SOMOS 2010: 10 days and counting

It’s a familiar sight:  6:30 am, we’re ready to roll (well, mostly — note the far right corner), but the bus has not yet arrived.  Island time.  What does that mean?  Is it the nonchalance of a carefree culture with collective disregard for time and orderliness?  Or, is it the consequence of pervasive inadequate infrastructure, the continuous inability to achieve predictable outcomes with persistently inadequate resources?  My experience suggests far more the latter than the former, but there is something about the sheer loveliness of the place that may incline towards a slightly less neurotic view of the world.

We have worked hard this semester to prepare for this year’s trip, poring over data provided by our summer researchers.  Four students spent from two to 10 weeks living and working in the community of Paraiso to provide systematic empirical data describing the health and health care concerns of local citizens and the patterns of interpersonal relationships within the most remote of the subcommunities of Paraiso (Esfuerzo).  We are faced now with our most daunting challenge to date:  How do we build from the systematic empirical data and our growing ethnographic appreciation to catalyze sustainable collective effort to improve health and health care while respecting local wisdom?  How do we encourage first steps and direction without violating individual and community prerogatives, independence, and agency?

We have puzzled about these issues throughout the semester.  At times, we may have been too timid, insufficiently imaginative, or unwilling to be bold in our thought experiments.  At other times, we engaged fully and struggled with the weight of the questions and the possibilities.  We have more work to do before we meet our friends again, but we will be ready.  And it is certain that we will be full aware that good intentions are dangerous things. Watch this space for news from the field.