Composting hope

There is a lot of rubbish in Indonesia.  On the sides of most streets, you can see mounds of coconut husks, plastic, food and paper, piled into little clusters.

It seems that there are certain days for burning rubbish.  I don't know which day that is, but it is just awful.  The smell of burning plastic is one of the worst smells ever. The vapour sticks in the back of your throat and makes your eyes water.

These photos are of a pile of rubbish that is along the street that runs perpendicular to my home.  The photo on the right shows the burnt/charred/melted/still intact mess that is left behind.


I've been looking up information to see if there are any recycling centres in West Sumatra (I can't find any but if you know of one, let me know!).  Even if there was a recycling centre, most of the plastic they use (including the thin black plastic bags everywhere) aren't suitable for recycling.  Just about everything comes in these plastic bags.  They do give rice in banana leaf (duan pisang) parcels, but everything else gets bagged.  I want to help contribute to Pariaman being clean and better than when I arrived, so I bought some reusable containers so that I don't have to use these bags too often.  Today I bought some fabric as well, and I am going to make some bags.  I already have big reusable bags, but sometimes you need a smaller size.  I will definitely post my creations (warning: I am impatient with sewing, but I do think it is pretty fun).

The one thing I know I can do to help minimise the trash is to compost.  I started one at work last week, and I bring all of our organic materials to compost when we come into work.  I am hoping to make some good soil and maybe plant a few vegetables.

Beyond Intellect

My mom and I talk often. A few weeks ago, we were talking about her book, "Beyond Intellect: Journey Into the Wisdom of Your Intuitive Mind" and we were talking about how people use the book.

In her book, Susan (my mom) asks the reader to open the book to whatever location "speaks" to you. A lot of readers do this, and they have told my mom that they receive the information that they require.

I have decided to try this out more frequently, and write the experiences down. The past year has been all about unknowns. I quit my job at the end of 2009, I was doing business development for a professional services firm, but I wasn't liking what my effort was contributing to. After quitting, I had some time to myself. My passion is acting, and I thought perhaps this would give me the time to breathe and devote myself to my passion. Unfortunately, bills still had to be paid, and there aren't many acting jobs where I lived. I worked in a temporary job, which had great people, but was not engaging. At the end of July, my partner (at the time... more on that maybe) and I packed our stuff away into storage, and flew to Indonesia, where we are volunteering until January.

There will be many adventures, challenges, lessons, insights, laughs and knowing me, a few tears... and a wonderful way for me to put my mom's book to the test.

Arohanui,
Sara