a gringa's take
Okay, first let me say that I am a foreigner and I know nothing. Everything I express here, I express with fear, trembling and humility because I don't live in the DR full time and did not grow up there. I am just a gringa who came to a village to build a playground and in the process found una familia...
That being said...here is my take:
I have been to the DR several times a year over the last four years. When I first went, I could barely ask for a bathroom. Today I am trying to learn Spanish.
I noticed the trash a lot more on my first trip. It is hard not to notice when you are surrounded by the most beautiful mountains and pristine waterfalls--and you look at your feet and see an old dirty diaper.
I spend most of my time in two small communities near Jarabacoa (El Cijjone and Mata Gorda). These are very poor communities.
Both communities have a small school/preschool sponsored by a mission organization called Students International. I learned about these communities as part of a work team that helped build a playground at each of these schools.
I noticed how people seemed to throw trash on the ground. I remember cleaning up the worksite one day in Mata Gorda and noticing there weren?t any trash cans. I asked the teacher and she instructed me to pile the trash in the back and they would take it to the dump. I guess nobody picks up trash in these areas?
The teacher lived in Mata Gorda because she and her husband believed that if they were to see the community transformed they needed to be there every day. The trash was removed by volunteers from the church (a church met in the school on the weekends). Someone had a truck and a couple of men and a bunch of boys took the initiative to load up the trash and haul it away. If they hadn't done that--the trash would just pile up.
The people who live in Mata Gorda have trouble keeping their kids fed and clothed--but they sweep the dirt in front of their homes to keep the dust down, and they mop everyday. They are not dirty--not by a long shot. I look at my messy house in suburban U.S. and know my friends in Mata Gorda would be appalled.
When I put myself in the shoes of my friends in Mata Gorda, I think it just must feel like an insurmountable task. "Even if I took the time and effort to bag up all my trash--others would still throw trash in the street and it would still blow over to my yard...I would still have to find a vehicle (most travel by motto or foot), load it all up, take it to where ever it is dumped and then probably be charged a fee to dump it. If I am already overwhelmed with the needs of my family, trying to figure out how to pay for the simple things, I think I'm going to drop that piece of paper on the ground too."
Most of the people in Mata Gorda know nothing of the tourist industry and have nothing to gain from its prosperity. They are trying to get rice and beans on the table--what do they care if some fat slob in Porta Plata thinks they have a dirty country (okay, sorry--getting just a little defensive). But the idea that lost revenue from the tourism industry is not exactly the first thing on the mind of the mother of six in Mata Gorda. She is tired and no tourist come to Mata Gorda to vacation (well, okay--maybe me, but I like to think of myself as una harmana blanca--no longer a tourist), the tourist industry/government/rich Dominicans bitching in the news papers are not going to send a truck through her street to pick up trash--let them argue with the ambassadors...she has a floor to mop and kids to feed.
I wish it weren't like that--but I certainly understand her plight a lot better than the tourists who gripe about the mess, but do nothing to help and talk about the poverty and then haggle with vendors over every peco they spend on the trinkets they will return home with.
I think that there is not an easy answer--but there is an answer and my friends who live in Mata Gorda are figuring it out. It started with the teacher (her name is Yocasta) and her husband (he is Alberto--they also started the little church that meets in the school) moving from a comfortable home in Jarabacoa to a home in the community where they work. They were invested enough in the problems to become part of the community. Now, when the water doesn't work because there is a leak somewhere in the mountain, Alberto and a bunch of guys from the community follow the line themselves and together they figure out how to fix it...they don't wait for the government to fix it. About a year ago they came together and built this big clay water purifier "thingy" and appointed one of the families to oversee it so people in the community can bring their jugs and fill them with clean drinking water for only a few pesos (enough to keep the purifier clean and maintained). The people in the church community organize a couple of times a year and go down the roads picking up trash, and I think it is getting better in Mata Gorda. In four years I think there is a community spirit there.
I think there is a balance between saying "the government has to get in there and fix it", and "the people just don't know better". What I have observed is that they know better and want better, but feel a little trapped, and just plain weary. From the outside looking in, It looks like the government has forgotten about my friends en Mata Gorda (unless it is election time--then I have seen them with their bags of rice---grrrr).
It seems like the answer is community. "I may not have a truck, but maybe you do", "maybe you can't load all your trash up, but I have three strong boys who will come help."--
Alberto (the pastor of the small church in Mata Gorda and the husband of Yocasta, the teacher I spoke of) says that
"poverty is not only in the wallet. It is in the heart and in the head. That is where we must battle poverty." Wise man.
It may not save the world, but it seems to work en Mata Gorda.
Lacking Hygiene 