Market Clean Up

Well like in America, people here litter.  The problem is that they can not afford to pay someone else to pick it up for them.  So today was a market clean up day organized by the government.  They closed down the market, which made a few people upset.  Then they gathered volunteers by riding through town in a truck yelling with a bull horn.  About 200 volunteers showed up, and in about one hour, they cleared about 12 truck fulls of trash from 1 city block.  It was pretty incredible to see.

Next they passed out sand paper, and all of the wooden booths were sanded by hand for painting.  Keep in mind this is the area of a city block and all the sanding was finished in about 45 minutes.  Next some paint arrived and brushes were passed out to everyone.  After about 3 hours of painting, it is nearly complete.  The market looks incredible, I wish I had taken some before and after photos.  I never thought they would put such effort into it.  They also have new laws for the market to prevent it from getting so messy.  Everyone here is very proud of their work, and I think they should be.  I have seen lots of community projects done before, but never with the enthusiasm and hard work that they did here.  I just hope everyone appreciates it and keeps it cleaner from now often.

Luke