e of a garden may be my own failure, as I was asked to pursue it and make it happen. I researched potential materials, costs, size, and the staff support surrounding the issue. As for my findings about the cost/size: a small garden with fencing is not too expensive, and would cost less than $50 using locally available materials. But to make a garden that could even remotely offset the cost of the kitchen would be out of my scope of practice, not being a gardener in the slightest, and from what I could speculate would be quite expensive compared with the cost of produce. This also would require a fair amount of labor-hours to run and I didn’t dare suggest another staff member to add to recurring costs knowing it was a touchy subject.
The waste management staff does not use the designated rubber gloves to sort the waste. These gloves must either be inferior in some way or must be regularly unavailable. The sorting staffs seem to greatly prefer sterile surgical gloves instead. At $3-5 a set, sterile gloves boost the cost of the program without even hitting waste management cost radar. All modest efforts to redirect staff members back to using appropriate reusable cleaning gloves have been unsuccessful. Without being able to understand the underlying reason for this behavior, no change can or will be made.
What was Learned Versus What was Gained – The Non-parted Segment:
In a nutshell, I feel as if this whole tale sums up the reality of being in Achham. The plan, the construction, the well-intentioned improvement, all spiralling to a complete and utter standstill as dedicated volunteers leave semi-aborted projects behind and businesses fall through on agreements. This is where I will stop with my own conclusions as I’m often told I should stop one sentence short of a complete thought. Instead, I will add a few more bits of what I believe is speculative fact into this story. As a true believer of the proverb “Don’t believe half of what you see and none of what you hear,” I’ve seen no better waste management system in all of Achham. Although its just bundled up in bales sitting about the building, excess infectious waste isn’t anywhere to be found, nobody is hauling trash down to the river and dumping, the air doesn’t taste of smoldering plastics, ever. Three local community members (actual locals, not transplants), of mixed castes now make a living by bettering their environment. This is what I call public health net gain.