Monday, March 22, 2010

A Step In The Right Direction

I heard voices yesterday morning in front of my house. Lots of voices. I stepped out onto my front porch to see what was going on. Being the naturally inquistive sort that I am.

This was only a small portion of the school children and their parents who were slowly circling the island. Can you tell what they are doing?




Maybe the signs they left behind will give you a clue. This one says "Put your garbage in the proper place to preserve the cleanliness and health of our beaches."




And this carefully handlettered sign says "Take care of our beaches to have a better planet."




Yup, this was a community school project to clean up the beaches and collect trash. I am not going to go into how the trash gets there and who puts it there in this post. I am just overjoyed and thrilled to see the younger generation taking an interest in our planet....and their community.

Right after I snapped the above pictures, I looked up to see this heading our way. Time to scurry back across the street to dryness and safety!



It came on us very fast. Not many people were expecting this downpour. It had started out to be a brilliantly sunny day.



Since she had her bathing suit on already, what was a little rain? Neither rain, nor sleet nor hail shall get in the way of hunting for shells!




You can see how hard it was coming down by the bouncing of it off my neighbor's roof.



And it didn't take long for it to grow into a swiftly moving river down my street.





The rain passed and I again took a look over at the beach. These next two pictures are just sad.






At least they tried. I commend them for that.

8 comments:

norm said...

Litter is one of those social ills that education can cure. Now black water dumped right into the river, that takes cash and political will to correct. I hate seeing the black stinky rivers in Latin America.

Jackie said...

Too bad someone doesn't make some real signs that won't wash away with the first rain. But still glad to see that the kids were trying to set a good example for others.

martyu said...

That's great to see. Most of the littering I have observed on the island has been by residents, not visitors. Educating the children is a great way to start. Let's hope they can pass it on to their older siblings and parents!

Anonymous said...

It is good sign they are teaching this at such a young age. Hearing stories like this makes me hopeful our planet has a chance.

Life's a Beach! said...

Thank God that army with trash bags wasn't seaglass hunting! But seriously, that's great that they're being taught a new ethic of cleaning trash from the beaches. A friend just got back from Cozumel and was amazed at the new attitude towards trash. She said it looked amazingly clean compared to their last trip there.

Anonymous said...

So glad to see that. I have always been very dismayed at the amount of litter on the beach. I try to do my part by picking up a bagful while hunting for seaglass, but there is just too much!

So where do you think all that litter comes from?

Islagringo said...

I just wanted to mention also that I found out after I published this post that this endeavor was part of "Clean Up Mexico" day. It took place all over Mexico and is a giant step in the right direction!

Tom Heidel said...

My wife and I have been to Isla Mujeres a number of times and absolutely love the island. It has always been disheartening to see the amount of trash along the roadways and in the ditches. This is a great sign that the people of Isla Mujeres are taking action to preserve their place in paradise.