Sister Water Project volunteers install pipes to complete a 19-mile water project in the Honduran village of Mejocote, August 2018. (Courtesy of the Sisters of St. Francis of Dubuque, Iowa) Comment on text)
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For Art Roche, the realization came somewhere between helping haul 400-lb. steel pipes up a mountain in the Honduran heat and humidity, using trees and 10 or 15 people to bend the pipes as needed, twisting giant pipe wrenches to thread pipe sections together, and being outworked by his Honduran compatriots.
Or maybe it came when the enormity of the project became clear: Crews from the little village of Mejote had been working on this pipeline to bring fresh water to their village for two years, and had about another year to go
"We weren't there to do the physical work as much as we were to witness what they were doing," Roche said. "It's the belief and endurance of the Honduran people and their faith that this will work. We weren't there to help — we were there to be with them."
The "we" in this case was a group of about two dozen volunteers brought to Honduras by the Sister Water Project of the Sisters of St. Francis of Dubuque, Iowa.
