Fun Trip for Airport Inspection

June 25, 2009
Dear Family,
I just returned from a trip to look at a new runway in Kukalaya. The people there said they worked building the runway for 10 days with the whole village, 700 people (I'm sure everyone didn't work, but even if 1/2 worked, that is a lot of people!). The the women and children worked hard too, completely volunteer. From a fly over last week, I knew it was close to ready. On Wednesday I flew to Lapan, and found a watchman for the plane. The local people said it was a 4 hour walk, but maybe a little longer depending on the rivers. I just had time, if I hurried, to make it back by dark at 6 PM, and planned to sleep in the plane. On the GPS, it is 13 miles. It takes 8 minutes in the plane. I left at 9:30 AM Tuesday walking from Lapan, with a younger man to show me the way. I took my SPOT satellite tracker. Anyone who wanted to check (link on the bottom of the front page of our website) could have seen every 10 minutes in real time where I was walking. The track will be there for 7 days. Since Marilyn doesn't have Internet, she is only able to get the e-mail messages. Before I left, we agreed that I would send a delayed message if I was spending the night. I am sorry for the confusion it caused. I need to change the subject of that e-mail.

I walked along a grass savanna for the first couple hours. One place the water was over my mud boots, so took them off and waded across. The mud was a slick black mud that took energy from every step as you slid around in it. There was a skiff of water on top of the mud, but it wasn't bad. We made it to the Kukalaya river after 2 hours of walking. Fortunately there was a person right there with a canoe and we paddled 20 minutes up that river and crossed to the other side. From there it was heavy jungle, and the trail became quite muddy. It was a thick mud that you sank in just over your ankles with each step. It held your foot tight with the suction of the mud and required you to pull hard to release each foot with every step. The jungle was very thick, you couldn't see more than 15 to 20 feet into it. The canopy over us blocked the sun, making it cooler walking. We walked as fast as possible. Once we came to a deeper swamp, and water was up to my chest. We carried our clothes and luggage over our heads and waded barefoot through the mud. On the other side, there was a submerged log we followed, it was about 2 feet deep in the water, very mossy and slick, and quite hard to stay on top. I barely made it over, wondering if I fell off how deep that part of the swamp was. There were mangrove type trees all over with those long roots that go way above the water. They said there are lots of crocodiles too (Cayman). I can't imagine carrying someone in a hammock with a broken leg across that, but they did it last month hauling someone out of Kukalaya.

After an hour, we finally we made it out of the jungle to the savanna again. This time the grass savanna was much wetter, more like marsh savanna. It had standing water that sometimes went over our boots, and your feet sunk into the muddy grass each step. It was the slimy black mud, but didn't hold your foot like the clay mud in the jungle. After another hour of that, we came to the lagoon. It is a big expanse of water, crossable only in a boat. In fact, they had used boats in some of the watery savanna we had just crossed, but the lagoon was deep. Pretty blossoming lily pads grew on the sides of the little water trails. After 30 minutes waiting, some people showed up who owned the boats that were parked there. We rode with them 1/2 hour to the village of Kukalaya. White cranes were fishing beside us as we paddled along, and you could see fish in the warm water. We came out of the grassy channel to the rolling waves of the lagoon. The middle guy took off his rubber boot and bailed the water out as each wave came over the edge a little into the boat. It was nice to get out of the little dug out canoe without having to swim.

The village was thrilled to see me. We gathered a crowd of about 50 people as we walked through the village on our way to see the runway, 1/4 mile on the other side of the village. It is always interesting to walk in a place after only seeing it from the air. It looks different from the ground. The runway is not quite long enough, but still usable. There were a few holes that collected water. I directed them on the proper markers on the edge of the runway, cutting the grass shorter, filling the holes with gravel, and making it longer. Overall, they have done a good job. They have a new government clinic in the process of being built. They have both a doctor and nurse stationed there right now. This runway serves Kukalaya (700 people) and Laya Siksa (Black Water, 1,000 people). They have no roads, only lagoons and rivers to access Puerto Cabezas (Port), a very long dangerous trip in a small boat with a sick person. The village of Kukalaya has one boat a month that goes to Port. Many of the people in the village have never been to Port. After the walk from the nearest road (Lapan) I sure see their motivation for building an airstrip! This time of year trucks can't even get all the way to Lapan.

Unfortunately, there is no radio in Kukalaya for communication. I spoke with the government doctor and the town leaders about this. We are going to try to get the government to put in a radio for the clinic. I am connected with the government hospital network with a radio in my house, so that would work for us. The problem is the government radio network is not very dependable. We don't know if we could access the 62 miles with our 2-meter system because there are some hills between us and that area. We'll have to investigate the different possibilities. There are no generators and no solar panels in the town to power a radio so a whole system would be needed. The government puts in whole systems when they place a radio so we are hoping to get the government to put a radio there.

It was 4 PM when we came back from looking at the runway so I only had 2 hours of daylight, not enough time to walk back to Lapan. Thursday morning, I got up and was planning on walking back, but the whole village got together and used their some of their precious hard to obtain gas, their largest boat, and the one engine they own, to take me back a shorter way. I told them it wasn't necessary, but they did it anyway. It was a large dugout canoe that flew along quite quickly, almost tipping over only once when we hit a big submerged log. We crossed the lagoon and went up some picturesque little creeks just like I remember from our time on the river in Guyana. It was raining and I was very glad for the little bit of protection my rain jacket gave me. The boat took just over 1 hour, and cut off 2 1/2 hours of worst walking -- the part with the water up to our chests and the sticky jungle mud. I was completely soaked from the rain, and inside my boots was soaking again too. I was very thankful for moleskin on my feet as my boots had been rubbing the day before. Soaking wet in rubber boots isn't very good for feet walking long distances. With the deep mud, tennis shoes would have been worse since at least the mud didn't go over the boots. It rained all morning the whole rest of the 2 hour walk back to the village of Lapan from the boat.

That was the best my plane has ever looked, sitting out there on that soggy runway on the grass savanna in the drizzling rain! I carefully checked it over, being sure the wet, cold, tired me didn't forgot any details in the drizzling rain. Water splashed all around as I bounced along during take off, and then all became nice and smooth as it broke free of that slick black mud I knew so well. I was very thankful for the airplane heater. I circled under 800 foot ceilings and got my wife on the radio, confirming the weather was OK in Tronquera before I launched into the clouds. It rained all the way home through the clouds, but stopped a few minutes before I landed at home. It was so nice to get warm clothes, hot chocolate, and see my kids and wife.

It is encouraging to see the faces of the people light up as I came into their village. It encourages me to keep up the work when I see people living under such poverty conditions give enough to take me on the river to save 2 1/2 hours of walking. It is a pleasure working for people who are truly grateful for the help we offer.

Next we have to submit paperwork to the government to get the runway approved, then they will send an engineer to inspect the runway, and taking them will be my first landing on that runway.

It was an interesting trip. I am thankful we live where we do. I could have been born in that village.
Clint

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Wings Over Nicaragua Mission in Tronquera
Clint and Marilyn Hanley
Tronquera, Nicaragua, Central America
www.wingsovernicaragua.org
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Nicaragua Newsletter, June 09.

Dear Family and Friends,
Last time we wrote you, were were in Costa Rica for our visa renewal. When we returned, we spent several days in Managua doing paperwork for the airplane. All the meetings with government officials went well. Our airplane has been down here working for over a year now. Our permission renewal comes up the end of August for the airplane and our annual insurance, required to fly in the country, is due the end of July. The villages are very grateful for our medical evacuations. We have had several medical transports this month. We had the main bridge go out between here and our major town, Puerto Cabezas. This has made it necessary to transport more patients from the local hospital in Waspam that use to be able to use the road. It is also economically depressing this whole area as prices of food skyrocket and many standard items such as diesel and gasoline, flour and sugar, become limited or unavailable. We are stocked up for a month on necessities, but after that will have to figure out how to get items here from Puerto Cabezas.
This last month we spent working on our house. Late last year, we received a donation of some money specifically for our house, and we are finally blessed with a water tank that provides us running water, an inside bathroom with a real flushing toilet (after using an outhouse for 3 years), and a shower. We also will soon have a roof over our truck. It also give us a separate bedroom and office, as well as a small separate rooms for Brandel and Bethany.
Since this is now the rainy season, it is raining almost every day, most often in the afternoon. Flying is much slower, due to the weather, but river transport is much easier with a full river for San Carlos, one of the main places we help with medical transportation. Runway construction in Raiti has slowed for the moment due to the rainy season, but will resume as soon as the rain stops in a couple months.
Yesterday I flew over a new village 40 minutes flight South of here (close to the village of Lapan) that has cleared a runway. I need to go by ground and inspect it. I hope to do that within a couple weeks. It is only 7 minutes flight from Lapan, but I am told it will take 4 hours of walking to get there. The name of the place is Kukalaya, and it is in a lagoon area with no road access, even during the dry season.
We are going to go to America for a couple months this fall, August and September. My mom has a painting job that will help pay for our trip home. It will be 1 1/2 years since our last trip home. We look forward to visiting family and will be happy to speak in any churches where we are invited.
Please keep Gary Roberts, a friend of ours who is a mission pilot in Africa in your prayers. They just lost their 4 year old son to Malaria. We worked with Gary in Guyana. We realize this line of work has dangers, but God is more powerful and we pray God brings some good out of such a tragic situation. We treasure each moment we get to spend with each of our family and friends, never knowing how long we may be together.
Our small church is consistently growing. From the regular 1 family we had attending with us, we now have several more people regularly attending each Sabbath. We have also started a Sabbath afternoon Bible study, and that is being quite well attended by many people who aren't in church. We are happy that slowly the seeds of the Gospel are spreading and Holy Spirit is working on our fellow friends here in Nicaragua. We are grateful for your prayers for our little church and weekly Bible study.
Even through this depression of the economy, we are very thankful we are able to continue with our work program and keep the airplane flying. Your support is unwavering, and we know many of you make sacrifices for the continuation of the work down here. We know the Lord will bless you for your efforts and we appreciate your help.

In Christ's service,
Clint and Marilyn Hanley
www.wingsovernicaragua.org

PS. Please be sure to delete this letter when replying as it is quite large for our very slow Ham radio e-mail system.

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Wings Over Nicaragua Mission in Tronquera
Clint and Marilyn Hanley
Tronquera, Nicaragua, Central America
www.hanleymissions.org
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Family Update - June 10

Dear Family,
Monday, June 8, we painted for the whole day on the Tasba Pain church. Willis bought the paint for it when he was here, and 1 1/2 weeks ago we had painted the sealer, so now we did the final color. We had lots of helpers and it went well. The church looks beautiful and the people are thrilled. It is light blue inside, and darker blue outside.
Our monthly trip to Port (Puerto) for supplies was especially important this month because I have the rafters up for the roof over our truck parking place and need to get them covered with zinc. The rain also blows onto our new wall we just put up on that half of our house. Tuesday, the day after we got back from painting, we loaded the truck with empty drums for airplane gasoline and left for Puerto Cabezas. After 2 hours driving we were just over halfway to Port and we came to Sinsin. There is a large suspension bridge there across a major river. The night before a big gravel dump truck fell through the bridge, knocking out a 30 foot center section of lumber and breaking the cables. The guy got out alive, but the truck is on the bottom of the river. This is the only road between our house and Port. It will likely be closed for at least a few weeks, or maybe a few months. Since all the gasoline comes over the road from Port to Waspam, all the gas and diesel will run out within a few days and prices of food will go up. This has happened before when there are strikes and the road closes for a few days, but it has only happened for a few days at a time. Since we needed some supplies in Port that were not available in Waspam, Marilyn took a little dugout canoe across the river and rode a bus from the other side into Port. She planned to get some money and supplies, spend the night, and come back on the bus in the AM. I took the kids, and went directly to Waspam to get gasoline for the airplane and stock up on diesel for the truck. Fortunately we kept a stash of grocery money for emergencies, and I used it to get gas and diesel. There was a run on the only gas station, and they said they would be out soon. I waited in line and filled my tanks. I was just getting ready to settle down on the Internet when the hospital called on our new truck radio that Willis recently installed. They had an emergency. Due to the broken bridge, a very sick person couldn't cross on the little boats and needed transport from Waspam to Port. The doctor said the person would most likely die that night if I couldn't do the transport that afternoon. I didn't want to leave our kids alone for the night, since we have never left them without either parent overnight. I decided it would be worth it. There are some friends in the village for them to stay with for the night. It was a 45 minute drive back home, then I had to organize the kids sleeping, got the plane ready, and flew to Waspam. I haven't flown in almost 2 weeks, so it was nice to fly again. I picked up the sick person and flew to Port. The ambulance took 4 phone calls (beginning 45 minutes before arrival at the airport) and I waited at the airport for 30 minutes with the sick person in the plane before they finally came. This is the best hospital on this side of the country, the Atlantic Coast. For the first time (this is the 4th medical transport into Port) the ambulance actually had a nice stretcher, but they couldn't get it unlocked from its holder in the back of the ambulance. Three guys struggled for another 10 minutes, and then they gave up and just carried the guy from the plane to the stretcher.
Then I called my wife, she was quite surprised. She didn't seem to properly enjoy the nice supper because she was worrying about our kids. (Marilyn says it wasn't much of a date, because there was another missionary there that occupied most of Clint's conversation :)
The next morning we didn't get all we needed done because weather was closing in on us. With no weather reporting information on this side of the country, and nothing in my airplane, this time of year is very hard flying. Thunderstorms are all over, and frequent rain showers move all over during most days. We wove around rain showers and arrived in Tronquera 15 minutes before a 1 hour rain storm passed through. Tomorrow Marilyn will go to Waspam to try to get some of the food we were unable to get in Puerto. We hope to get it all bought before Waspam runs out and prices go up too high.
We're happy our truck was on this side of the bridge and that it didn't break 24 hours later and lock our truck on the other side of the river!
For now we can't get our zinc for our roof, we must wait until we can drive to Port.
This morning we received the very sad news that the 4 year old son of Gary Roberts died of malaria complications. They are burying him beside the runway, where he loved to watch his dad take off and land, just like Brandel. Gary is Marilyn's cousin, and we worked with them in Guyana for a year, where Brandel was born. They are currently based in Chad, Africa. Please keep their family in your prayers.
We uploaded lots of new pictures to Picasa. Some are under new house addition, and some under Brandel and Bethany. Under Brandel and Bethany are some pictures of the bridge.
Clint

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Wings Over Nicaragua Mission in Tronquera
Clint and Marilyn Hanley
Tronquera, Nicaragua, Central America
www.wingsovernicaragua.org
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