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Published: December 23rd 2008
(Ruta writing) Travel makes you rethink little details in life and the collective effects of our daily habits. One of the changes in lifestyle here is how you buy items. I wrote earlier of the little shops and outdoor marketplaces. For us (and 95% of the other Ethiopians here without a car) we are inherently limited in how much we buy because we need to carry it all home ourselves or squish onto an overcrowded bus with our packages (easier written than done). This different manner of shopping highlights the large amount of packaging we use in the US. Granted, individuals don’t have the power to eliminate packaging of items on store shelves, but it is useful to understand the issue of the U.S.’s largest eco-footprint on the world. Small changes in our daily lives could make a large environmental impact.
Our household of 9 (7 of us and 2 guards) produces less than one 13 gallon container (typical US kitchen trash can) of garbage a week. We buy bread straight from the bakery shelves. It’s put into a plastic bag to bring home, or you put it with other small items into your personal fabric bag. To buy milk,
the milk maid comes to our house with milk straight from her cow. She pours it into our small pitcher at home. For other items, grocery stores have huge canvas bags of noodles, sugar, grains, etc. When you request a kilo of sugar, for example, the shopkeeper scoops it out of the canvas bag into a small plastic bag and puts it onto the scale. After adding and subtracting until the scale is balanced, he ties up the ends of the bag and you take the sugar home. Granted - in Addis there are too many plastic bags used too, but they are reused as sandwich bags, lunch bags, even raingear during the rainy season. For purchasing non-food items such as clothes, sometimes you are given a plastic bag, sometimes you just stuff the item into your own bag.
Another interesting detail about shopping is the lack of receipts. Only the fanciest stores provide receipts. Otherwise, if you need to buy paper, envelopes, plates, rulers, forks, you go to your local shops, haggle on the price, then take the individual items home. There’s no packaging, no receipts, no computer records, no final bag with company logo on it. Even
renting a car or hotel room will not produce a receipt. Interesting…………
….. As an aside, I understand that one thing microfinance institutions are trying to teach small entrepreneurs is the importance of keeping track of income and expenses. I was surprised upon reading about one woman whose life was significantly improved by a loan of $150 to open up a small shop. After 6 month, she didn’t know how much money she earned, nor how much she spent, but she knew that she was able to buy food and medicine now. What a contrast to my kids who seem to keep a running tally of how much money they brought with them, how much they have spent, and how they plan to spend the remainder.
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Ruta Musonyt
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Kaledos tikrai stebuklu metas! Neseniai gavau is Astos ir is sesers Vitos jusu nuostabios seimos gera blog'a. Pasidalinu su teveliais ir atidziai skaitom, pergyvenam. Neseniai ziurejom dvd Ewan McGregor, kur su draugu keliavo is Skotijos i Capetown motociklais: Long Way Down. Tai sekem visa kelione su zemelapiu. O dabar jau laukiam jusu irasyta dvd ir isleista knyga! Te Dievas jus visus globoja ir priziuri. Nors lauke siaubingai salta Cikgaoje, siunciu jums silciausius apkabinimus ir sveikinimus!!!!!