Welcome to December, and happy holidays to all of you. Being District Governor is an interesting position. Although I was well prepared, it's hard to be completely ready. Some days I feel like I'm doing a good job, and some days I feel as if I am drowning. Some days the job can seem thankless, and then there are days like today when I am given more credit than I deserve. In this case, I did not deserve any of the credit. It made me feel a bit ashamed to be in front accepting the award and the thanks from the citizens of El Corozo, Nicaragua. As some of you may know, as a district, we have been working with a poverty-stricken isolated community of 145 families. Today with Rotarians Dave Newman, Jim Hunt, and Scott Arndt, we witnessed the completion of their well and storage tanks and the movement to the next phase of delivering water to every home in the community. Understand that until today they had to get up and leave home at 2 am to find potable water for their families. There were days when their children were too ashamed to attend school because they could not bathe. The community members are just beginning to realize that something bigger has occurred than just drilling a well. The citizens of El Corozo were responsible for the construction of the well. They formed leadership teams and water management teams. They changed the way they saw their part in changing their world. The person from our district who deserves the credit for this is Rick Heidick from the Stillwater Sunrise Club who was unable to make this trip. I was happy to stand in for him but he is the one deserving the respect and thanks of the people of El Corozo. Please search him out and thank him for putting in a decade worth of work. It's been a long road but we are going to see the pay off for decades to come.

Around the District - December 2022