March 12, 2020
In a blink of an eye, half of this trip has passed. Today we got a practical assignment — a beach cleaning activity by the sea. In the morning, we came to the island by boat. We all wore hoodies from ECS and gloves of the same color, and we looked very unified. First, a lady who was the former director of STINAPA Bonaire, a non-profit commissioned by the government to protect the two National Parks at Bonaire, lectured us about what plants they introduced on the Klein Bonaire to retain and put life in the island’s environment. Then we started to clean up the garbage. We picked up rubbish along the beach in groups. We were carrying empty and shriveled garbage bags, with our heads down and our eyes straight on the ground.
Forty minutes later, Landon and I found a lot of rubbish. Especially caps and cans. Although the activity was very short, less than an hour, we have learned a lot. If we all start from ourselves, from small things, and don’t litter, our environment will be cleaner and cleaner. I once watched a TV show that said that every year more than 50,000 people in Singapore participate in the coastal clean-up work. Today, after picking up this area, volunteer organizations lead another group of people to the same beach every two days and still can clean up so much garbage. So today I’m really educated. It’s not easy to pick up rubbish. I’m very tired in just 40 minutes. However, we only cleaned less than one tenth of the area. Although we tried what we could to clean the place up, some trash was still visible when we left. In addition, I learned to protect the environment from myself. After today’s activities, I found the importance of protecting the environment.
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