against the poor in the world. Those who can regulate home temperatures, drive a car to work, filter their water, pay for garbage services: they are not the people who suffer from the effects right away, and I think it is easy for them to forget their responsibility to the cause.

After talking to Felix and Aura and seeing their effort and their interest alive amidst this reality, I realize I have had no excuse for non-action, and I hope this active willingness to learn and to practice sticks with me for the rest of my life. It has been easier to challenge myself down here than in college, but I will not always have the smell of burning trash or inconsistent water supplies to remind me of the importance of living sustainably. I shouldn´t have to. If my neighbors can find the value in educating themselves about the dangers of pesticides, aerosol, extreme weather, and the benefits of gardening, recycling, water conservation, there is no reason I should not. I come from a place of privilege, and it is a personal responsibility to put those resources to use. I ought to because I can. 

Sigmund Jähn, a German cosmonaut, said, “Only when I saw the Earth from space, in all its ineffable beauty and fragility, did I realize that humankind's most urgent task is to cherish and preserve it for future generations.” Not everyone is fortunate enough to see the Earth from space. Similarly, not everyone can or does travel to a developing country or witnesses environmental struggles elsewhere, and in that light I believe it is an earned responsibility to share with others and lead through the small, daily things. Until I return to the states, we´ll work as a community to do our part here.

“Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” ~ Archbishop Desmond Tutu

P.S. For those at home, if you´re interested in composting and don´t know much about it, here´s How to Compost in 8 easy steps! http://www.wikihow.com/Compost

Paz,

Miguel