Being immersed in a Spanish-speaking culture for a week was a dream come true for local gardener Hugh Flowers.
He and his cohorts from the Lincoln University Cooperative Extension recently took their valuable experience and tested programs to growers in El Salvador.
The exchange was mutually beneficial.
Flowers, associate professor Nadia Navarrete-Tindall and two others will share their experience with the Cross Cultural Experiential Learning in El Salvador at a noon brown bag lunch Wednesday in room 100 of Allen Hall on the LU campus.
The plane's approach into San Salvador provided an "awesome introduction" to the nation, Flowers said.
"We saw mountain trails and small farms along the hillsides and vegetation density like I had never seen before," Flowers said. "Two sights that will remain etched in my memory are that of seeing a large fish swimming in the ocean and crystal clear blue water and a huge opening in one of the mountains that we flew over. We later learned that it was a volcanic crater."
Along the highway, Flowers said he was enthralled by the fruit trees and vegetation he had never seen before. He also tasted a ripe coffee bean he had picked from the tree.
And the volcanic rock formations amazed him.
"I had only seen sheer steep cliffs and similar huge rock walls in Switzerland," Flowers said.
The "green" hotel where the group stayed featured native plants and energy-efficient operations, which impressed Navarette-Tindall and Flowers. They visited with operators of fresh fruit stands and native plant farms.
The visitors also stopped at a home for elderly, where they grew vegetables, herbs and flowers in a therapeutic gardening program.
"Our daily travels allowed us to see and get a true taste of the El Salvador culture," Flowers said.
That was the goal of this trip, which fulfilled the final phase of a four-year, U.S. Department of Agriculture capacity-building grant.
"We wanted to connect what we have here and there," Navarette-Tindall said. "We brought our experience and got ideas from the people there."
Navarrete-Tindall visits her native country annually. But this was the first time for such an educational exchange.
The Missouri group also met with university students and educators, farmers and cooperatives, and other related groups.
When she returns to El Salvador in July, Navarrete-Tindall she hopes to continue the conversations started during this visit, she said. And, in the near future, she would like to invite representatives from that nation to visit Lincoln.
"We realized we were both working on similar goals with similar people," she said.
Navarrete-Tindall particularly is interested in the work they are doing to protect the biosphere, developing ecologically and economically feasible methods and sustainable agriculture.
"It's my country, but I felt so welcome," Navarrete-Tindall said. "It's like for the first time I was seeing something so positive.
"They're doing really well."
The six Missourians returned with a renewed zeal for their extension work through the Native Plants and the Sprouts and Roots programs, along with other extension work, she said.
The grant helped the Lincoln extension establish a community garden, a commercial kitchen and its weekly farmers market.
"Our goal is to become self-sustaining" with those programs, she said. "El Salvador had all of these things."