The Fishers in La Paz, Bolivia

One unintended positive effect of us moving here is that we are much more environmentally conscious. I have to be honest that in the States we always thought taking care of the earth was a good idea, but it didn’t seem worth changing our personal habits for! Through no choice of our own, we now find ourselves without a TV, car, clothes dryer and dish washer. We walk many more places and we recycle. Well, our version of recycling here. . . We divide all the plastics, cans, etc. that you would normally recycle and put them out in a bag for the ladies who come by our house every morning. They take what they can sell, so I guess the items are getting reused, but I’m not sure how. . . I have never been one to keep ziploc bags but since we can’t always find them here, I find myself carefully washing them and drying them to use again, and it really isn’t that bad! Electricity costs are going up here, so I now run around and turn out lights we aren’t using, not a typical thing for me. . .

So, we’ve been talking about what we will do differently when we live in the States again. We decided we will continue to go without a TV, but I would really like a dryer and dishwasher again We think we may buy a used hybrid for our next car, live near public transportation instead of having a second car, and the words “community garden” and “composting” were mentioned. Then Tom said he wants to eat more chicken and fish and less meat! What in the world is happening to us??

One reason we want to take our responsibility to care for the environment more seriously is that the end result of ignorance and indifference stares us in the face every day. In the States, you pretty much never have to see or smell the landfill you are filling with your trash. Here, we go by the equivalent of an open sewer every day. The poor who live above us in El Alto have no sewage system and pretty much everyone dumps trash in the “river”. So all of this ends up coming down the mountain and running through our neighborhood. It doesn’t smell so bad when there is some rainwater keeping it moving, but during the dry season, it really stinks. You have to hold your breath as you pass it. I have written before about the crazy fact that the Bolivians still think this river is some kind of asset so they build all the playgrounds, parks and even resort hotels next to it! They have found it wouldn’t really cost that much to clean the river up over a period of several years, but to change people’s habits and attitudes would be much harder. So it’s easy for us to criticize the Bolivians for what they do, but then I have to ask myself if I really act any differently. My ways of being wasteful and neglectful are just more acceptable to society than throwing my garbage in the river.

Hopefully, we will remember these lessons that God is teaching us about our responsibility to care for His creation and become more obedient over time.

Happy Earth Day!