Ambassador Charles Ford

On February 22nd Charles Ford, the US ambassador to Honduras came to Santa Barbara to spend a day learning about the projects going on here. To start off his visit he met with four of the Peace Corps volunteers from Santa Barbara to hear about their projects.
From left: Molly, Aerka, Charles, Allison, Katie

After lunch he went with the Santa Barbara Rotary Club to visit the filter workshop and learn about the Agua Pura project. Then that night he spoke at a dinner with the Santa Barbara Rotary Club, the Minnesota Rotary group, the Peace Corps volunteers in town to translate for the Minnesota group, and Nineth & Allison from Agua Pura. He argued that Honduras is in a position to develop and right now small businesses in particular can take advantage of the US market through CAFTA. He talked about the “American Dream” that so many Hondurans have and suggested that instead of paying a coyote $5,000-$7,000 to get you to the US you invest that money in a small business and strive towards the “Honduran Dream” (In Spanish this is really catchy because it rhythms). He also compared Honduras to some of the Asian Tigers, citing how in the 1960s, Honduras was better off than South Korea and now South Korea is leaps and bounds ahead of Honduras. He used this comparison not to make the Hondurans feel bad, but to give them hope that they have the potential to develop within just one generation as South Korea did. His speech was respectful but did make some strong points that change really has to come from within the country. I asked a few Rotarians what they thought about his comments afterward and they seemed to agree that in the end they really are the ones that need to change to see their country change.