Just a three and a half hour flight from Houston is a small Central American country.  Its name — Nicaragua — is rooted in the Spanish word for water:  agua.   

 Indeed, Nicaragua is home to two large “freshwater” lakes — Lake Nicaragua, the 19th largest in the world and Lake Managua. The country is also bounded on the east by the Caribbean Sea and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.  Yet, because of unspeakable pollution and contamination, this precious life resource — clean, potable water —has been unavailable to those living in the country’s poverty-stricken villages.  It was this realization seven years ago by Tulsa Rotarian Bob Scroggs while he was on a church mission trip that put the Rotary wheel in motion for what has become our Nicaragua Water Well Project.

“Bob shared what he had seen with our International Committee, and his vision of buying a water well drilling rig and returning to Nicaragua,” said Past President Linda Bradshaw, who served as Rotarian of the Day at our Club Meeting on December 2, celebrating the Project.

“The Rotary Club of Tulsa then became a catalyst — joining hearts and hands with over 70 clubs, several districts, and hundreds of donors — for a program that has impacted thousands of men, women and children in a tiny Central American country, bringing a gift of life and hope,” she said.

Linda introduced delegates from our partner club in León, Nicaragua, who attended the celebration:   Roberto Reyes, president; Elia Dina Galo, past president; Luis Osorio, president elect; and Santiago Castellon, Water Committee chair.  Elia’s husband Carlos Ortiz also traveled with them.

Since 2003, 142 water wells have been drilled in Nicaragua. Besides drilling wells, the Rotary Club of Tulsa has provided wheelchairs to handicapped Nicaragua residents, medical equipment and supplies to local clinics and hospitals, playground equipment to villages and schools, and toys for Nicaraguan tots.

Linda led the club in saluting long-time Water Well Project chairs David Peterson and Ben Windham, along with Bristow Rotarian Mickey Moore, who has served as our volunteer driller since the very beginning.

After two standing ovations, Mickey told the Rotarians, “After we completed on well, a woman who was crying told me, ‘you are an angel sent by God.’  I responded, ‘If I am an angel, there are hundreds of angels in Oklahoma who sent this one.’” 

Linda acknowledged the work of the Rotary Club of Tulsa by remembering the words of a Nicaraguan woman she saw one year after the drilling of two successful wells in the barrio where the woman lived.  “I have no greater blessing than the gift that water brings,” she said.  “I need no more.”

This holiday season, as we give thanks for the many blessings in our lives, let’s remember the words of the Nicaraguan woman with whom Linda met:  “I need no more.”

To enable our club to continue drilling in this impoverished third world country, Rotarians are encouraged to Own A Well with tax deductible contributions. To learn more, visit www.ownawell.com.

Pictured above: Club delegates from the Rotary Club of León, Nicaragua, along with President Del Dreyer and Past President Linda Bradshaw

Posted: 12/07/09