Team Honduras 2001

Memorable Quotes

Jason Watters

This class was my first real experience in a foreign culture.  While in Honduras, I tried to do whatever I could to get involved: the language, the customs, the sports, the food, overall it was a good experience.  Living two weeks in a foreign country provided me an opportunity to see first hand the business, the social environment, and the political system.

Jason Hughes

I cannot even begin to explain how important this trip was to me or how much it affected my life.  This trip is one that I will never forget and will forever change my lifestyle and attitudes I once possessed.

I think that there are many things that I learned from this trip to carry onto my business future.  I think that the overwhelming and most critical point that I must apply and keep with me is that one must be adaptable.  The United States is a totally different world than other countries.  We have different business practices.  different customs, and a different social structure.  Traveling to Honduras clarified this point clearly.

Keven Simmer

The people of Las Mercedes will have a place in my heart forever.  They taught me many lessons that will stay with me for the duration of my life.  They showed me the most important thing is life is not what you have but who you are as a person.

No book or professor has ever taught me so much as this experience.

Chad Richmond

By being able to learn how business is conducted first hand and many interesting facts about Honduras's economy was very beneficial.  people can read a large amount of facts in textbooks, but never really understand anything about the economy unless they are there to experience it first hand.  Before I went to Honduras, I know how dependent on bananas and coffee they were, but I had no idea how important clothing factories were for them.  I also never really knew how business was for local retailers until were able to interact with them..  It was definitely a positive experience that will not soon be forgotten.

Stephanie Bauer

During our stay in the community, I was astonished by the eagerness to learn that the people possess. I believe that we in the United States take our free public education for granted. The people in Las Mercedes were so hungry for knowledge that would consume any reading material they could get their hands on, including the newspaper pieces that were once part of a piñata.  It was truly amazing to see so many intelligent people striving for more knowledge.

Jacque Harris

Through this experience I feel that I have gained a great appreciation for different cultures.  I would like to learn how to speak Spanish so I can communicate better with others.

The most important thing I learned from this trip is how lucky we are to have the freedom we have.  We can say just about anything we want and get away with it.  I had no idea that people would be killed just for expressing their views on human rights.  I am glad there are organizations [in Honduras] trying to do something about it.

Stephenie Jennerman

The adventure is over but it hasn't ended yet.  We have all grown in who we are, and that will carry over into the rest of our lives.  We are no longer strangers; friendships have been created and memories can be shared.  There still my be things we don't understand, but the experience alone allows us a better understanding in the future.

Megan Evans

This experience honestly has changed my life.  I'm sure in ways I haven't even realized yet.  Not just the culture and the people of Honduras, but even meeting our own team.  The greatest part was being able to meet and befriend fourteen other people. I didn't know any of the other members before I signed up for this class, but now I know them better than I know some of my closest friends.  Honduras is in my heart, and I will always treasure the memories that we all made there.

Janet Ramirez

Overall, I feel this experience has given me the opportunity to know that I could do more with all the talents that I have inside of me to keep on helping people. 

This experience really helped me to see the world in a different way by letting me know that we can come together as a family and help each other out in order to make this world a healthy and peaceful one.

Lori Naig

Honduras was an unforgettable experience.  Going to another country, seeing different ways of life, and joining that culture as your own for a weeks gives you a different perspective on life.  One can learn more in two weeks about business, politics, and life in general than he or she could from any class in the States.  I would do all of it again with the very same people and always be able to say that I am proud to be part of the first University of Northern Iowa's Team Honduras.

Carrie Scheer

This is a great experience and I will tell others to do it next year if they can.  It is something everyone should experience.  There aren't very many books or news reports on Honduras.  Most people don't know what is going on there.  I know I didn't know anything until I decided to go on this trip.  A lot of my friends thought was crazy but I think I was just willing to try something different and I made the right decision to do it.

I am curious to see what will happen to Honduras and plan on following what is going on there.

Paul Wittkowski

The speaker that I took the most interest in was Fidel Barahona, owner of a hotel named Hotel MacArthur.  What was interesting to me was his openness and willingness to discuss the negatives of his country.  Here is a man who could make a fairly decent fortune in the US if he ever decided to move there.  However he loves his country, through thick and thin, and will stay forever to help out his people in any way he can.  It is impossible not to admire this man's integrity and his determination to make his nation more successful.

Libby Kappmeyer

Our trip to Honduras was phenomenal.  I wish that I were still there.  Since I am not a business student I don't know if I got as much out of it from a business perspective, but I definitely got a lot out of it from a human perspective.  I did understand that having a corrupt government will slow business investment thereby by keeping Honduras in the "developing" category for a very long time.

I think that everyone who went on the trip got a little something different out of it.  The most important thing I got out of it, though, was new friends, both Hondurenos and Norteamericanos.

Janeen O'Rourke

Not only did I observe the impact business has and the effects globalization have on the Honduran economy and on Honduran people's lives, but Honduras and its inhabitants also presented to me a portrait of obstacles to dreams, discouragement and hope, and the suppression of visions to a better future.  The impact globalization has had on Honduras is a positive and remote one in my mind.  It is very complicated.....

We worked with the Lencas.  And the more we worked with them and lived like them, the more we came to understand them.