Yangtze River Headwaters Volunteering Day 22 长江源志愿工作第22天

This is a series of journals recording my days in the Yangtze River Headwaters volunteering project. I will try to update every day but there might be delays in the days I work in the wild without the internet. I’m also trying to write bilingual if time allows. Like it? Follow my Instagram (@anar.chica.yichenguo) for updates!
这是我参与长江源志愿工作的一系列记录。我争取每日更新，但在野外工作没有网络的那些日子会有延迟。在时间允许的情况下，也会尽量使用中英双语。喜欢的话，关注我的Ins账号(@anar.chica.yichenguo)获取更新吧！

The only responsibility I’m assigned today is to cook. Haven’t been cooking for a long time, I eventually managed to prepare breakfast for over twenty people and lunch for ten people with the help of fellow volunteers. Due to the lack of ingredients, I couldn’t carry out my plan of dark cuisine (eg. put banana and cheese inside bagels) but instead made a very normal family dish. Later I helped the donors from Chongqing who are staying here temporarily to prepare dinner. I spent the rest of the time in the post office and got familiar with the operations in the post office. My hands were shaking after making numerous chops for the tourists’ postcards. In the evening the truck of EMS currier came to bring all the packages in the past week. This little town so small that you can see with one glance has over a hundred packages for one week just in this post office. 

Logically, people should be encouraged to buy things in actual shops since internet shopping is causing so many wastes (cardboard and the goods’ packages, etc. no matter how high the recycling rate is, there are lots of waste. And net shopping itself can more easily stimulate irrational consuming). However, the sellers are more and more tend to operate with lighter assets. The big shutdown of coronavirus has increased the sellers (especially small scale ones)’ fears to heavy assets. And therefore the paradox. In comparison, the ’stands economy’ is quite low in carbon footprint. But many of them sell after buying the goods online in advance, which means the waste already happens in an earlier stage. All things considered, the traditional markets are the best. The sellers are selling goods they made by themselves, vegetables they grow by themselves, meat they breed by themselves, etc. The most real goods are exposed in front of the consumers directly and without unnecessary packaging. Therefore if it is possible to buy living necessities in local markets, try not to buy online. It is one simple thing you’re able to do to help a little bit to protect the environment. 

今天唯一被安排的工作就是做饭。久不进厨房的我在小伙伴们的帮助下做了二十几人的早餐和十个人的午餐。由于原料不支持的关系，并没有成功地实施黑暗料理计划（比如面包里夹香蕉和奶酪），而是做了再正常不过的家常菜。晚上给临时住在这里的重庆来的赞助方帮厨。其余时间都在邮局，熟悉了不少邮局的业务，给游客们的明信片盖戳盖到手抖。傍晚邮政的大车过来，带来了一周的快递。小小的一眼望到头的唐镇在长江一号邮局一周有一百多件快递。

想想网购造成这么多的包装浪费（纸箱、商品本身的包装等。回收率再高也还是有很多浪费。并且网购本身也容易造成冲动消费），按理应该鼓励人们去实体店买东西。可偏偏卖东西的人又愈发倾向于轻资产运营，新冠的大停摆更是增加了商人们（尤其是小商贩）对重资产的恐惧心理。这就很矛盾了。相比之下地摊经济其实真的是挺低碳的，但很大一部分也是通过先网购进货再摆摊，相当于浪费在前端了。想了一圈还是最传统的市集好。卖的都是自产的商品自己的艺，自种的蔬菜自养的鸡。最真实的物什赤裸裸地展现在消费者面前，童叟无欺，也没有花里胡哨的包装。所以生活上需要的东西能在本地的市场上买到就尽量不要去网购。也算是为环保尽一点力所能及的绵薄之力。