The Buzz: From somewhere, with interest

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

By Ben Cannon

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-A small group of international visitors watching the Old West Days parade were not your typical vacationing foreigners whose numbers have begun to swell.

One of the group’s members was Elisa Paz, a vivacious Honduran woman who spoke flawless English. Back in her home country, Paz is a mover and shaker who helps promote renewable energy by acting as a liaison between government, private industry, and a World Bank fund. Like other bright young things in developing countries, Paz wears several different hats, so to speak.

“I’ve been doing things in my country where I was only the first or second person in that position,” she said, citing a top safety inspector position she once held, as well as her various roles helping broker clean energy deals between government and private industry.

Paz was one of seven Latin Americans who visited the area as guests of the Wyoming Council for International Visitors, or WCIV, a Jackson-based organization that works with the State Department to orchestrate citizen diplomacy. This particular group, made up of rising representatives from each country’s clean energies sector, were here to look at the way Jackson Hole tackles issues like recycling, renewable energy and, most ambitiously, the Jackson Hole Energy Sustainability Project plan to audit and retrofit buildings throughout Teton County for energy efficiency.

Paz lives in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, a city plagued by poverty, corruption and a disenchanted populous. Sometimes, smoke from illegal fires set in the hills surrounding Tegucigalpa mixes with smog to create a suffocating haze. Paz’s current city of residence (she’s originally from the much more picturesque and orderly city of San Pedro Sula) is a far cry from clear streams and quiet bike paths that run through Jackson Hole, and also from a community whose devoted members continually strive for better.

“I come from a very poor country, a place where there is democracy but it is not real democracy,” Paz said. “In Honduras, there is a lack of political will. Our country doesn’t believe in climate change. If they’ll sell us cheap power from a coal plant, then we’ll buy it.”

Paz said she and her colleagues were perhaps most affected by their visit to Jackson Hole High School, where bright students and technology in the classrooms left a lasting impression.

This week, another eclectic group of foreigners representing countries including Egypt, Kuwait and Montenegro will tour Jackson Hole to learn about small business. The group will visit such local enterprises as the chamber of commerce, the Jackson Hole News & Guide and Pica’s Mexican Taqueria.

WCIV president Holly Pratt, who volunteers with the organization and is an engineer by trade, said this new group is coming to the right place to learn about homegrown commerce. “Wyoming has been built on small business,” Pratt said.
The special guests must apply for a program organized by National Council for International Visitors in Washington, D.C., as much as one year in advance, and often face stiff competition from some of their fellow countrymen. The State Dept. determines whether Jackson Hole, or another participating area, is the most appropriate place to send a group of people studying a certain topic.

Pratt, who became involved in the organization about four years ago, said she has been inspired by her encounters with these uniquely driven individuals from around the world. “In their home countries, they’re very accomplished,” Pratt said. “It’s people who are making a difference in their countries who get selected.”
One memorable past WCIV visitor was a woman from Papa New Guinea who had recently had to prop up an incoming prime minister in order to prevent a tumultuous regime change. “She was a real firecracker,” Pratt recalled.

Later this summer, a group of 22 women, many of them from Middle Eastern countries and Africa, will visit Jackson Hole to explore global women’s issues. “The countries that are represented have more to do with the work that they’re doing [to address women’s issues] than what some of our perceptions of those places might be,” Pratt said.

The WCIV welcomes volunteers who would like to act as ambassadors to these unique guests. Volunteering could mean opening your home for a barbecue, acting as a guide on a Tram ride, or showing off a favorite coffee shop to a foreign visitor, Pratt explained. “It’s great to be able to share with them the things that we live with regularly,” she said.

To learn more about becoming a volunteer, visit wciv.org, or contact volunteer coordinator Julia Geieir at julia@wciv.org. JHW


Photo by Mary Grossman
Elsia Paz, in the foreground, enjoys a BBQ with fellow WCIV visitors and volunteers.

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The Buzz: From somewhere, with interest | Planet JH News Article: General News

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