Objective Acquired

"I'm just going to set this down riiiight over here."

I thought I would expound a little on some of the various goings-on in my day-to-day life.  In doing so, I'd like to welcome you all to the wonderful wasteland that is our current botadero.  This 20 hectare piece of land in the town of Mesones Muro, about 30 minutes from my house, is where we've chosen to deposit, scavenge through and burn our trash "for years".  It is really quite scenic, sans the plague of flies and the 20 hectares of garbage, that is.  Oh, and don't forget that this is a dry and very hot climate, so I imagine the resulting pungent aroma can reach levels never before considered possible.

Fortunately, this was the first stop of our day and we had the foresight to leave early in the morning when the weather is more tolerable.  We used the transport provided by the municipality and set out through the considerably smaller town of Mesones Muro.

This is still on the outskirts of town, but the center isn't much more developed either.

Past the other end of this town, we came to an unpaved road which jostled us around as if our truck was in the hands of an excited toddler.  The area we ended up in was not only being used as a giant trash microwave, but also as a harvesting point for road building materials.  Ergo, we were bathed like chinchillas several times as various giant trucks passed us.  Those few inconveniences did not go unrewarded, however.

Some things can't be unsmelled. 

This, more or less, for 20 hectares - or so we were told.

You get the idea.

To those of you still remaining - I know, trash is a really captivating topic of conversation - I will give you a bit more information on the specifics that I have about this situation currently.

• 20 Hectares =  200,000 meters square = ~50 acres
• 3 contributing towns - Ferreñafe, Pueblo Nuevo & Mesones Muro
• 19 metric? tons of garbage dumped everyday = 4 truckloads worth (shown above)
• 1-2 tons burned everyday 

In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that these are the first numbers I've been given regarding this particular dump site.  As I invest more of my time on this project, I am nearly certain those numbers will be slightly different in either direction.  Regardless, we didn't do much more there than merely investigate the situation from the inside of the truck.  To be honest, I wasn't sure there was much more we could have done - even when considering the many years experience I have in waste management, of course.


Once we got back to Ferreñafe, our guide Soledad, the woman in charge of Community Services for the municipality brought us to a most unusual zoo-ish like animal corral owned by my town.  Among its massive collection of maybe 30 creatures in all were tortoises, alpaca, cows and one lonely, confused deer.  We were brought here, more specifically, to see the space behind our flourishing wildlife preserve.  In the back there is a scattering of various trees about 10 years old.  As it turns out, this space had been used in years past as the dump site for Ferreñafe.  However, towards the end of March, it will be the site of our new Vivero Forestal (a.k.a. tree nursery)*.  That's not all, though!  It will also become home to my tree-growing activities.  I haven't submitted anything official at this point, but I've been told I can partition off a spot for my own use as well as all the materials I'm likely to need - minus the seeds, I'm guessing.  I'm actually rather pleased with this arrangement as I don't exactly live in the campo (word basically meaning a rural site) and had not found a space for me to use up until this morning.

 Up next, the non-operational "recycling plant".  Ferreñafe is conveniently located just a few minutes away from our capital city, so it currently isn't much more than a glorified sorting and storing facility.

The fact that we have something like this already reserved for recycling is pretty awesome in and of itself.

Here is where you put your hay mattress or plastic chair, as they're like substances.

Our farrago of various materials just waiting to be adopted by a loving processing facility. 

 With an equally impressive stated intention by our other guide that day, there are plans to re-open this building towards the end of March as well.  I need to be sure and stay on the things they have said and, if possible, involve myself in the projects themselves.  Rather than simply asking how things are progressing periodically, I'd like to be kept informed as a result of lending a hand where I can.  This place has some pretty good potential, speaking in terms of monetarily and environmentally, to my community.

After gathering what information was to be had from this visit, we drove across town to the current vivero forestal.  They're moving it because it is located on the inner corner of the town's soccer stadium.  Apparently, soccer and seedlings don't mesh well.  We've got a few hundred individual plants, trees and the like already growing at various stages and plan to move everything to the new location in a month or so.

We returned to my house a little while thereafter.  I spent the afternoon hours visiting Chiclayo to run a few errands and put my name on the list for Customs on Friday to get my package.  Turns out, however, remembering to bring the paper you need to turn in to the office is a crucial part of that whole process.  Fortunately, the entire trip was not for nothing as I found a good deal on a MUCH needed fan for my room.  Fingers crossed that I will no longer wake up sweating.





*Most towns in Peru have their own Vivero Forestal as a method of reforestation, revenue, bargaining material, etc.  In my experience so far, it is relatively important to have one being somewhat maintained.