Wednesday, September 28, 2011

A Greener Life

When I began my internship at Heifer International I didn't really know that part of the mission was to care for the Earth. Some of the things I have seen in Spain so far definately have me living up to that more than in the United States.

The first part is electricity in hotels. I was somewhat familiar with the concept from my previous trip to Spain. Here, at many hotels, in order to have any electricity you must insert your key (a plastic card) into a switch on the wall. This interupts a sensor and allows the power to flow. And then each light/socket is also on a switch. When you leave your room, you take your key with you and therefore there is no leaving the lights on (unless you insert something else heavy enough to interupt the sensor). I guess it was for this reason they don't even have clocks in the rooms.

Another thing is laundry. The washing machine doesn't fill up with soapy water. Instead the soap enters gradually and the machine cycles. It rotates to the right and adds a little water, then rotates to the left and adds a little water. The soap is gradually mixed. It stops in between directions for a few moments to let the clothes soak. So it seems there is a lot less water involved.

Then when you take the clothes out, there is no drier. The drier are lines strung between the walls of the building. So there comes more energy saving. Only problem for me is that when I put my dress shirts on the line and pulled to make space for another shirt, the first one wrinkled up. I will have to figure out how to overcome this obstacle because I don't iron... For now my solution is hangers in the closet seperated from the dry clothes-- its not like they are dripping wet.

There are still many things I am having to adjust to, even in some of the simplest every-day, common activities. I don't even know how to send a postcard or mail without going to el correo (post office), handing them the mail and paying whatever amount. I need to ask my roomate about some of these things I guess.

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