Adjusting to a new country takes time, that is if you realize you are in a different country. Failure to realize you are not in Kansas anymore, creates a lot of stress.
Fran was upset by Garbage and turned to the Civil List for Support.
I am new to SMA and I am curious. I have been many different places in Mexico and I have never seen as much trash as I see in SMA. I do not understand the mentality of the Mexican people. Do they not care about their planet, their country and their beautiful city? They walk down the street and throw their trash where they are walking. They dump trash in empty lots. They litter the country side with trash. Do they not care about disease, bugs and rodents? They even litter in their own neighborhoods. Trash pickup is usually 2 to 3 times a week and is free.
Why are they such dirty people.
She struck a nerve as others were soon adding their own Garbage Woes to the Thread.
Since the first of the year our garbage has not been picked up. Normal garbage service in La Canada is Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Each garbage day, we put our garbage out early in the morning and, it is still there in the late afternoon. Last year it was always picked up early. Today, it looked like other garbage was picked up but not ours. I do not have a clue. Is there a number I should call or what? Any help would be appreciated.
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It seems like Garbage Disposal is a major issue in San Miguel. The Trash Woes grew. Imagine the pain these people experience by caring for other people’s trash
We have another problem with trash. We live on the corner of La Quinta. There is trash pick up on this corner on both Mondays and Fridays. However, recently someone has been leaving trash on this corner on any given day.
Usually dogs get into it and make a mess. We have had people knock on our door to “pick up the street”. We have.
We have also had someone deposit the trash at our front door implying that it is our mess.
We always have our gardener bring out our trash on the correct day.
How do we prevent these people from using our corner as a daily dumping site? How do we get people to stop leaving other peoples mess at our front door?
This morning, once again, someone is piling trash in front of our door.
I don’t know if it is someone from La Quinta or Canadita that is putting the trash at the corner, or someone who is coming from elsewhere to just get rid of their bags.
We are constantly picking up after the dogs who rip open these bags. Our bodega is full of other peoples trash.
How do we get a sign or perhaps a trash bin installed on that corner?
We are drowning in other’s trash
Whenever there is moaning and groaning on the Civil List people soon turn to offering solutions.
I’ve wondered about this, too. I have noticed since someone put up a nice sign at the Sancho Panza ‘tree’ prohibiting the dumping of garbage it is now being dumped at our corner.
I think we should go together and put up the same sign on our corner. (Does anyone know who put up that sign?) And, at the same time, contact the city and see what, if anything, they will do.
Garbage pick up is Monday and Friday from around 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. Placing neatly bagged or boxed garbage the same morning seems reasonable.
We’ve also considered pointing our entrance security camera at that corner to figure out who is doing this.
And someone from the Spiritual Gang has a simple solution with how to get God involved in your Trash Woes
If you put a Lady Guadalupe near or on your door that should stop the problem. That is one thing that the Mexicans respect and will honor. The bigger the better.
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Then the reality of living in another country dawns on one member.
Yeah, when I moved here I did that too, for a while. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really work. Some people will just throw their trash on the streets regardless. So, I just clean in front of my house every day and hope for the best. It’s the “trade-off” of living in this otherwise magical place.
Then the Doing Good Works Gang comes up with a suggestion that involves the community, Trash and Good Works.
I would definitely be interested in organizing a team to pick up trash on the sides of the road. The thing that drew me to Mexico and San Miguel in particular is the natural beauty of the place. There’s something very romantic about this desert scene. And I’ve noticed a recycling plant in San Miguel that offers a small reimbursement for the recyclable materials you bring in. Just something to keep in mind
Another chord struck.
I, too, am sick of seeing all the trash everywhere…when I become a resident of SMA in about five months, I intend to start a program for trash pickup with the probably naive hope that once an area is cleared of trash people will think twice about throwing junk on the streets…want to join me in organizing pickups?
And here is capitalism at its best. For $9 pesos they will pick up your garbage
Filed under: The Civil List
I just gave Tina a thumbs-up! And I see two folks gave my first comment a thumbs-down! Yipes! I´d lay money on these folks being in the group that just loooooves the Mexican culture.
I think I´ll give my initial comment yet another thumbs-up! Why? Because I can!
We have an empty lot next to our house in SMA. Nothing warms the heart in the morning quite like seeing a guy with his pants
around his ankles, taking a monumental dump in the empty
lot, within “eye-shot” of the street AND our rooftop garden.
There’s something about all the roughage in the diet here…but I digress.
Lately there’s even been a pair of “worn” orange thong panties hanging from one of the branches of a tree in this lot. Of course there’s also the other assorted debris–milk containers, bottles, paper, vegetable peelings, broken bricks, plastic bags…you name it, it’s probably there.
The lot has several “For Sale” signs on. I’d recommend a Haz Mat suit for anyone wanting to inspect the property.
It’s all part of the magic…
Welcome to Mexico. Now you can’t tell me that you didn’t notice the trash when you first came down to visit this lovely country?
Get use to it, not going to disappear, and in fact when you tell them about it , they just toss out more crap on the road.
I get a large trash bag each week in front of our property and they are taught at an early age that it is ok to do so. Especially empty soda bottles from moving cars and buses.
On the personal note, we have been separating our garbage to yard wastes which make great compose and the rest either gets burned in a hot fire, so our own is real tiny, not worth having anyone pick it up.
We have a neighbor that pays the local kids a few pesos each week to keep his area clean…your capitalism idea does work.
That is exactly the theme I keep coming back to time and time again.
Suspension of disbelief is what keeps any play working for the audience and appears to keep San Miguel and other expat communities working also.
Another term I love is ethnocentric – the belief that everyone is just like you but up or down the scale slightly. No sense of the common good is not possible in some ethnocentric worlds.
I love reading this kind of stuff because of what I get to think of and chuckle at when I read it. And what do I think of and chuckle at when I read this kind of stuff?
At all the Gringos, especially of the SMA variety (i.e. naive), who repeat so often how they looooove the Mexican culture!
Well, this is the Mexican culture, amigos. This particular aspect can be summed up like this: There is no sense of the common good.
Of course, this is just one aspect. There are other troubling aspects too.