5 Gallons of Cold Water

That’s all I get and that’s all I need to clean my lanky body every morning. After returning home from my sunrise walk with Pedro I run out to the 60 gallon oil drum, dip my 5 gallon bucket in and I’m off to douse myself in fresh chilling rain water. ¨At least I have water,¨ I tell myself when I start to dream about the comfort of a hot shower. The idea of comfort is all in my head, and I’m not draining an unnecessary 35 gallons of heated water with that of my 5 minute customary shower back home.
So sure my community has kilometers to go before they change their conscience and poor practices of littering trash in their own yards and rivers, but at least they are using 7 times less water than I was using 3 months ago. I’m starting to understand that poverty means fewer resources, which also often means fewer opportunities, but it also means people are living within their means. They use what they need and the rest is left to someone else to enjoy.

Just a few observations of a beautiful occurrence here know as reusing:
-The bird cage is salvaged rebar and chicken wire from a demolished building in town.
-The flower pots are all large coffee cans or the bottom half of a Clorox jug.
-Instead of buying paint to color the cement walls of their dining room, Pedro and Mecho have created a colorful collage of reused bed sheets to decorate their home.
It’s not that these Dominicans are trying to win some abstract, recycled art contest at the Museum of Modern Art... rather it’s how they make use of the resources they have. I thought my concentration in Environmental Science at Williams had prepared me to understand Sustainability in this 21st century, but I find myself being schooled every day in the art of ¨Living with what you have.¨ (Not with what someone else has or with what someone is trying to sell you). I don’t need to purchase something more to be happy. Maybe I’ll look around my house for that strand of extra phone line to help me hang a picture and maybe I won’t fill that 5 gallon bucket all the way to the top when the rainy season stops.

Reuse it to Recreate.

Paz, Jared