Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts
Friday, January 25, 2013
Agua
Each Wednesday and Saturday, the water guy comes by and swaps out an empty for a new 20-liter plastic bottle of quadruply-filtered water. They're the size that you use in an office water cooler. We go through exactly two of these a week, filling up smaller water bottles to carry with us, for drinking, cooking, and teethbrushing. This doesn't include showering, washing dishes or clothes, or any water used in cooking food that we buy preprepared. It's interesting to know that our little family of three consumes 40-liters of water a week, or a little more than 5 liters a day. It costs us 50 pesos, or around $5, a week.
Friday, January 18, 2013
Earthquake!
Really! At the end of my yoga class this morning, we were all seated on the ground for meditation, and we all felt the temblor. It was awesome and profound, not scary at all. In that moment, I realized I had been subconsciously hoping to experience an earthquake while we were here. When I checked the news, it turns out there have been several earthquakes in the 5-6 range since we've been in Oaxaca. I guess we just need to start paying attention.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Verde Oaxaca
I've been so impressed with the quotidian environmentalism here. Of course, there are gaps, but it's amazing how common many "green" approaches are here.
Our apartment is designed to get natural light during the day, and every single lightbulb - everywhere - is compact flourescent.
Everything is reused, from plastic grocery bags (as trash bags) to airplane tires (in the soles of my sandals). The crutches that we use in the US simply aren't available - you can't buy plastic wrap or throwaway sandwich bags here. Only reusable containers are in stores. Traditional holdovers - like a cloth to hold your tortillas - are even more environmental options - replacing the paper the tortilleria wraps their wares in.
I've long admired the way Mexicans repair anything mechanical. Whenever another blender breaks, I lament that I don't have a Mexican one from the 70s - and an hombre to repair it. This trend is reflected in our apartment. The microwave is from the 80s, the refrigerator from the 70s.
Also, cars here are so old - the kind you only see in California. Seriously, were Datsuns huge sellers here in the mid-70s? Or did all the old Datsuns migrate down here?
Our apartment is designed to get natural light during the day, and every single lightbulb - everywhere - is compact flourescent.
Everything is reused, from plastic grocery bags (as trash bags) to airplane tires (in the soles of my sandals). The crutches that we use in the US simply aren't available - you can't buy plastic wrap or throwaway sandwich bags here. Only reusable containers are in stores. Traditional holdovers - like a cloth to hold your tortillas - are even more environmental options - replacing the paper the tortilleria wraps their wares in.
I've long admired the way Mexicans repair anything mechanical. Whenever another blender breaks, I lament that I don't have a Mexican one from the 70s - and an hombre to repair it. This trend is reflected in our apartment. The microwave is from the 80s, the refrigerator from the 70s.
Also, cars here are so old - the kind you only see in California. Seriously, were Datsuns huge sellers here in the mid-70s? Or did all the old Datsuns migrate down here?
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