I remember talking to IHP alumni in 2007, before begining my travels with International Honors Program to Brazil, South Africa, and Vietnam. I remember them telling me that I would never be able to look at a city the same way again. Never again could I be a casual traveler, an unemotional bystander, an oblivious passerby. By the end of those months, I knew they were right. I had sharpened my critical eye. I had grown curious about how communities function. And I had grown accustomed to asking endless amounts of questions, without finding a definite truth.
Three years later, nothing has changed. As I live in Albardon, a small town 15km outside of San Juan, IHP lives on. Take for example, my ongoing current fascination with water and garbage.
Water. Right now, I live in the driest place I have ever been. It barely rains. The sun is so strong. The soil is so arid. It is a desert. When I first crossed the ^Rio San Juan^ in a bus to Albardon, I assumed the state was either in a horrible drought or that the river was always bone dry during the summer. I was wrong on both accounts. After two weeks of living here, I finally asked Pedro about the dry river bed. Apparently, there hasn`t been water for over 30 years. It has been damned about 25 kms west of here, and is now a favorite swimming spot for locals. The one river is now channeled into multiple canals and spread across the state. As Pedro put it, rather than only 30 families having access to water, now 3000 families can have access. So every 6th day, from 11pm to 3am, we can open a little slot in the canal and let water run through a cement pathway into our own mini-reservoir. Everyone has their allotted slot, but If a neighbor wants to switch times with us or borrow some of our water for the week, he just has to walk down the street and ask us. It`s that simple. Unfortunately for the Granja, this water is not enough to water all of the crops and flowers we have. So the majority of our watering is done with regular, potable water. It is sanitized by the city and flows through a series of pipes into our home, bathroom, kitchen, and outdoor water fountains. You would think that the extra expense would inspire them to use it more sparingly, but Pedro and Lucia are rather careless with it. They do the majority of their watering in the middle of the daytime, when the sun is beating down and evaporating all of the water before the plants even have a chance. Interesting, no? I think so. But after talking to a gentleman at a family party last weekend, I found out that water conservation and water knowledge is only now beginning to gain popularity. This man, a water engineer and consultant, speaks to schools and businesses about the importance of saving water, checking its mineral content, and using filters. Conveniently, he sells filters as a side job. Ulterior motive, perhaps. But regardless, I would have expected water to be a bigger topic of discussion in a place as dry and arid as San Juan.
Now, garbage. You would have to be blind to ignore the intense presence of garbage in the Argentinean landscape. And be incapable of smelling. It`s everywhere. Stretches of desert filled with plastic bags. Burn piles on the sides of street. Trash floating down the canals. Little children nonchalantly tossing their candy wrappers on the floor. It`s awful. Like so many beautiful countries I have visited, Argentina seems to take nature for granted. This is a topic that I will continue to question and deconstruct throughout my trip, but I do have some answers already. After talking to Lucia, I learned that the state does not really pick up trash on a regular basis. There are trucks that drive to certain places—the end of roads and busy neighborhoods—for example, but they are not reliable. So people burn their trash, even though that too is illegal and incredibly dangerous. As for recycling, it is up to individuals to recycle on their own. The majority of municipalities have recycling centers, but it is often far from people`s homes and the financial payback does not cover the gas to transport the goods. For us on the farm, we have collected truck loads of bottles over time. In fact, yesterday Jenny from South Africa and I spent the morning crushing plastic bottles to see if we could consolidate two truck loads into one. It worked. But I imagine that most people don`t have the time, patience, and drive to go through the trouble. Especially when it appears that they are not taught the value of their environment as a child. Yes, occasionally I see recycle bins in parks or signs that say ^We have the cleanest air in the world. Protect it.^ But that is not enough. I want to find out what is going through people`s heads when they throw trash on the ground and why a government that makes so much money off of its natural treasures is not working harder to protect them.
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