Several students have already had the opportunity to meet Pablo before his arrival here. He spent the last few years as the coordinator of the Spanish language arm of the "Semester in Honduras" program, a semester course of study aimed at teaching Calvin students about Third World development.

This was where I first encountered Pablo last year.

Our group of 16 students met him and the other Spanish professors on only our second day in Honduras. We were all still a little shell shocked and did not quite know what to make of our situation. Some of us had families that did not speak any English, others were bewildered by the apparent chaos of traffic in the streets that seemed to spill over onto the sidewalks--the only haven of safety from the mass of cars, speeding taxis and overloaded yellow school buses being recycled as Honduran public transportation.

Pablo was our first bridge to the Honduran culture. He spoke perfect English and took a real interest in the students from the outset. By the end of our jaunt on that second day Pablo had spoken in detail with nearly everyone. Nothing changed as the semester wore on, except Pablo’s eagerness to speak English with us. He pushed us to speak Spanish whenever possible.

Needless to say, I was thrilled when I heard Pablo had a teaching position in Grand Rapids. All of his students in Honduras raved about him. They were all surprised by how much Pablo cared about them and also how much they learned. I thought that he would make a perfect fit within the Calvin community.

Pablo is in Grand Rapids for only a year, taking the position of another Spanish professor on sabbatical. I found that he was very grateful for the experience when I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with him a little after his arrival here.

I also found that his heart was still in Honduras and the connection to his homeland was unbreakable.

"I miss everything. It’s so difficult and funny at the same time. In Honduras I don’t like riding the bus, but here I do. It’s funny how you miss even the smallest thing," he said.

Villalta was born in Southern Honduras and his family moved to Tegucigalpa, the capital of the Central American country, when he was ten. His mother had to support the family of seven on her own, a situation common in Honduras, according to Pablo.

He admiringly speaks of his mother as "the guide" in his life. She acted as both a mother and father for him and his six siblings, all while maintaining jobs in sales, as a baker and the owner of a small cafeteria. She undoubtedly pushed him to succeed in a country where many fall through the cracks.

This experience at Calvin, Villalta hopes, will help him fill in the some of those very cracks. His aim is to stay in America long enough to earn a graduate degree and then return home to continue teaching.

"(Graduate school) wouldn’t help me get a better salary, but if a country has better teachers, then education will be better," said Villalta.

Pablo sees education as the key to pulling a country up, in both an academic and a vocational sense. His own life exemplifies this belief.

After graduating from high school, Pablo went to the university to study civil engineering. In his first year, he was required to take a mathematics course. Here he saw first hand the glaring problems of Honduran schools.

"Sometimes there is no objectivity ... sometimes tests contain problems that have never been taught in class," said Villalta. He attributes this practice by teachers of making tests impossibly difficult to pass to their own self-interests. Many, he claims, worry about competition from up and coming students.

Another problem he now sees is the lack of accountability for Honduran teachers; in contrast to the system at Calvin, where teachers are scrutinized not only by the school and faculty, but by students asking questions and challenging teachers.

"In Honduras, students tend to believe more in what the teacher says. If they question the teacher, it can be seen as disrespectful," explained Villalta, "It would be really good for education in general (if professors fell under more checks) because professors would think seriously hard before going to class."

This is not to say that the American system is a panacea.

"I think we give too much credit to American universities (in Honduras)," Pablo said.

He studied in America from 1990 to 1992 at St. Michael’s College in Vermont, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in teaching English as a Second Language (ESL). Villalta earned a scholarship to study in the States after he transferred to the Honduran university for teaching to study ESL, a course he picked simply because he wanted to speak better English and have the ability to communicate with more people.

Villalta is impressed with Calvin, so far. In fact, he commented on how busy everyone is at the school and how professional it is, which has some consequences that set it apart from Honduras.

"You know what I really miss?" Pablo asked during our conversation about Calvin. "I miss talking to students in the plaza after class. Not just my students, but everyone."

He also misses going out after work with his colleagues. It seems that Calvin professors go home after work. And although everyone treats him well at school -- like "an old friend" as Pablo describes it -- he is still a newcomer for the time being.

The other holes in Villalta’s American life are food and family. Surprisingly, he has no pictures of anyone from home in his office. Actually he has no pictures at all in his stark white office, that could best be described as functional.

"I forgot to bring pictures," explained Pablo. And with that he opened up an envelope and placed a picture on the wall of four grinning children. The picture was from a letter sent to him by his sister. The children were his nieces and nephew.

Now if only his sister would send him some beans, rice and homemade corn tortillas, he could take care of the other thing that’s been missing—homeland cooking.

By Dane VandenBerg ‘01

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