spic-and-span is the plan

"There are no random acts.  We are all connected.  You can no more separate life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind." -- Mitch Albom

this concept of connectivity is everywhere: the news, chaos theory, systems, six degrees of separation, serendipity, etc., and it has never been felt more strongly than in the place we call home.

so, the trash that we throw away carelessly (even that little piece of candy wrapper, yes) might one day come knock, knock, knocking on our door.  it is with this ethos that i am passionate to do my little bit in making our world a better place to live in.

this is my second year in volunteering for the CUTW movement and i have made a lot of friends (while picking up litter, of course) who share my passion and views about our beautiful, magnificent, powerful Mother Earth.  you can read my past post here and below are some of the pics i took.

i love this pic because this shows cleaning up the world is a lot like falling in love: it transcends everything; be it race, religion, political affiliation, etc.

there are soooo many historically important landmarks in Gib especially up the Rock that the Gibraltar Heritage Trust is protecting and preserving.  they do a wonderful job of taking care of what Gib is really all about.

i especially love this stall!  moms are taking action!  when you have kids, you know that they outgrow their clothes as fast as you can say "jump".  well, these moms help one another not just by saving a ton of money but also helping other moms find much needed uniforms.  aren't they great?

on our way up the Rock, we passed by lovely little patios and stairways like the one above

part of the reason why i love volunteering is the free historical tour that i get from historian Tommy (our team leader) who writes a daily column in the local paper about random bits of Gibraltar history.  this wall pre-dates the British invasion and could possibly be 14th or 15th century!  how did Tommy know this?  because of the type of pink limestone used in constructing this wall! 

at last we arrived at our assigned place.  THE TUNNELS!  the gates have been vandalized and people have made this tunnel a dump :(  it was pitch black inside so we had to use our flashlights/torches to see that the structures such as officers barracks and weapons rooms are all intact!  these are of historical significance!

 at long last we are done!

one of the volunteers found this frame :)  i would have wanted it for myself but he beat me to it :)  but i am glad because he said he is turning it into art!

one of the saddest things last year was there were zero locals who volunteered :( but this year LOOK!  majority of them are locals! i was sooooo happy to see their happy faces and the fact that they were all so concerned about the Rock.  i think i was the only foreigner and another was a Slovak guy who was just here for a couple of weeks.  

after a tiring 3 hours of cleaning, we got free lunch!  there were more goodies inside (an apple, a banana and two chocolate fingers) but i was too tired to take them out :D  thanks to the people who also organized the Urban Picnic!

i think Gibraltar is finally waking up and i think there is a silent revolution happening! i am soo excited to see the people of Gibraltar finally keeping up with the world :)