Joseph, Carlos, Guillermo and I traveled to the two selected neighborhoods we will work with in the city of La Ceiba, Armenia Bonito and Bonitillo. While in Tegucigalpa, we stayed in the heart of the city and didn’t venture out into any residential areas, so I witnessed quite a contrast in scenery today.

We drove into Armenia Bonito on an unpaved gravel road that still had intermittent, deep pools of water from yesterday’s storm. During the rainy season (May-November), flooding is an imminent problem because there is not a water drainage system in place. Pairing that with a nonexistent organized trash collection also creates a larger sanitation issue. Through the Honduras Pilot Partnership, we plan to pave the main road, build a playground on higher surface to avoid flooding, and contribute 6 large garbage bins to assist with trash collection.

Armenia Bonito suffers from gang related violence as well, and many residents are fearful to leave their homes at night. Young people in the community will go door-to-door demanding that their neighbors pay a “war tax”, claiming they will receive protection from neighboring gangs in return. Families are so afraid of the crimes committed that they flee, and many of the homes in Armenia Bonito are now vacant. To alleviate some of their fear, we will create a park completely surrounded by street lights (which are also rare), so that residents will feel more secure at night.

It was encouraging to see that the community members we met were eager to participate and help with these projects. One of our objectives is to allow Hondurans to take ownership of the community projects, and the Armenia Bonito residents plan to help with construction, buy materials, and contribute funds by raising money through barbecues and other activities.

In comparison, flooding is one of the main concerns in Bonitillo too, and residents also pile their trash high on the side of the road. However, this community only has access to water through water pumps. They do not have faucets in their homes or public buildings, and less than half of the population (about 585 people) even has electricity.

The primary school we visited in Bonitillo is a rudimentary building with just three classrooms, but in the next few months we will build functional bathrooms, a playground, and a fence to protect the children from gang related violence. The Honduras Pilot Partnership will also allow us to contribute several garbage bins and teach residents how to separate their trash. To help with flooding, we will pave the main road and construct a water drainage system for the school.

Although I’m used to writing news articles about ICMA’s international programs for our website, this is my first time traveling to the field and meeting the people who are affected by our programs. Even though I don’t understand every word of Spanish the Hondurans speak, it makes such a difference to see and talk with individuals whose lives, we hope, will change for the better.

Water pump in Bonitillo.