What makes Mother Earth cry?

The trash around the school.

The trash is everywhere. I find it hard to understand. Sarah and I spent 30 minutes picking up trash on the ground around our house after school today, filling 1 ½ garbage bags in that short time period. There will be trash in our yard again tomorrow. I’m not sure if it’s just the kids or if it’s the adults, too. The kids throw their gum wrappers, soda cans, chip bags, everything – it gets thrown on the ground, everywhere. Sarah and I feel like we live in the middle of a landfill.






 We couldn’t stand it any longer, so we went on a rage today, armed with rubber gloves and trash bags, we at least made the area around our house clean. But, the kids have no sense of ownership, of personal space, of taking care of the land. Therefore, the trash will be everywhere, again… soon.

I would think that the native people would take more pride in Mother Earth. I thought that they, above all others, would “leave no trace.” I was wrong. How can these people just use the land instead of care for it? It saddens my heart as it hurts my eyes to look around at the dump they have created.

Commonplace, in our "dry" village.

Other teachers have tried to pick up the trash, but it’s a never-ending process and they eventually give up. So the trash builds. When I asked a co-worker about it, their response was, “It’ll look better this winter when it’s covered with snow.” What?!

Our yard, clean at last!

Those of you who know me well know that I am a tree hugger, a recycler, a re-user. To be so helpless here is very hard on me.