The guy who picks up the rubbish in An Thuong quarter

Mỗi chiều, Andrew J. Smith (37 tuổi, quốc tịch Mỹ) dành khoảng 1 tiếng đồng hồ để nhặt rác quanh khu An Thượng (phường Mỹ An, quận Ngũ Hành Sơn, Đà Nẵng). Bằng hành động nhỏ của mình, Andrew muốn góp sức giữ hình ảnh Đà Nẵng sạch đẹp trong mắt du khách, lan tỏa thông điệp chung tay bảo vệ môi trường.

What"s the aim of rubbish collecting?

For over a month, there is a western guy with gloves and full of plastic bags in his pockets walks around An Thuong quarter has become familiar with the people here. Hearing the conversation between us, the fifty-two-year-old man, Tra Quang Phi said: "He did since the last month". The man then reported more: "Since he was in charge of the building project, every afternoon he came to pick the rubbish in this area. From the beginning, we all wondered: "Why such a western guy came to pick up the garbage?" Later we came to know that he didn"t just pick up the bottles for recycling but collect all the trash for making clean the quarter. Every day he takes away three or four bags.

Andrew said, his first time to Vietnam was in April 2017. I"ve visited Da Nang and really impressed by the beautiful site and friendly people here. Because of this, I"ve come back again and plan to stay longer. In Da Nang, Andrew chooses An Thuong for residing. He rented a house and shared with his girlfriend. From then, a picking-up-garbage guy came to appear.

"This area is full of hotels and restaurants and the garbage time by time increase. People even make the empty sites with full of trash. There are many foreigners here and I don"t want them seeing Da Nang as an ugly city. That"s why I came to collect everything here". He said.

Regularly every day, when the solar heating reduced, normally from 4-5 pm, I prepare gloves and plastic bags for my job. I spent 1 hour for collecting 3 or 4 bags daily. The litter will be moved to Do Ba Street after that. His girlfriend also helps sometimes when she"s free from her English teaching.

 

Do your part to protect the environment

From the beginning, people all sent him a surprise and curious look. He said: "Many people take a slow drive to stare at him as a question "What"s this guy doing?". Time to time people came to talk and they pretty understood him. They praised and sent many thumbs up to him. Besides the native people, there are also many foreigners share their approval as an energy source for him to keep up his job.

Andrew wanna share the message of doing one"s part to protect and keep clean the community environment in this quarter. "I"m not sure if they come to share this work with me after seeing my deed. And in reality, no one did such (he laughs)". However, he really hopes people will heighten public awareness of environmental problems: empty out the garbage on time and in the right site.

 

Giang Thanh