Rotateller Rotary Club of Owego, NY
Tuesday, April 8, 2008 Gary Williams, Editor

He who gives when he is asked has waited too long. Unknown

VISITORS AND GUESTS:

• Joann and Terence Cooney, guests of John Spencer
• David Frodsham and his mother, Jane
• Irene Moon
• Paul Stear
• Gene Nolis, OFA Senior Class President
• Joao and Mati
• John Feavearyear, Faye’s husband

Happy Birthday to Maria Dixson and Bob Fisher

NOMINATIONS:

We nominated six members to run for the Board

FINES:

Orv led us through team building through our knowledge of Panama.

HIGHWAY CLEAN-UP: Saturday, April 26

SOFTBALL:

Harry shared with us that Kiwanis is challenging us to a game. Many years ago we did these kind of events more often. It has probably been over 15 years since our last game. This is one case in which we do need more young members!

Joao is having a good experience with his new family after moving this weekend and they are going to take him to California!

Mati’s “sister” Alex, is in the Air Force and has come home from Wyoming. They went to visit Washington, DC which he really enjoyed.

PROGRAM:

Orv introduced David Frodsham who is a 2001 graduate of Waverly High School and a 2005 graduate of Penn State with a degree in civil engineering. He has just come back from two years in the Peace Corps living in a wooden house on stakes without running water or electricity and eating beans and rice three meals a day. He worked helping in various aspects of agriculture when he was not doing Peace Corps work which was a project to bring water to the homes of two villages which raise cattle and have subsistence farming. Their income is $6 per day and they are experiencing a local population boom which is causing shortages.

The World Health Organization emphasizes how to raise the standard of living which is to bring in clean water, manage waste, and provide health education. David shared some of the reasons why this is so difficult to do. They use the same water for bathing, drinking, and relieving and washing themselves afterwards. They have no knowledge of bacteria. This new information is coming from outside their culture, in disagreement from what they have been taught, by people who do not communicate well with them. The core of the Peace Corps in the realization that you must know the culture and their language to build faith to lay the ground work for potential change. During this process, we also learn about ourselves. When David was trying to build the aqueduct to 400 homes and could not get government money, he raised the money from family, friends and RI. When additional funds were needed, they came from the Waverly and Owego Rotary Clubs. At the end of his two years, the project was successfully completed.

David’s presentation was excellent at communicating the experience vicariously in a using only words and feelings in just a few minutes.

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