Lessons in Green Living

I have often heard people say that poor people throughout the world are so busy trying to survive that they do not have time to think about the environment they live or care about it. Yet I would argue that many poor people are actually good at recycling! You will for instance find a family using the large paper bag from the corner shop to plant some food crops such as kales or beans. Some of them chop off the tops of bottles and use the two parts in very interesting ways. The top could become a funnel and the bottom a cup.

Some of my earliest and most profound lessons in green living were taught to me by my grandmother, Roselinda. She did not actually sit me down and say "this is how to ....". On the contrary I learnt by observing her. Grandmother who lives in a village in Alego Kaluo, Siaya District, Roselinda, had a cemented and sealed water tank installed in her back yard. This large water tank was then fitted with taps (at the bottom) and a gutter (at the top). Whenever rain fell, water running off the roof - made out of corrugated iron - would collect in the tank. This saved her a lot of time that would have otherwise been lost on the seemingly endless trips to the river.

Another lesson I learnt from her was the use of ash. Whenever she cooked her food, grandma collected ash and used it to: clean greasy cooking pots (ash is a good substitute for commercial grease strippers), keep food warm (hot ash), decorate her mud hut and refreshen her pit latrine.

Grandma is also an expert at waste management. She, for example, composts organic waste and uses the resulting manure to fertilise her garden. She also feeds left over food to her dog and chicken.

The remarkable thing about her is that she did not attend formal school beyond elementary level. She therefore does not have the lofty ideas set out by international non-governmental organisation. Rather she understands - from her close interaction with the environment - that the quality of her life will be enhanced if she reduces wastage and finds creative ways of reusing different resources.

The planet is our home. Let's do our bit to care for it.