Students walking to an early morning class at Zamorano.

This premier agricultural university teaches students from Latin America and the Caribbean sustainable growing techniques for their countries.
Texas Water Mission has been staying at Zamorano’s Kellogg Conference Center for many years, and we arrived here again late Monday afternoon. I brought with me three board members and two volunteers.

Monday morning we flew from Houston to Palmerola Airport west of Tegucigalpa and, after lunch, made the three hour drive to Zamorano. Tuesday morning we were up early to head back to Tegucigalpa for a meeting with USAID.

Downtown Tegucigalpa near the U.S. Embassy, on our way to visit USAID

Texas Water Mission team signing in at the united states agency for international development (USAID) in downtown tegucigalpa

No phones were allowed inside where we met with Honduran and American staff working in environmental protection and economic development.

Thanks to Texas Water Mission board member and former ambassador to Honduras we had our first meeting with USAID in Tegucigalpa. It was wonderful to meet in person after a video call a few months back. We had a broad conversation touching on the connections between water, climate change, health, and economic development. A couple TWM board members in San Antonio, including Ambassador Creagan, were able to join by video chat. We found areas of common interest and potential collaboration and left with a list of follow up items on both sides. We were particularly excited to learn about the “Red Humanitaria,” a collaborative of NGOs developing guidelines and synergies for the aid work they conduct in Honduras. TWM hopes to join this important group.

Hotel Honduras Maya, a little oasis where we had lunch

After lunch we headed to our second meeting of the day at the Santa Maria iglesia and school where the Episcopal Bishop has his Tegucigalpa office.

Volunteer Roxana Menes, Rev. Karla Reyes-Guillen and TWM board member Jay Buzzini at Santa Maria Episcopal School in Tegucigalpa

Rev. Victor Velasquez of Manos de Dios in Danli and Revs. Karla Reyes-Guillen and Connie Sanchez of Tegucigalpa met with our group to discuss the status of our well projects and how we might collaborate to find those communities able and willing to work with us to ensure the greatest success. Father Victor brought four more well requests with him to give to TWM, and it was agreed that the regional heads of the Episcopal Church, which include Revs Velasquez and Reyes-Guillen, can work within their region to select those who will benefit them most fromTWM funded water wells and health and hygiene education.

Jesus on a Tegucigalpa hillside under skies grey with the smoke of burning trash and trees.

After our second meeting in the big city we returned to Zamorano to rest, eat and reflect…