Although deterred by a small emergency at the end of their mission trip, a youth group led by members of the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel (Noon) is home safe and sound, and still beaming about what the group accomplished, knowing that these youngsters have changed the lives of hundreds of needy people in a small village in the poorest part of Honduras.
On June 13, the group sponsored by the Club (which meets at noon on Wednesdays at Stage Left [24400 S.R. 54 in Lutz]), flew to the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa and hopped on a bus up to the rainforest, arriving at the remote village of Trojes (which translates into “the barns”) in the impoverished Central American country, Working with the nonprofit organization Pure Water for the World (PWW), the group of nine high school students (three from Wiregrass Ranch High), as well as Rotarians Eric Johnson, Dane Parilo, Dr. Karina Azank and Trevor Campbell, worked for a week to install water filters in the homes of villagers. Newly inducted WC Rotary president (see pg. 36) Erin and her husband Marcus Meyer also brought along their 12-year-old son.
“We broke up into teams and were scheduled to do between 52-53 filters,” Parilo said after the group returned home. “We ended up doing 60 filters and Pure Water estimated that each home has six inhabitants. So, 360 individuals now have safe, non-contaminated water for the first time in generations.”
Filled mostly with coffee and tobacco farmers, Parilo says that the Trojes villagers were thankful, not only for the filters, but also for the latrines and wash stations the group helped install at two local schools.
“It was amazing to see these high school kids mixing concrete, pouring it and painting outhouses,” Parilo said. “(PWW) works you hard from sunup to sundown.”
Parilo said that for the first time at two schools that have been around for years, children don’t have to walk off into the woods to use the “restroom.” The group also provided medicine and hygiene kits for the community, as well as toys for the kids, paid for by the sponsors and friends of the Wesley Chapel Noon Rotary Club.
“It’s a three-fold mission,” Parilo said.
But, the trip wasn’t without its challenges. “After what I’ve hopefully described as a very successful trip, we had a non-confrontational robbery on the second-to-last day,” Parilo explains.
While the group was stopped for lunch after touring a cigar factory in Danli (about two hours from the capitol), some criminals unknowingly boarded the group’s parked bus through the windows facing traffic and stole several passports, electronic devices and credit cards. Johnson and two of the students were the ones who had their passports stolen.
“We had to race two hours back to Tegucigalpa, missed the embassy’s closing for the week by one hour and had to stay behind through the weekend,” Parilo said, adding that the entire group was supposed to be back on June 20. So, Parilo and his son, plus Johnson, Azank and the two teens who lost their passports stayed until Monday morning while the rest of the group traveled back to the U.S. as scheduled on Saturday. Those left behind were at the Embassy early on Monday, but there already was a long line before it even had opened.
“But, because Pure Water is so highly regarded there, the U.S. ambassador sped us through the process of getting emergency passports,” Parilo explained. “It took about three hours, but we all were able to get on the same plane. We got lucky because only about one flight leaves per day from (that airport).”
While it was a little stressful, Parilo insisted that no one ever was in danger.
“We were never in harm’s way, but it was disappointing for everyone who stayed to miss Father’s Day (back home),” Parilo said. “We were kind of blue, but we made the best of it. We went and saw the new ‘Jurassic World’ movie with Spanish subtitles. We bonded. We were definitely burned out and out of clean clothes, but this could have happened anywhere, even right here in Wesley Chapel.”
Everyone returned home by June 23.
“The mission was a wild and absolute success,” Parilo said.
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