{"id":2778,"date":"2018-01-09T13:29:53","date_gmt":"2018-01-09T18:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/?p=2778"},"modified":"2018-09-19T17:12:27","modified_gmt":"2018-09-19T21:12:27","slug":"volun-tourism-island-enchantment-abandonment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/voices\/volun-tourism-island-enchantment-abandonment\/","title":{"rendered":"Volun-tourism on the Island of Enchantment (Abandonment)"},"content":{"rendered":"

We like to go somewhere warm over the winter break but decided this year that, given the suffering caused by hurricanes, it would have to be where our dollars and time would do some good.\u00a0 Research led us to Vieques, a beautiful island off of Puerto Rico; and an online community bulletin board hosted by island residents linked us to a host who would rent us an apartment and connect us to daily volunteer work.\u00a0 What we found was that Puerto Rico, known as “Isla del Encanto,” or “Island of Enchantment<\/strong>,” could instead be called the \u201cIsland We Abandoned.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Christmas day flight to San Juan was barely half-filled, testament to the collapse of the tourism industry.\u00a0 San Juan International showed little effect of the storm until we passed a destroyed hanger, a skeleton of a building.\u00a0 The flight to Vieques was more revealing \u2013 flying over towns one saw blue-topped home after blue-topped home, the color being the tarps that three months after the storm serve as roofs.\u00a0 The island is verdant, but some destruction of trees was evident, and flying past the wind farm in Ceiba showed tall spindles without a blade.<\/p>\n

Vieques is a magical place, a beach paradise that has escaped rampant development.\u00a0 Horses roam the island unfettered, the beaches are pristine, and the greenery of trees and plants is everywhere.\u00a0 But a taxi ride to where we were staying showed the prevalence of harm caused by hurricane Maria \u2013 power lines down, power poles toppled over, some damage to houses (especially those with wood or sheet metal roofs).<\/p>\n

The power problem is substantial \u2013 an underwater cable brought much of the island\u2019s electricity from Puerto Rice\u2019s main island but apparently was not in working condition.\u00a0 And even if it had been, there were miles and miles of lines to rehang, transformers to repair or replace, and new poles to be installed.\u00a0 We saw no<\/u> work on the electric grid while we were there and were told that months would go by before it was likely that power would be restored.<\/p>\n

We stayed in Esperanza, a beach-front town perhaps 8 by 10 blocks in size.\u00a0 A town now with no electricity.\u00a0 A few stores, restaurants and homes had generators, but otherwise people were completely off the grid.\u00a0 Our hosts gave us solar lanterns to use at night, water bags to heat for showers, a picnic cooler that needed two bags of ice per day to be a refrigerator, and a propane grill for boiling water.\u00a0 We were lucky \u2013 we at least had these resources and the ability to charge our cellphones when the host ran a generator for an hour or two at a time.<\/p>\n

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What does the news report?\u00a0 Restoration of electric power is now hoped to occur in February or March,\u00a0and the new Trump tax bill will require companies operating in Puerto Rico to pay a 12.5 percent tax on profits derived from intellectual property held by \u201cforeign\u201d businesses, a burden projected to cause the loss of thousands of jobs.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

There was also a deal \u2013 the price of the apartment would be reduced by fifty percent in exchange for volunteer work each day.\u00a0 We began before we arrived, purchasing batteries, toys for children, and soaps and shampoo; and finished by leaving almost all of our clothing to be distributed to those in need.\u00a0 But the majority of our volunteer work was in a local \u2018meals-on-wheels\u2019 effort.<\/p>\n

Vieques residents self-organized.\u00a0 They determined who needed food \u2013 because of age, infirmity, or simply because of a loss of employment.\u00a0 There was\/is no work \u2013 shops, restaurants, hotels are closed and businesses can\u2019t keep their employees on the job.\u00a0 And then they (and we) got to work.\u00a0 At a restaurant operating under the auspices of World Central Kitchen (https:\/\/www.worldcentralkitchen.org\/<\/a>) 500 to 700 meals a day were prepared.\u00a0 Out of the kitchen would come trays of meat, rice, vegetables, plantains or more and volunteers would spoon portions into Styrofoam containers.\u00a0 Then drivers would take meals to group or individual homes.<\/p>\n

I packed lunches and made deliveries.\u00a0 I drove each day with Lulu, a transplanted New Yorker, a ceramicist in her 70s.\u00a0 At each house I would approach the gate or fence to ask permission to enter, calling out \u201chola, meriendos.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cMeriendos\u201d is a colloquial term for \u201csnacks\u201d or a light meal.\u00a0 The term was used to explain our presence and give the recipient dignity \u2013 we were sharing snacks, not meals.\u00a0 But the contents were a full meal.\u00a0 Those who received the meals were grateful, engaging, and often happy just to have some human contact.<\/p>\n

There was more to volunteering, including a trip to a small church with an adjacent organic garden.\u00a0 Weeding, watering plants, helping to install a cistern to catch rainwater off of the church roof were the afternoon\u2019s projects.<\/p>\n

Vieques retains its natural beauty: pristine beaches, the nighttime sky filled with stars, the winding roads curving through near-jungle growth and revealing spectacular ocean views.\u00a0 But it is an island left to its own devices with no clear plan or capacity to rebuild and no manifest leadership.\u00a0 Services are ad hoc and intermittent – signs in the local grocery announced mental health services for a two hour period at a local church.<\/p>\n

It will take a civil engineering feat to restore the island to a semblance of on-the-grid life; and whether that will be a \u2018fix\u2019 or a serious plan to hurricane-proof the infrastructure to\u00a0avoid a repeat of this collapse is anyone\u2019s guess.<\/p>\n

At the end of our five days we left Vieques as we came \u2013 by taxi and small propeller plane.\u00a0 Some cleanup of storm debris had occurred, but the downed power lines and poles and the shuttered businesses remained.\u00a0 A roof was being replaced, but with sheet metal \u2013 exactly the material the storm had ripped away so easily.<\/p>\n

What does the news report?\u00a0 Restoration of electric power is now hoped to occur in February or March,\u00a0and the new Trump tax bill will require companies operating in Puerto Rico to pay a 12.5 percent tax on profits derived from intellectual property held by \u201cforeign\u201d businesses, a burden projected to cause the loss of thousands of jobs.<\/p>\n

Would there be such a delay in restoring electricity, or an increased tax, on a hurricane-devastated area in the continental United States where the majority of people did not speak Spanish or have darker-hued skin?\u00a0 I think not.\u00a0 Vieques enchanted us, and we plan to return and to continue giving.\u00a0 But as a people, Vieques is a land we have abandoned.<\/p>\n\n\t