Community Cleanup

A few weekends ago there was a community cleanup organized in our neighbourhood.  We were surprised to hear of it, but excited as it demonstrated a hope for the future.  With the recent unrest in the country the general look of the streets has deteriorated.  The hills of trash on the streets have been broaching mountain status and graffiti covers most every wall (the girls' nursery school wall was painted over three times this week alone!).  To me the clean up represented a new pride in the community and the country as a whole.  So, we joined along with some of our friends and the small group of dedicated community beautifiers , brushing the dusty streets and sharing in the hope of days to come.

Here we are getting ready for the big clean.

Part of the clean up involved painting the sidewalk black and white.

The organizers handed our girls buckets of oil based paint.  Not exactly washable.  Afterwards they handed us buckets of gasoline to clean up the kids!

A majority of the clean up seemed to consist of sweeping large piles of dust from one side of the street to the other although they also removed a tonne of garbage and debris.

The girls were super excited to help in any capacity possible.

They were equally excited to watch and cheerlead everyone on.

Our friends' apartment building nearby  has a bit of an outside area so #3 tried out a bike for the first time.