The Online Magazine for Traveling & Living in Baja
New Stories - Subscribe for FREE - Advertise - Contact
Cleaning up Baja - Starting a Mini-Revolution
Baja Is for Everyone Essay Entry
Blanca Portella Heil
Mini Revolution In La Bocana
It started innocently, it really did.....trust me !
We have lived in Baja Sur for three years now. Life is great - we go fishing, we go boating, we go walking, we go on day trips, we build, we share our home with B & B guests, we have a dog named Rex who keeps us plenty busy ... but one day I overheard my neighbor saying that she was involved in a clean up committee. I asked her where they were going to clean and she told me - the opposite side of town.
Well, our village has beaucoup wind every afternoon and blows trash precisely TO where they wanted to clean. So, I decided to start on OUR street, which happens to be at the exact opposite end of town. We are at the extreme north end and wind blows from our street to the south..seemed like a good place to start. And it was only going to be one day...... So, I put on my sneakers and socks - first time since I moved down here ! Off I went. Well, I cleaned. and next day I cleaned. and the day after that I cleaned......
It is now 6 months later and I have the whole village involved ! The delegado got hold of 70 trashcans to hand out. One of our wonderful B & B guests is getting an American elementary school to be a :"sister"
school and write to our elementary school kids and send them gloves and visors to clean with and plants to beautify their houses. There are church groups and high school groups and just friends who are cleaning up together.
The fishing coop has agreed to help with gasoline for trucks to pick up our bags. Even the biosphere folks came out one day to help for free. Some of our regular American part-time residents have agreed to pitch in with WHATEVER we need (music to my ears!!) A local named Pancho lent his truck to the 2 families I hired to handle the many, many tires and thousands of plastic bags and bottles that were at the entrance of our village - I actually joked that the name at the entrance was not really Bienvenidos a La Bocana to Bienvenidnos a La Basura"
I have started a mini revolution. It hasn't been easy. Suffice it to say my husband was shocked one day when I came home sobbing because one of the store owners had messed up a part of his store that we had spent a whole day cleaning !
So, he wisked me away on our vacation. Two weeks ago we were in Wales, one week ago we were in England. We are now in Poland. Next destinations are: Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic and yet ... and because I love our home and village, here I am writing about Baja Sur .... and ..... the mini revolution that started oh so innocently !!