The story of “The Well” started simply enough, with a spaghetti dinner by the St. Hubert Church youth group of Langley to raise money to build a well in the little Brazilian town of Bom Sucesso.

Clinton resident Joyce LeGow had visited the community in South America in 1999. She learned while there that the people of Bom Sucesso had organized to build a barn and raise pigs, a step upward from poverty, but the effort would wither unless they could get a reliable water supply. Water was also necessary to grow food for the livestock, as well as for the families themselves.

“The water was in the ground, they just needed to dig deep enough to get to it. And there was no money to drill,” Lagow said when she returned.

Her appeal to the people of South Whidbey resulted in a total of $5,000, enough money to drill a well for the town.

The effort was fraught with complications, and included the services of a dowser to find the water, but in the end it was successful. Water was located and a well was drilled.

LeGow has recently learned, however, that the cost of drilling far exceeded the amount originally planned, leaving nothing for the other requirements to make the well work.

“About two months ago, I received word from the Costa family — the people responsible in Bom Sucesso for coordinating the well project and getting it done – that they do indeed need more money,” LeGow said.

The well is located a good distance from the road and from the pig project, she explained.

“They need a robust pump to get the water up a slope and into a concrete reservoir,” LeGow said. “Pipes from the reservoir will bring the water to the road, where the people can get water any time they want.”

LeGow said the community needs about $1,500 to $2,000 to buy a good pump, build the concrete reservoir and put in the supply pipes. They’ll contribute the labor themselves.

“The Costas were reluctant to ask for any more help after what has been, for them, unprecedented generosity on the part of strangers — us,” LeGow said. The people have tried over the past year, she said, to raise the money themselves, mostly from various government sources, but they have been unable to do so.

“I’ve read that the northeast of Brazil is in the grip of yet another drought—and this one worse than the one whose results I saw three years ago. I can’t imagine it being worse,” LeGow said.

“So the situation is again desperate. What is maddening is that the water is there — the well is drilled — and they can’t get at the water.”

LeGow said there is some money available already to help. The Missions Committee of Langley United Methodist Church has donated $200, and there was some money left over in the St. Hubert’s Mission Fund.

“Bom Sucesso is in fact St. Hubert’s mission,” she noted.

“But we need about $1,000 more,” she said. “So once more I’m turning to the community of South Whidbey and particularly the people of St. Hubert’s to help out with enough money to finish the job.”

This weekend at St. Hubert’s, LeGow will give three presentations about Brazil and her experiences there, in conjunction with an archdiocese request for an effort called Save The Children.

“When catastrophes such as drought or other natural disasters strike, children suffer the worst,” she said. “During my first trip to Brazil, at the height of the drought, I saw children whose only food was a bottle of water with some rice chaff in it. Those were the lucky ones. I also saw children who had nothing to eat or drink, because there was no water. In what passes for a hospital there, I saw a 2-year-old boy near death because of dehydration. His parents—so thin they looked as if a strong wind would blow them away —waited helplessly by his bedside.”

LeGow will talk about the well, Bom Sucesso and its children at St. Hubert services this weekend. She will also describe what is called an “inculturated mass,” a mass that incorporates elements of Afro-Brazilian culture in the standard Roman liturgy and includes the presence of such additions as the samba drum, or “atabaque.” The mass is a “celebracao” in which children play a prominent role, she said.

There will be a second collection at all masses for the Brazilian well.

“Yes, it will help all the poor of Bom Sucesso—but the majority of those will be children,” LeGow said. “Hopefully, others in the South Whidbey community will be moved to help out also.”