MOSAICS IN HONDURAS by Simon Cocking

In Dublin, community arts projects often require a great deal of pragmatism and flexibility. You work with challenging groups in challenging situations. After three years of working on such projects it was time to get out and have a break. I decided to visit Central America to recharge my batteries. I booked my ticket and counted the weeks till I left.

Then Hurricane Mitch hit, the worst most devastating Hurricane in the region this century. Reports were alarming about how many had died or lost their homes. Needless to say my mother was horrified about the idea of me going. Privately I was a little concerned too, but finally decided that things are not usually as bad as the media makes them out to be. Nevertheless, I was still a little apprehensive as I boarded my flight to Honduras. Landing in the country’s second largest city, San Pedro Sula, the damage was apparent - a high tide mud mark still remained in the departure terminal and much of the airport was without electricity. The last letter my mother had sent me included the Foreign Office’s statement regarding Honduras, ‘hijackings, robberies, general disintegration of law and order as to be expected in a country so badly hit by a hurricane, we strongly advise all citizens not to visit this country.’

I used the back of the Foreign Office statement to write back to her reassuring her everything would be fine. Leaving the airport I took a bus to La Ceiba, the northern port and launching pad for the Bay Islands, and Utila in particular, my intended destination. Unable to get any accurate information whilst in Ireland, only in La Ceiba did I discover that Utila had only been marginally hit by the Hurricane. Still unsure what to do, I flew to the island in a small wobbly 10 seater from which you could see the hurricane’s effect on the island, the realigned beaches and fallen trees. People, however, had quickly got on with life, cleaning up the damage and replanting what had been destroyed. As luck would have it too it was the birthday of one of the diving school owners and everyone who was anyone was at the party.

Sipping my rum and recovering from 2 days travelling, I wondered whether to work on the relief effort, or do something that utilised my own experience as a community arts worker. The local school principal, from one of the island’s 2 schools (pop. 2000) , town Mayor, Utila Times journalist, and environmental education worker were all enthusiastic about a community arts project. Producing colour photocopies of mosaic projects I had facilitated in my time with City Artsquad reinforced the idea. In Dublin all the mosaics created used materials recycled from local junk and the idea was to do the same there.

The plan was to run a pilot mosaic project first with a small number of interested adults. They would be taught the techniques of mosaic design, preparation of the materials, and installation. This also gave me the chance to see what properties the local cement had, its drying time, how much, if any, sand should be added.

Work began and soon every local had their own opinion on how it should be done. Using local found materials, broken beer bottle fragments, bottle tops, crockery, coconut shell pieces, bathroom tiles and even a few things washed up after Mitch. The first mosaic appropriately enough was fro ‘Flying Horses Ecotours’, a new small business promoting a sustainable alternative to the local practice of using the swamps and jungle to hunt already dwindling iguana stocks. By making this first mosaic local adults learnt a new skill and there was also now a local example for the school children.

Next I visited the school, and explained what a mosaic was and how we were going to make one, using their designs and materials. Each child went home and searched their yard or beach front to find similar materials to those used for the first mosaic. The response was great and the next day yielded an impressive quantity of tiles, cups, plates, and ‘pirate bottles’ - small green and blue glass bottles. From here things continued in a similar way to a Dublin based community arts project. Weather affected the project, at 8 a.m it was too hot to work, and a couple of days were lost to rain. An hour was also about the length of the children’s attention but, with some preparation beforehand, a lot could be done. And, like Dublin, at the end they were shocked and delighted with their efforts. The project was a great success.

One thing I had to change was my urge to get it all done in one session. Participants always have other things on their minds as well as the project you’re working on with them. After a few days I adapted and understood things may not get done quickly, but they still get done and everyone is happy with the results.

Every time you work with others the final outcome is the result of a coalition of inputs, energies and ideas on the way things should be done. The mosaics were a great way to make an exchange, a link between my sponsoring organisation, City Artsquad who kindly allowed me the time to go to Honduras, the local community groups who now have their first ever mosaics on Utila, and me, the artist ,who learnt and saw so many things from the local people, including that my name in Utilan meant yes, man, no problem, chill out!