Because of the quarantine, the airstrip has been neglected for the last 3 months and so today I decided to go there to have a look and see what needs to be taken care of. I took my camera with me thinking I might want to capture something on the way. Well unfortunately what I saw was not pleasant at all.
The road leading to the airstrip is small, barely leaving enough space for 2 vehicles to pass side by side, but is nonetheless quite nice having trees on its side and going through fields. See by yourself in the below picture.
What you can't see on that picture though is all the garbage that lays in the grass a meter or 2 from the road. Let me show you what I'm talking about and you won't think this is a nice place anymore.
As you can see, people dump everything and anything, just like that, on the side of the road without any second thoughts. Look at those bags full of dirty diapers. Do you know what happens to them once dumped? Well, the dogs get them and tear them open which makes it even more difficult to clean up then. I sometimes find some of these torn diapers in the middle of the runway.
I love the Philippines, it is a beautiful country with so many stunning places but unfortunately, it's very dirty too. It's the ugly truth that not many people show. What you saw above is only close to my work place, but almost everywhere you go, whatever the island, whatever the landscape, you would sadly come across the same disgusting sights.
Of course, there are exceptions, some places like the island of Siquijor have started to be more careful and more respectful of nature, first by banning plastics completely and also by educating the people. But we're talking of a handful of places in the whole country.
I grew up with my parents always telling me to not throw anything on the ground, to always take my trash with me until I can properly dispose of it and I obviously still do. I guess the same education is not part of the culture around here. In the next few days, I 'm going to meet the barangay captain who is the person responsible for the area where the airstrip is located and I'll try to discuss with her what can be done to cleanup this mess and to stop it. It might be futile, but it doesn't cost anything to try and if I don't do it, who will? The locals don't seem to mind or care at all about it.
So to come back to the top paragraph of this post, I went to the airstrip to look at what needed to be done. The place is fenced all around, having 1 road on 1 side and then pedestrian dirt paths on the other three. A quick inspection revealed that there was a lot of trash all along. So I grabbed my trash-picker and spent 2 hours picking up every little plastic bag, sachet, cup, etc... in an area up to 3 meters outside the fence. Here's the result, a full bag of trash.
I'm sorry for ranting but I really got disgusted and appalled seeing all of this today. Sometimes I just don't understand how the people here can live in filth.
Hopefully, I'll find a way with the barangay captain to clean up all along the road and enjoy the beauty of it.
