I'm an Ecoterrorist

So sports day is coming up at Kwakwani secondary. At school, all the students are divided into houses much like Harry Potter. They don't have awesome names like Harry Potter but similarly they compete against each other in track and field events.

There's a big field next to the school, just a vast expanse of grassland. After school yesterday the male teachers went out to mark the field for the track. We don't have an awesome rubber or gravel track like all those high schools back home, we have to improvise.

So I showed up about 4:30 and there's two big oil drums sitting on the field. I don't think anything of it, these barrels are all over the place here. I'm just hanging out, there's some kids there playing cricket and soccer, some are just standing around and so I do the same. The other teachers show up and we get started.

First, we opened the first barrel of oil. It was pressurized so it hilariously shot out into the face of the teacher that was opening it. After recovering from the hilarity we poured the oil into a bucket and from that into two watering cans. Then, we marked the field with stakes and several, long, AVI (red, yellow, and white, cords that had been tied together. Finally, we started pouring the oil directly onto the field creating lines for the track.

I took on the role of watering can fill up person. I filled the bucket and took it out to the guys with the watering cans when they were empty so they could continue marking the field. We worked until about 7:30 at night and left it about half way done. Today, we have to finish the track and do the discus and shot put areas so there's a lot of oil left to pour on the field. It's okay though, we're going to take school off this morning and finish it up.

Now, how did I feel during all of this? Well, it's kind of the exact opposite of everything I've ever learned about the environment. I asked where the oil came from and the teachers told me it was used motor oil that was going...somewhere. I can't imagine they have a responsible way of disposing of it since so I figured it must have been headed for the ocean. So I spent about 3 hours yesterday pouring used motor oil into a field. If you had told me 16 months ago that I'd be doing that, I'm not sure what I'd say. Overall though, I enjoyed it, it was a good experience and helped my get integrated into the community which is generally not a bad thing.

One other thing, after they told me where the oil came from they told me a funny anecdote from the last year. Apparently, last year, they didn't think they needed to lock up two barrels of used motor oil so they just left it on the field. They showed up the next morning and someone had stolen the oil! And, whoever stole it, had refilled the barrels with water. As far as they figure, someone took it to lube up their chainsaw which makes sense since Kwakwani is a major logging town.

Well, that's all for now. Take it easy everyone. If you want to see a picture of this story you can see it on my Instagram profile, it's tdaniel541 so look me up there.