TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A foreign good samaritan who cleaned up trash in a neighborhood in Changhua has come forward after he was praised by locals and Taiwanese media for his good deed.
On Saturday (Feb. 15), residents of Changhua's Yangping Borough spotted a foreign national picking up copious amounts of trash around the cemetery next to Tapu drainage ditch, reported CNA. The man soon filled half a dozen garbage bags with the refuse he had collected.
Yanping Borough Chief Chen Wen-chia (陳雯嘉) told the news agency that the ditch is an important flood-prevention facility and the roads on either side serve as a shortcut to the city. Chen said that when people drive cars or ride scooters, they often toss litter into the ditch.
Chen said that a local resident spotted the man cleaning up the area and alerted her about his exploits. Chen rushed to the scene and found that the trash had all been cleaned up and placed in six black plastic bags.
She said she tried to communicate with him but found that the language barrier was too great. She could only gather that she believed the man had said he came from "England."
Chen said that she wanted to find out his identity so she could thank him, but he soon left and she was unable to track him down. She then asked a member of the borough's cleanup crew who had taken a photo of him to post it on Facebook with the hope that he would notice it and contact them.
Adam Williams, who actually hails from New Brunswick, Canada, says he saw the CNA news report about his feat and notified the news agency that he was the good samaritan in question. The 32-year-old English teacher said that he had spotted the debris during the Lunar New Year holiday.
Williams told CNA, "It didn't seem right that a place like that should be full of trash, so I decided to go back and clean up some of it on my next free Saturday, which was the 15th." Williams said that he has been teaching English at a cram school in Changhua for almost three years.
Williams, who said that he greatly enjoys living in Taiwan, wrote that "The people are friendly and you can always find something interesting on the side streets."
