“The reward for good work is more work”

We are certainly discovering this in Central America and it is exciting to be a part of it. Jim and Barb Hermanson and Charly and I arrived in San Pedro Sula on Friday, Feb 8. We had a wonderful leadership conference on the following day with 225 freshman students. Beginning on the following Monday Charly and Barb taught 74 high school and middle school teachers. Jim and I traveled to Guatemala on Sunday and taught 644 students and professors at the university in Quetzaltenango on Monday and Tuesday. Chip Paulson, Jem Tu and Steve Sichler joined us in Tegucigalpa, Honduras for a week of teaching at the national university on Feb 16 where we taught 766 students. In summary, in this two weeks, we were able to talk to 1709 students, high school teachers and university professors.

We also had valuable talks with the president and academic director of the university in Guatemala . We are invited to teach a leadership seminar in October to their students. The top of their list of things to do in reforming the university system is the teaching of values, which we plan to do at this conference in October.

In Tegucigalpa we met with the dean of the engineering school and the department heads of Electrical and Industrial/Mechanical Engineering. We have established a good relationship with the professors and the department head of Civil Engineering through the teaching of Chip Paulson, a civil engineer. The dean asked us to present a seminar on values in October for the professors of engineering and a leadership conference for his students. As in Guatemala, on the top of the list for the universities in Honduras is the teaching of ethics and values.

Overall, this was an extremely successful trip and has given us some guidance on what we need to do in October. We have many opportunities and it is clear that not only is our technical knowledge valuable to them, but also the values that we use to guide our lives.

Thanks to all of you that helped make this trip possible. It’s a sacrifice in time and money, and those left at home need to carry on without the presenters’ help. Thank you so much for caring about people much less fortunate than us. Please think about the part you can play in the future, especially for our trip or trips in October. I am waiting for information from our friends in Honduras and Guatemala on the best dates to go, and will get these dates to you as soon as I have them. The dates will be posted on this web site.

John