Again Applauding The Wesley Chapel Rotary Club’s Honduras Trip

I have been a member of the Wesley Chapel Rotary Club (which meets Wednesdays at noon at Stage Left Bar & Kitchen on S.R. 54 in Lutz) for a little less than three years and in that time, I have now seen three groups of members return from a humanitarian trip to one of the poorest sections of Honduras, in a joint venture between Rotary and Pure Water for the World.

This is actually the fourth year the club has been sending its members to Honduras, but I have been witness to the return of the group the last three years. 

I keep hearing about how gratifying it is to bring pure water filtration systems and sanitary latrines to the appreciative people of this third-world Central American nation. I keep seeing the number of people the club to which I belong sends to Honduras grow every year. And, I keep hearing that you can’t even imagine how wonderful and sweet the people are that my club has helped, nor can the importance of bringing clean drinking water to these people be overstated, as the effort has saved the lives of many children, because the residents of these poorest areas drink the same water, from the same water source, that they defecate and urinate into every day.

And yet, I still haven’t gone on any of these trips, nor do I plan to join my fellow club members when they return next year…or the year after that.

And, it’s not because I don’t want to go. My heartstrings have been pulled every time I hear the stories and see the pictures of the efforts of my fellow Rotarians.

But, my head tells me that my body can’t adjust to a lack of air conditioning, that I’m hyper-allergic to every form of venom, that I don’t want to risk being bitten by a rabid dog or handle a case of “Montezuma’s revenge” in a country with extremely limited access to health care.

And yet, all I hear is that my fellow Rotarians — all of whom could spend the week that they spend in Honduras each year on vacation and not deal with any of these potential health risks (or possible political unrest) — want to keep going back year after year. I hear that when you spend a week with a group of people, even those you weren’t friends with before you went, you all return home feeling like a family. And, I hear that few things are as rewarding as the looks on the faces of the children when our club brings them things as simple as rubber balls and plastic jewelry.

So, thank you, my fellow Wesley Chapel Rotarians, for doing the work that many of us, myself included, don’t want to or even refuse to do. Thank you for bringing pure water to people who so often die as children simply because they have previously had no choice but to drink and bathe in their contaminated water their entire lives. Thank you all for truly living the Rotary ideal of “Service Above Self.”

To see pictures and video from this year’s Wesley Chapel Noon Rotary Club trip to Honduras, visit Facebook.com/RotaryClubofWesleyChapel or OurTownFla.com.