Friends, I am catching up, frantically…
Recently I have been thinking a lot about how to reduce my personal “environmental footprint,” since I have been researching how to reduce our company’s collective footprint on the face of the earth. However, when I think about how big my footsteps are, especially when I wear my heavy-duty work boots at the Plant, I want to crawl into a hole and hibernate (which would effectively solve the problem, unless I were smushing ants or something).
I have asked myself over and over what I can do, and I have a long list of things that I have tried or am currently experimenting, and I guess I’ll go right ahead and share those with you.
Things I have tried/am trying:
1. Cleaning the bathroom with only vinegar and baking soda (although not together, cause that creates a reaction that is only appropriate for elementary school volcano projects). Outcome: Works on the sink, not so effective on the inside of the toilet where the sitting water changes it colors, and if you don’t wash off ALL the baking soda of the rim, it irritates your skin.
2. Using non-toxic things to exterminate roaches. Outcome: The only effective non-toxic way to kill roaches is to stomp them until their brains and organs splatter, which requires that they live and grow in your house. So they are living in my house I think, until I find something that won’t fumigate me too.
3. Roof-top composting. Outcome: I guess we’ll see in a couple more months. I am taking the lazy approach and layering dirt and kitchen scraps in large rice bags and leaving it until it breaks down, or some kind of larvae eats it and produces nutrient-rich excrement from it.
4. Car-pooling to and from work. Outcome: Successful, since I make it every day. That I usually make it a bit late because I stand on the street corner for 20 minutes waiting for my tardy friend as people (men) honk at me is beside the point.
5. Buying locally. Outcome: They don’t try to force us to use plastic bags and the chicken doesn’t come on a Styrofoam bed. But, the questions loom: how local is the produce? Did they use pesticides or hormones that are not approved for consumption in other countries like the US? Are people earning a living wage for the food they sell?
6. Buying at the organic store. Outcome: Little selection and more expensive than in the US. The homemade yogurt had a really strange taste and poor consistency, the cereal and bread would have put me over my monthly budget, and there were not many products that contained protein. However, we did eat a couple of delicious tamales, bought some long-lasting bars of avocado soap, and have been enjoying agave plant syrup.
7. Making plants my pets. Outcome: I like puppies, but I opted for green friends instead because they are cheaper to feed, quieter, will eventually use up the compost that nature is helping me produce, and they make me feel healthier. Plus, I have fresh mint and basil leaves when I need them.
8. Collecting gray water. Outcome: The bucket in the shower is not that obtrusive, and it just eases my mind that we can use the water to flush the toilet. Why flush nasty stuff with clean water?
9. Recycling. Outcome: Mexico doesn’t have many recycling programs, so I started one at work. And, since I knew I was going to start a recycling program at work, I have been saving my recyclable goods, so the pantry has more used items than containers with new products. But, since we started this week, I can now bring in my cans, plastic containers, newspapers (though lots of those are hanging with the plants or in the compost), cardboard, etc. And I’ll keep the glass bottles for all of the broken glass plans I have.
10. Using natural hygiene products. Outcome: The shampoo wasn’t all that great, but Oscar uses it. The soap is swell, and otherwise I don’t use face-care stuff anyway because I’m lazy. The deodorant crystal is amazing… it is a hunk of minerals that you wet slightly and then rub under your arms or anywhere else on your body. It has no smell, and it keeps you from smelling by killing bacteria. It doesn’t stop you from sweating, it doesn’t have a container (they give you a little wooden box thing to set it in), and it lasts up to a year. All for $6! Just so you know, you’re getting one for Christmas. All of you!
Some of my major quandaries still are these: What to do with the dern plastic bags that I have accumulated (at first I didn’t have a market bag)? Can I compost my used toilet paper (since it can’t go down the drain)? How can I contribute to recycling in my apartment building and neighborhood? Can I make my own paints? Etc.
I have gotten sort of wrapped up in these issues, but I like thinking about this and not office gossip which is like a competitive sport here. And, Oscar has been participating in all this too, which can be pretty interesting because he did not grow up with five different recepticles in his kitchen to separate materials and a pot on the stove for feeding scraps to the dogs, nor has he ever had friends like mine who know the seasons for every fruit and vegetable and drink raw milk. So now I will talk about him:
Regarding this subject, he cooks a lot so he deposits most of the organic material in the bucket so I can take it up later to deposit it in the bag and cover it with dirt, something that he refuses to do (according to him, it’s my thing, he just goes along with it). He uses the gray water bucket and always turns off the shower when he is soaping up, since water conservation here means saving money. And, for the same reason, he never has more than one light on at a time, and uses the stove and water heater very efficiently. Aside from that, he makes like some Cuban refugees and brings home cool stuff that he finds in the street, including huge sheets of glass, shelving, flower pots, Ferrari calendars, etc. And, he very seldom splurges on cut flowers, surely to protest those that are not organic. Ha!
Aside from being compatible with ecology, he is a good cook. He makes some tasty soups, potatoes and tinga. He is also a good drinker, and he likes bourbon a lot which will one day make him popular with the family.
Currently he is working on starting up his new screen-printing business, so he has a new chrome-plated octopus (the name for the six-armed machine, so maybe it is double amputee) and he built his screen developing table. He is in Puebla this week getting some more supplies and visiting, and then when he comes back we hope to start printing our own designs and lots for other people.
His other big focus is on learning English. He sort of resisted for a while, but now he’s in daily classes. I met his teacher the other night at a bakery, and she said that he talks about me a lot in class. He is starting to be pretty funny in English, which is a nice change because before he was pretty obnoxious since his favorite phrases were, “Come on,” “Hurry up,” and “Take it easy.” Some of his most recent stories follow:
One night he was doing his interactive homework by listening to a CD and answering the questions. He listened to some girl talking about her sister, and proceeded to say this:
Oscar: “Her name is Melanie. She is fifty-five years old.”
Me: “Fifty-five?”
Oscar: (incredulous) “Fifty-five?” “No, she is fifteen, of course.”
I asked him one day what he learned in class, and he said that they talked about opposites.
Me: “Like what?”
Oscar: “Like short and tall, happy and sad, rich and poor. Like you are rich and I am poor. Are you okay with that?”
One day I got home and I was whooped (you know, real tired) and my head hurt a lot. I sat down and leaned over and he rubbed the back of my head and said, “This is bad. You are made in America and you are sick, and I am made in Mexico and I am okay. What happened?”
He sort of has a deadline since my parents are coming for ten days in October. Obviously, he won’t be a pro, but since they are staying in the apartment, he figures it is a little more serious this time around.
And I think that’s all I’ve got for now. Saludos!
