Dear Family,
I went to Lapan today and took the dentist from Waspam. He is a real nice man, but only free on Sundays. He works 5 1/2 days a week at the Catholic Clinic. The Catholic Sister in charge gave us permission for him to go with us on Sunday, we pay him $15, which is real good wages here for a day of work. He likes to help people too, which is nice. He is a tall man, quiet. He pulled 36 teeth, but then ran out of anesthesia. We need to buy more in Managua. We got everyone on the list.
The flight to Lapan was OK, scattered rain and I went to 6500 feet to get over rain. I had to deviate about 15 miles to get around the worst area, and was in clouds for part of the trip. We came out of solid clouds into broken clouds 10 miles before Lapan, and the runway was clear. They had heavy rain that morning, and the runway had 1 to 2 inches of standing water on it. It covered the plane in muddy grassy water from the struts all the way back. It isn't very muddy there, not like San Carlos, but there is still a little mud you sink into, and the runway is slick. It is a good thing it is level.
Trucks aren't running there this time of year since the water in the many rivers is too deep to cross. This makes it very hard for the villagers to get out for medical and dental care. They are asking if we could please bring a doctor sometime.
I went and got the dentist set up, everyone was happy to see him. Then I walked back to the plane, a 1/2 hour walk through deep mud. I brought along in the plane my chainsaw and 12- 1x8 boards 3 feet long to create edge markers making the runway more visible. The problem is when I land I loose sight of the edges of the runway, and running off the edge will flip the plane. I sent 2 men off 1/2 hour walk away from the runway to find some pine poles, and put them in the ground sticking up 2 feet using the post hole digger I brought. I nailed the boards on the posts and painted them a bright green. They help a lot, but I need to get a nice bright orange paint. That took me a few hours total. I worked on my school a little, and then it was time to go. I found the dentist done and packed up when I arrived at the house where he was working, and we walked the 1/2 hour back to the plane. Take off was challenging, I used 3/4 of the runway, glad I was light. I confirmed acceptable weather in Tronquera with Marilyn right a way, and headed into the clouds again, standard for this time of the year. I used my home made GPS approach to Tronquera and came out of the clouds and rain at 3,000 feet over Tronquera and then went on to Waspam and dropped the dentist off. I got Waspam manure on top of my Lapan mud, and had to abort one takeoff because of cows running on the runway.
I was able to visit with Willis in America while flying, and it is really nice to be in constant communication with Marilyn via 2-meter. Willis tracks me minute by minute on the Internet with my SPOT tracker.
The people in Lapan are happy, I'm glad we were able to make it today! Between the weather, getting the dentist to show up, having the proper medicine and supplies, and the runway, there are a lot of things that have to work out for something as simple as taking a dentist to a village. It costs quite a bit to make it happen too, but is worth it for how happy it makes the people.
Clint
