A Research Project in Roatan, Honduras

Roatan is the largest of the Bay Islands, located 35 miles north of mainland Honduras. The island is approximately 3 miles wide and 30 miles long with a resident population of 65,000. The local economy is dominated by tourism- the tropical setting with resorts, beaches, and reef diving are the primary attractions. Visitation has increased substantially- from 15,000 in 1990, to 700,000 in 2010, and 1 million plus expected in 2011. Visitors arrive by airline, ferries from the mainland, or cruise ships that make frequent stops at the two docks recently constructed for them.

Colonia Policarpo is the largest of four colonias clustered in a relatively new settlement that lies on a steep hillside on the northwest side of the island near Sandy Bay. Most of the colonia residents have migrated from mainland Honduras seeking service and construction jobs in the tourism industry. Policarpo has approximately 520 households and 3,000 residents, half under age 16. Prior to 2006, most colonia residents obtained their drinking water from rainwater catchment or shallow hand dugs well subject to pollution. Since that time Living Water 4 Roatan (LW4R), a non-governmental organization, has worked with Policarpo residents to develop a self-sustaining water system that provides treated drinking water to households on a limited basis.

The Global Partnership Project student organization at Northern Arizona University (GPP-NAU) is collaborating with this community, LW4R, and a local health clinic in an effort to improve the quality of life in the colonia. This partnership is considered to be a multi-year endeavor between NAU and Colonia Policarpo. The long term goals for this and future trips include:

- Build relationships in Roatan and within the colonia community.
- Provide for adequate sanitation systems to all residences to reduce the chances of disease outbreaks such as cholera, malaria, and dengue fever.
- Expand and improve the water system, reduce the energy costs for operating it.
- Provide for adequate solid waste collection and erosion control.
- Perform social network mapping and interviewing to gain a better understanding of the community and their needs, particularly for public works improvements.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Mercedes - Day 6 - Tues 6.7.11

This morning at breakfast, Alexander, an employee at Pirate's Den mentioned that he had seen me at Sunday's water committee meeting. Since I'll have easy access to him, he'll be a good person to interview about the community. I don't know why it didn’t occur to me to talk to Phillip's staff. I really need to start interviewing more unaffiliated locals. By the end of this week, I should be done with most of my gatekeeper interviews and will be ready to interview residents - perfect timing since the guys will get here tomorrow.

I finally got to meet with Thomas of the Bay Island's Voice. It looks like we are going to try to coordinate efforts on the Photovoice project! We may need to share the cameras we purchased, depending on how much funding Tom and his partner, Camilla O'Brien, are able to amass. They aren't planning to get their project going until some time around July, so ours would be a bit of a pilot project. Camilla runs a school in Sandy Bay, a few miles from the Pirate's Den, called the Sand Castle Library and Education Center. She has a classroom I could use that has computers, air conditioning, and - get this - a projector. The distance means that we would have to pay to put everyone in a cab or find someone willing to transport the kids (and us) back and forth. Camilla would also like us to help her with the electric bill. At 40 cents per kw/hour, electric rates on this island are out of control. I'm not sure our budget can handle all this. Granted, we have budgeted about $500 for the Photovoice project, but I wanted to use most of that on some sort of implementation project with the kids. At any rate, I can't see us throwing away the opportunity to connect this project to a larger picture and, generally, extend our tentacles (bwahahahaha). We'll have to sit down with our budget and decide how to best allocate these funds; we may also have to barter a bit with Camilla.

An anonymous source that I spoke with today strongly recommended that we consider making any multi-year agreement with the municipality rather than with any of the patronatos, given their history of corruption and manipulation and their lack of cohesion and stabilty. It was also recommended that we keep ourselves open to the possibility of working with other colonias as well. There are a lot of sorely neglected colonias that are much more stable and not tied up in the kinds of legal problems that the Policarpo, Bella Vista, Monte Frisco, and Belfate colonias are. Something to keep in mind. I'm going to try to do a tour of the other colonias in the area on Thursday morning. If nothing else, it will be informative and will give me an overview of the other communities we will be working with if we do move forward with the photovoice collaboration. I think the key is for us to contribute to the colonia in ways that will reward stability and commitment to the community, whether we are talking about individuals or institutions. Clearly, LW4R is one such institution, but perhaps there are ways we can involve individual families, and maybe try to inspire a slowly creeping chain reaction. I want to better understand the history of giving in that community, and I want to better understand the legal issues. I had been under the impression that legal issues in the Colonia had been ironed out - but that doesn't seem to be the case at all, which gives me cause for a little concern.  
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