A salute to my colleagues in blue

By Joaquina Rodrigez

It was 1984 and I was at the Kemper Building in Chicago, not knowing if I should go back home to Chile. Our office there was closing, as we were reorganizing into Primary Units. ICA-Chile was to be absorbed by ICA- Peru.

Before this, I had spent a year in Chile as an auxiliary. The directors there were George and Keith Packard. George was tremendously energetic and Keith was radiant and trusted by everybody. Mary and Don Hopkins were very active and Kathy Devor, Jim Kelly, Judy Tresise (now Gilles), Helen Hough, Linda Barret and many others also gave life to the project with style, great impulse and their example. Then I left to go to Richgrove. There I met Miriam and Ed Shinn. I spent about two years in the United States, including six months in Chicago, and met a lot of people from the ICA.

There too were Ken Hamje with his force and commitment, and Devorah Golembo and Judith Hamje with their particular styles, good fellowship and always trying to help out others. I saw the three of them again in Los Angeles and in Peru.

At Kemper in 1984, I met my colleague Manuel, with whom I got engaged and he became my husband. I finally ended up in Guatemala where I found Kim ( may he rest in peace), Walter Epley and Inga Bessin ( may she rest in peace). I treasure great memories of their good fellowship. I also met there my Latin colleagues: Angélica Rodríguez, Raúl Jorquera, Ana Mari Urrutia, Eduard Christensen, Isa de la Maza, Isabel Rodríguez, Eliza Chumpitaz, Jesús Aburto, Ernestina López and Mérida Banegas. I keep in permanent contact with all of them, as I do with the children’s teachers and community people.


Joaquina Rodrigez is a member of ICA Guatemala



THE ALERDINGS

Today I want to remember with great appreciation and gratitude my friends Barbara and Bill Alerding (may he rest in peace).

When I arrived in Guatemala, they did so too and stayed there for 9 years. Only special people like them could stay for such a long time, inventing all kinds of programs to reach the people of Guatemala.

During this time they organized a great conference called “New Horizons in Learning”. Bill and Barb had researched all areas, and entrepreneurs had told them that Guatemala needed a strong impulse in education. Even today, there are people who still use the methods they learned at this convention, including government officials.

The Alerdings had a special gift that let them adapt themselves to all kinds of situations, always being themselves with their own style, no matter what the circumstances. This meant that they could handle community as well as enterprise events.

Today I want to salute my colleagues in blue, even though I had questioned them in times of decisions. Only when you get to understand love as a present, one that burns from the inside, can you fully comprehend what these people felt and feel for the whole humanity, and that is to try and make this world we live in a better place for all. This, I think was my blue colleagues’ goal, even though this meant sacrificing a lot of things, especially their own families.

I sincerely apologize to those I did not name here.

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