Schools Made Out Of Trash?

Would you go to a school made of trash? Or live in a house made of trash?

I'd never heard of such craziness until I met a stranger while living in Guatemala.

But hey, I'm all about crazy and unconventional.

And talking to strangers even though my mom said not to.

I asked this guy what he was doing living in Guate.

I never could have guessed his answer even if he gave me 200 guesses.

He told me he was helping to build "bottle schools."

Aka a school made out of plastic bottles filled with trash:

(pics stolen from here because I'm a hoodrat thief now, apparently)

This was one of the coolest unconventional things ever!

Because not only was it weird, creative, and interesting...

...it solved a HUGE problem!

There is a serious lack of schools in certain parts of Guatemala.

If kids can even go, they have to travel for miles.

Uphill both ways, of course.

There isn't really any money to build any.

But building a school out of trash...

...well that's cheap!

AND it solves the huge litter problem that a lot of Latin America suffers from.

Not hating on Latin America, 'cause I love it.

It's a problem in a lot of other countries as well, but I'm not here to call out names.

Anyway, I just love the bottle school concept.

When they're done, they actually surround the bottles with a layer of cement to make the finished wall, so you can't see the trash inside.

Apparently, the trash helps insulate it a bit.

Who knew?

Here's what it looks like in the end:

^^stolen from here

Notice the bottles in the round window?

You can volunteer for 2 weeks with an organization called Hug It Forward to help build a bottle school.

You can also NOT volunteer for 2 weeks to help build a bottle school.

Just letting you know your options.

Have you seen something like this before?

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