This afternoon, I attended an outdoor, public meeting in the colonia. I'm really glad I was able to attend.
Enrique announced a few changes during the meeting. First, people will no longer be given unlimited water for a single flat free. Instead, they will be charged according to how many barrels they use. Thus, the first 7 barrels will cost 150 Lempiras, 8-14 barrels will cost 300L, and so on. The other change the water committee will be making is the formation of a community watch program. Fifteen people were identified by the water committee based on the recommendations of members of the water committee, and during the meeting, these people were publicly asked to be representatives - only a few declined. These people will be responsible for reporting abuses of the water system. Hopefully, this will work. Members of the water committee, themselves, find it difficult to crack down on abusers of the water system. I wonder if residents will truly want to turn one another in or if it might spark tension. I am also curious about why they decided to do it in this way rather than charging a straight-forward per barrel fee. Regardless, I think this is a better solution to the problem of water waste than just promoting frugal use. One of the problems I am noting is that people who speak about the colonia and its residents often fail to attribute logic to the behavior of the residents. Logic is relative and dependent on the conditions in which one finds oneself. Thus, if the system makes access to water limitless, people will treat it as such. Irma made the interesting point that mainlanders have greater access to water on the mainland, and are not accustomed, as are old time locals, to having to conserve water.
At the end of the meeting, I got the opportunity to talk to Mr. Mejia, Elias Mejia's father. He informed me that Mike and Carrie Tichi, missionaries who are living long-term (a year, I believe) in Roatan have organized a recycling program similar to what McWane, Josh, and I had discussed just prior to our departure. Young people in the community collect plastic soda bottles which are later filled with dirt and used as filler in the construction of concrete walls. They will use this method, he said, to build an addition to the Mazapan school. I'd like to contact Mr. Mejia to recruit a few more students and to learn more about the recycling program. I also got the phone number for Alberto Laines, who agreed to meet with me on Friday.
Hopefully, I will be meeting with Tom Tomczyk of the Bay Islands Voice tomorrow. We spoke today by phone, and he informed me that he will be in the area. I'd like to find out if there are ways that I might be able to coordinate my efforts with the photovoice project with what the Guaruma project will be doing on the island.
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