People are here for you.
“People are here for you.”
This is how an incredible moment started.
It is impossible to know when the amazing will happen. In fact amazing happens all the time. The planet recreates itself every day. It’s up to us to notice.
I was sitting at my desk overlooking the Mozambique Channel, enjoying a pretty amazing moment, when this message came to me. To have people here for me? No idea who it could be.
The head of the village and his entourage are waiting for me at reception. They want to hear more about this idea to clean up the village. Garbage, specifically plastics are serious problem across the village.
Soap, for example, is sold in individual packets. People don’t have the money to purchase larger volumes. Women take the laundry to river to wash clothes, leaving the soap and the empty packets in the stream.
Plastic wrappers, plastic cups, plastic containers, and even diapers line the villages’ otherwise cleanly swept dirt roads and floors.
There is no recycling, no composting, no contained designated garbage area, other than the random collections of it throughout the town.
Nosy Be is as beautiful as it is unsightly, unhygienic and unwelcoming with garbage.
Meanwhile, tourism is exploding. This life world is alive and well. Clients arrive in the famous fishing village of Ambatozavavy by the van load, have drinks in plastic cups and take off in traditional pierogues toward the wilderness for an excursion to visit the natural beauty Madagascar has to offer.
I asked a local tour guide about the garbage and why is it strewn everywhere, as opposed to being collected into one spot. “It's our character., “ he tells me. Wow.
The sun comes up another day and with it the opportunity to build awareness and move in the direction of intention. And so began #CleanupNosyBe
“What ideas do you have for this clean up, “ I’m asked by the village chief’s assistant.
And in a feat of creative victory I say it, “All big ideas start with a vision.” The vision is to transform this town into a model for health and artisanal life that sustainably attracts responsible tourism.
Nature is simply too beautiful to waste.
Tanya is a facilitator for creative process in problem solving and an instructor for English at Wings of Change This blog is reflection of her experience while teaching on site.
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Village girl washing dishes in the stream
#CleanupNosyBe kicks off August 2023
Nature: far too beautiful to waste
Wings of Change is a vocational hospitality school with a dual mission of transformation through education and impacting the community
#CleanupNosyBe
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