Although finding the means to pay for the trip would mean I needed to find an additional source of income, I felt the extra time it would take would be well spent.  The first lesson I learned from this course was how to responsibly hold a paying job while still successfully performing my studies and extra-curricular activities and volunteerships at the same time.  

   As for an evaluation of the class and my experiences received from it, I feel it was unanimously beneficial for me.  The design of the class had an excellent blend of both culture and the natural resources and forestry of the country.  My expectations of the class were originally composed of learning about the forestry and natural resource issues and how they are managed and utilized in a third world country.  I was excited to learn more about the tropical ecology, and especially to experience it with my own eyes.  But the part of the course that I did not realize had the biggest impact on my education was the integration of a country's specific (and different from my own) culture with the issues concerning Honduran's lives, jobs, and health.  I successfully learned that the road to conserving and protecting the threatened rainforest ecosystem is much more complicated than telling the logging companies to stop cutting the trees.   There are many more factors involved and the main one involves the people who live off the land and rely solely on the products that can be generated from that land. 

     Parks and reserves have been created to preserve and protect the trees, watersheds, and animals, but lines on maps and empty promises from officials can not always enforce the laws that exist in most Central and South American countries.  More importantly, the people of the country need help as well, but laws can not always feed, clothe, and house the poor campesinos, either.  This course taught me that creating new laws as an answer to the resource and economy issues of Honduras and other similar countries are not the answer, unlike it may be in the United States.  PAG, World Neighbors, and other NGOs know the solution to this significant question: education.

    As for the cultural experience, I thoroughly enjoyed and benefited from our time spent at ESNACIFOR.  I put forth more efforts to meeting and talking with Honduran students than I saw my fellow classmates do, which I see as unfortunate.  Having Menelio join our group as we traveled the country was an added bonus.  He acted as a window for us to peer through and learn even more than any North American tour guide could  teach us.  I never realized how fun it was to learn the Spanish language and I was also surprised at how easy it was to pick up.  Through our extended visit to the land of Honduras, I feel I can more successfully understand the Latin American culture.  I have gained my likes and dislikes, but it has helped me to create more likes and also dislikes for my own North American culture.

    During the time I took to write the paper over my chosen topic, I had more realizations about the class and its capability to teach students.  Personally, I could have taken Dr. Kuzmic's words more seriously mainly prior to our trip to Honduras.  There is a considerable amount of handouts from noteworthy literature that give a thorough description of the country and its culture, information on the NGO's, and agroforestry and agricultural practices.  Some of these I read, but not whole-heartedly.  The Neotropical Companion came in very handy for my paper, and it helped me to  read even more from the book.  That is an excellent book in my opinion.  I wish more people could read it.

    My experience from taking the International Forestry and Natural Resources class has taught me many good things.  I always knew it is essential for a well-rounded person to travel outside of their own country and thoroughly experience the differences.  In this way, we are able to see the methods that work and those that do not.  With those lessons in mind, we can apply them to our own lives, if not to our own countries as well.  In meeting many Honduran students, I grew to realize the fact that students are all alike, despite the major cultural difference.  But I grew to appreciate the other countries in how they take their education more seriously than North Americans.  For most, an education is the key to survival, such as the example we saw with campesinos who live off the land and their lives depend on what the soil can provide.  Education is the only answer to protecting and conserving the last of the threatened rain forest ecosystem that is vital to many aspects in every person's life.