trash talk

Learning a language not only involves learning vocabulary and grammar, but also includes learning how languages shape perception. Learning a language requires a serious reevaluation of how you think.

Searching for a word in a dictionary and finding it doesn´t exist or can only be explained with many words, or learning a new word and finding it has no exact translation to your native language is foder enough for a linguistics dissertation. I´m not currently pursuing a Ph.D, so I´ll save that for another time. However, I would like to point out one word that I just can´t concisely convey in Spanish, and what that does and does not mean in this Spanish-speaking culture.

Litter
–noun
1.objects strewn or scattered about; scattered rubbish.
2.a condition of disorder or untidiness: We were appalled at the litter of the room.
3.a number of young brought forth by a multiparous animal at one birth: a litter of six kittens.

–verb (used with object)
4.to strew (a place) with scattered objects, rubbish, etc.: to be fined for littering the sidewalk.
5.to scatter (objects) in disorder: They littered their toys from one end of the playroom to the other.


Please ignore the third definition of litter as a noun....what I´m getting at here is the verb.

My first week here I rode the bus and watched the woman next to me nonchalantly throw her garbage out the window. Woah, I thought. This is a serious no-no. Everyone - even kindergarten students - know that littering makes you a litterbug, and nobody wants to be that.

I wrote about litter for my Spanish class and realized that this verb just does not exist in such a concise format. Instead, the verb to litter translates to "to throw trash on the ground." My Spanish teacher understood what I meant, of course, but also noted that she only recently has started to make an effort to throw away trash ¨in its place¨and then asked me what do we do with our trash in the U.S.?


But who am I to criticize the ways of waste in Nicaragua? While I might not litter (throw bottles out of windows and drop wrappers on the ground) I sure do use a lot more than the average Nicaraguan, and let´s not forget all that invisible waste that spews out of car tailpipes in the form of carbon dioxide. Yup. The results are in. I may not be wasteful, but I sure do waste a lot... even though it might not be so obvious on a macroscopic level when I do it.

There are plenty of valid reasons (which I won´t get into here) to throw away trash and reuse and recycle when you can. In the U.S., recycling tends to have more to do with environmental awareness than economic thrift. In Nicaragua, reusing comes far ahead of recycling...down to a drop of water (many families collect rain water to use to wash clothes and probably for to bathe with as well). Small children collect tin cans to turn in for the deposit. With such an absence of recycling facilities and discourse on environmentalism, why then are the Nicas winning the reduce , reuse and recycle race?

The answer is simple: for economic, not environmental concerns.

Although the resting grounds of unwanted goods (a.k.a landfills) exist in U.S and Nicarauga, there is a huge difference between those in the U.S. and those in Nicaragua.

In Managua, there is a landfill called La Chureca

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW6a9Zp3Agc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtN4FgIKT2c&feature=related

It´s not only a landfill, but also a home to 1500 people (more than 600 of which are children, 130 families) who make their living - or survive - on what everyone else throws away.

This desperation made me arrive at the question...why? What is the difference between homeless people begging in the street and those that choose to go live in La Chureca? How can whole families - adults and children- live and work there?

Perhaps it is a matter of dignity.

It is certainly due in part to the complexities of the economy, disorganization of the government and absence of social services for the people.

So life goes on and even the unemployed find some way to work. Age is irrelevant. Walking through the streets of Granada you can find street children selling gum, breakdancing for tourists, making roses out of sweet grass- each of these activities has become a common sight for me. A sight so common that it becomes strangely normal in such a short period of time.

¨What would this city look like if it were cleaner and better maintained?¨ I asked myself as I walked my daily walk through downtown Granada.
What would the world look like without waste, without overconsumption, with equal distribution of resources?