Document ActionsAMIGOS Notable Alumni - June 2009
Q&A with Bill and Carolina
AMIGOS: Tell us about your family
AMIGOS: How did your involvement in AMIGOS impact your life?Bill: After AMIGOS, I changed my major to Latin American studies, finished college and joined the Peace Corps in Paraguay. After the Peace Corps, I stayed on in country helping run a ranch in the Chaco (Puerto Guarani) for two more years. I returned to graduate school, then went back to the expatriate work and life, spending the next 18 years traveling and teaching in 63 countries. I married at 38 and when the kids got too big to drag around, I settled them in Friendswood, Texas. But we continue to travel south of the border AMIGOS: Bill, how did your AMIGOS experience influence your decision to encourage Carolina to become an AMIGOS Volunteer?Bill: I don't think she had much of a choice. She has known about it since she could listen to my stories, and now she loves those things about it that I do. AMIGOS:What was your AMIGOS experience like, and what did you learn from your participation?Bill: In the winter of 1972, Managua, Nicaragua suffered a massive earthquake, and a good portion of the city was destroyed. The desalojados were sent to live in the hills, given land and not much else. In the summer of 1973 we were an AMIGOS medical team comprised of a young (freshly graduated) female physician, a retiring septuagenarian dentist, a 19 year old college student from Akron, Ohio (Rick Rogers) and myself. Our task was to visit these folks who were now isolated by the rains, treat them for minor malaises, look at their teeth and innoculate them for DPT and measles. We had two mules for the equipment and medicos and slogged through a lot of mud. Arriving at a farm house, we would set up the dentist on the porch, the doctor at the far end of the room assigned us, behind a hung blanket, and we two in the front receiving, interviewing and innoculating. They would be waiting for us a hundred at a time long before we arrived. I was the bilingual, so I managed most things. We did not have a day off the whole time we were there and loved every minute of it. I cannot remember having indoor bathrooms or showers the entire time, and grew a moustache, which I have to this day. The last I saw of doc she was going to Africa to do something good. Later, in the Peace Corps, I was far ahead of other volunteers in my self-confidence and leadership and was given projects that would not otherwise have been possible in the short time we had.
Carolina: It truly was above and beyond anything I could have expected. I had a wonderful partner, Emma, and an incredible community and host family. The whole community was just so involved that they made it so easy and enjoyable for my partner and me to teach lessons and build and help out. I learned that if two 16 year old girls isolated from their known culture and family can make such a huge impact, then there are absolutely no boundaries as to what I can do to help people worldwide in the future. It also really taught me how to be self-reliant and deal with people and situations that may be stressful and difficult. AMIGOS:What is your favorite AMIGOS memory?
AMIGOS: In what ways did your AMIGOS experience influence your pursuits?Bill: I went back to South America after college, and then again after graduate school. I and my partners started collecting prescription data in Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela in 1986 and selling it to the pharmaceutical industry in those countries. Later, in 1990 we expanded into PDA multi-lingual software for pharmaceutical sales forces in 63 different countries. Today, I have a restaurant, Chabuca's, in Webster, Texas Carolina: It really made me realize how incredible it felt to leave a community with something solid, something that would be useful for a very long time, and so I became even more enthused and certain that I wanted to be an engineer. Combining my passions of math and science and applying them to my passion of community service, engineering became to me the perfect opportunity to really make a difference. So now I am dedicated to pursuing a career in engineering, and using it to make an impact on the world.
AMIGOS: Are you passionate about Latin American affairs or the Spanish language?Carolina: Yes, I am very passionate about both as I have a very strong Hispanic Heritage and am constantly surrounded by the Spanish language. I also am very involved with community service and hope to further expand my involvement in Latin America and the rest of the world as I get older. Bill: I am a blond headed, blue-eyed Hispanic. Cien por ciento baby!
If you are 1973 Volunteer who would like to re-connect with Bill, click here.
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“I think AMIGOS was the rudder that got me through what can be very rough water in my teenage years by giving me a focus, a challenge, a goal, companionship, friendship and distinction.” –Randall Berger, Freelance Writer |
Bill: I am 57, of Peruvian and East Texas heritage, married to a young woman from Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico and the father of two girls and a boy. We are all bilingual, my children forced to speak the language or starve. My wife and I met in Mexico City (she is a dentist) and lived for some years in Venezuela, where Carolina and Tyler were born (Sarah was born in Texas).
Bill: When the trip was nearly over, at one of the villages where we had stayed a couple of days because of the quantity of people, when we were saying good-bye, I was presented with a cured anaconda skin as a thank you. I have it to this day, still get choked up.
