A Partial Community Cleanup

Students at the school in San Jose lining up to start the day

"Are you from Spain? Because you talk funny..."


"We´re going to clean up ALL the trash?  In the WORLD?! OK!!" (said by a first grader who was about a foot shorter than the broom he insisted on trying to use, hehe) 


"But you know it is probably going to take a HUNDRED HUNDRED YEARS!"

The best part of today´s long anticipated street cleaning in San Jose was the comments the first graders I was working with made.  They were adorable, and had so much energy!  Due to a rather large broom to student height ratio, I had to do most of the sweeping, but once I filled a dust pan they were very eager to run back and forth to the pile to empty it.

First graders have nothing if not enthusiasm :)

They also didn´t once complain about the municipality´s lack of organization and lack of support because they are making kids and professors do their job for them.  They didn`t cringe when they had to pick up a broom and dust pan.  And neither did I--in fact, I got covered in dirt and dust, most notably being the dirt mustache that stuck to my face, much to the amusement of my host family upon my return!  And they weren´t the ones who forgot to bring garbage bags so that we didn´t have to burn the trash we collected...

The professors who didn´t want to get their hands dirty, the director who totally misunderstood the point of the cleanup, and the parents of over 300 students that we invited to help participate who didn´t show (ONE mother came to help, ONE!)... eh.  They suck.  They are the reason that we didn´t get to half the streets and had to burn our trash piles and I kind of hate them right now.  Grrrrrrrrrr


You can`t win them all...