Today for Escuelita we decided to get everyone together to help clean the plaza in which we play. Naturally, we started with the games just to make sure they still had some fun (wink). Then we also had to entice them with some sort of prize for filling up a plastic bag with trash.
Aside: so thankful that this plaza is not as full of gross trash as the other.
Any way, I got to cleaning, purposefully setting myself by Juancito, a son of one of our church goers. Being one of the youngest at Escuelita, he often just plays on the swings the whole time until his momma comes to pick him up.
"Juancito," I said, "You wanna get a prize?"
"No."
"Ok then." I keep cleaning for a minute or two.
He was pensive, and I pretended not to notice. "Well.. what's the prize?" he inquired.
"I won't say. It's a surprise!"
"A surprise?! What's the surprise?!"
"The prize," I chuckled.
Another minute passes by while Juancito continues to watch me.
"What do I have to do to win the prize?"
I smile. "Oh it's so easy! All you have to do is fill up a bag with trash that makes this plaza so dirty."
He grabbed a bag and immediately got to work, grabbing a handful of grass. "Can I just stuff the bag with pasto?" (pronounced pah-stow)
"No... but things like this," I show him an example of torn newspaper.
I worked by his side and kept saying how great he was doing. "And look!" he would shout. "I found more over here!!"
Aside: it's just got to be a competition...
At one point he stopped and looked at me. We had encouraged another young boy about his age to help us too, and this one was very enthusiastic about finding more trash to throw away. Juancito commented, "We need to clean up the trash to take care of our planet, don't we?"
"You are absolutely right," I replied. "Because we only have one earth that God gave us."
"We need to clean up the planet that God gave us," he reassured himself. The other boy said it too.
My hope is to teach the young ones to set an example for the rest of us. Though slightly discouraged to see a giant plume of smoke rise from the Las Violetas area as a sign of burning trash (what timing), I told myself that things can change. If we keep up this pattern of cleaning up the plaza every few weeks, perhaps the kids will be more adamant about keeping it clean. Perhaps they'll turn in disgust the way I do as I walk the neighborhoods and see trash everywhere. Saddened when someone unwraps their candy or what-have-you and just tosses the wrapper to the ground.
Perhaps they'll want to make a difference by putting things in their proper place... chau.
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UPDATE: Just talked with a parent of another kid who had helped clean up. Apparently he had come home on Saturday and proudly said, "Mom! I helped put order to the plaza today!" She told me about how excited he was to put hands to the things he is learning about at school.
"They teach the kids to take care of the planet, but they don't always get opportunities to do so," she told me.
We continued to discuss how dangerous some of the plazas are that are full of broken glass and needles. I have had other conversations about the plastic bag regulation some stores are instilling, and the new recycle bins in some of the more popular areas of the city. I have higher hopes for the cleanliness of Cordoba, but I must remember that it's something that will take time.
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