Trash is everywhere. Covering this country from head to toe, and no one really cares. There is hardly and organized trash system, and recycling and composting are thoughts that cannot yet be understood by most Ghanaians.

I often find myself drinking a pure water sachet (water from a bag) when I’m in the city and then looking around for a trash can (they don’t really exist), only to a have a small child take it from me a throw it on the ground. I usually don’t know what else to do with it, so I just turn a blind eye and let it be.

Zoomlion is the so-called ‘organized trash system’ where they come by my village about once a week to empty our dumpster and add it to the mound that sits right behind my house (fantastic). And I just get to wait for the dry season to come and someone to light it all on fire for all the trash to burn (I just love the smell of burning trash coming in through my jail cell window).

But I would rather throw my trash in a big pile of trash than to throw it in the bush or on the roadside. When I’m traveling I tend to throw all my trash inside the car, knowing that when the tro reaches the station it will be swept out, and every morning the station is also swept and then the trash is thrown into yet another huge mound that will eventually be burned come dry season.

So the other day when I was riding in a tro on my way to Accra I was sitting in my usual spot in the tro (front next to the window; best air ventilation, and the most amount of leg room), when the man in between the driver and myself threw a wad of trash out the window. I decided it was time to speak up (if I don’t start somewhere, then no one will ever understand how bad it is to throw the trash in the bush, on the road side, or wherever they please), so I said…

“Brother, don’t you love your country? Don’t you care if Ghana looks beautiful? Why do you throw your trash out the window?”

And he responded…

“Oh Madam please forgive me, but that it what I have always done, I know its bad, but… I guess I should throw it inside the car”

“Yes brother, next time please throw it inside the car. Once the tro reaches the station it will be swept, and then in the morning the station will also be swept, and the trash will be added to a pile. This will help keep your county clean; it will help Ghana look beautiful. Please love your country.”

“Ok Madam I will do that next time,” was the only reassurance I got from the guy.

About an hour later as we continued our way to Accra, we were suddenly pulling over on the side of the road, and a new expensive looking SUV (there are some very well to do Ghanaians, owning more expensive cars then I think I’ll ever be able to afford) pulled right in front of us. A couple got out and walked over to the window, and the women spoke up…

“Driver, I am appalled that you let your whole car throw their trash out the window, as we were driving behind you I saw them throwing so much trash out the window… I am now ashamed to say that I am Ghanaian. Please tell your car to always throw their trash inside the car and not on the roadside, where it will be destroying our country. If they love Ghana then they will do it.”

I was listening, and was in complete shock (Go Lady, Go Lady, Go Lady, you tell them!) But I was so proud of someone… a women… to stand up for something that she believed in, and to tell her people so.

Hopefully the times are changing.