Medical - Lapan

Dear Family,
Last night we got a message from Lapan that they had a lady in labor with twins - and she was having trouble. It was too late to fly, so I left before sunrise  this morning. I was in Lapan just after daybreak. It took the people awhile to haul the lady the normally 1/2 hour walk from the village through knee deep mud. Guys hauled her in a hammock. It turns out there was another lady too, so I took 2. The runway was a bit better than yesterday, it wasn't too hard taking off. It did cover the plane in black mud, but the majority of it was from the front of the doors back. I put a nice little mud flap on the front tire, it seems to help quite a bit.
I delivered the ladies to the airport in Puerto Cabezas, but the hospital would not answer their phone, so I put them in a taxi (it is only about 5 minutes) to the hospital. I paid their fare and they looked happy. One kept holding her belly with the twins, the younger one didn't appear to be in labor, but she looked scared. Imagine at such a young age (mid-teen) getting whisked off to a big city where you may never have even been before and getting put into a hospital of strangers for your first baby. Her family should be along later today or sometime tomorrow.
I filled my gas again in Port and was home for breakfast at 9:30. I have now been painting a backdrop for our projector on the cement in the front of our church. I filled in a window and now have a nice flat spot so we don't have to use a sheet blowing around in the wind every Sabbath.
We have started listening to Christmas music last night and are putting up Christmas lights on our porch today. The kids are excited!
The pictures from this morning are on Picasa right now.
Happy Sabbath,
Clint

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Wings Over Nicaragua
Clint and Marilyn Hanley
Web: www.wingsovernicaragua.org
Email: hanley@softhome.net

Runway Inspections

Dear Family,
Today I flew to every runway on this side of the country. I didn't land on every one, but flew over every one.
I left this AM and went to Port and picked up the inspector lady. We left Port about 8:30 AM and flew to Lapan, 25 minutes. The runway was wet, but she approved it. We then left in low ceilings and light rain and flew 8 minutes to Kukalia, which was right on the edge of a major storm. The runway was completely covered in water, several inches of standing water, I was disappointed we couldn't land. Then I climbed above the rain and flew an hour to San Carlos, our main runway we often use for medical evacuations. That runway was muddy, and the village has done nothing to fix it, in spite of a meeting I had with the leaders 3 weeks ago, and the 3 days notice I gave them of the inspector coming. When I landed there 3 weeks ago it covered the plane in mud, and put 3 small nicks in my prop, so I wasn't excited to do that again. I knew for sure the inspector wouldn't approve such a runway, so I just left without landing. That runway is now closed for a couple months. On top of that, I have to pay the inspector another $35 for another inspection! I think I will ask the village to pay that. In January the runway will likely be better and I'll go check it again from the air, that will be the dry season. Anyway, that was disappointing.
I then flew to Tronquera where the inspector approved our runway.  Marilyn had a wonderful lunch ready, and then we went on back to Port. I hardly flew IFR, but there were scattered storms around. Marilyn was able to keep track of them on the Internet and while watching my SPOT track tell me the way around them, quite convenient!
I bought another 20 gallons of gas in Waspam and loaded it into the airplane. I ran into a guy who needed to go to Waspam, he is friend, and so I took him to Waspam and then the 8 minutes back to Tronquera, landing right at sundown.
The little plane ran wonderfully today. The weather was marginal, but the Lord blessed and I was able to make it to every place safely and on schedule.
On the way back from Port, Lapan called with a lady in labor with twins. It was too late to go get her before dark, but I will go there first thing in the morning.
I have already uploaded pictures under Mission Pictures to Picasa. It sure is nice to have Internet, you guys get things in real time!!
Later,
Clint

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Wings Over Nicaragua
Clint and Marilyn Hanley
Web: www.wingsovernicaragua.org
Email: hanley@softhome.net

Internet Works! Sort of

Dear Family,
I worked on the tower for Internet all week. I hiked in with 10 people on Tuesday and spent until Friday afternoon there on the hill, working from the first morning light till we couldn't see to pound nails in the evening. It took 1 1/2 days to haul the 6x6 main supports to the top of the hill, they weighed about 1500 lbs each. The last 50 feet was the hardest. I measured it, it is 50 feet from the bottom of the tower to the base of the cliff the tower sits on, inches from the tower legs. We finally got the tower stood up with the help of the come-a-long and tied to the nearest trees. We built a whole scaffolding beside it to assemble the first A and stand it up. The next day, we stood up the last 2 poles individually and braced them. Then we built a platform on the top of 2"x12"x9' Mahogany. It took Greg and I a few hours to set up the antennas, batteries, and solar panels. It then took a few phone calls to get the Internet cafe to get the Internet plugged in properly, and then we got Internet in Tronquera! We were so very happy! Unfortunately, it isn't solid enough yet to get mail or browse the web, we need to go to Waspam and align that antenna a little better to try and get a better signal.
The tower looks impressive with razor wire around the top and an electric wire through the center. I hope it stops thieves.
Happy in Tronquera,
Clint and Marilyn

Internet

Hello!!
I am sitting on my computer in my house typing an email on my brand new internet connection!!!
Praise the Lord!!
Marilyn

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Wings Over Nicaragua
Clint and Marilyn Hanley
Web: www.wingsovernicaragua.org
Email: hanley@softhome.net

Hurricane Ida - Nicaragua Newsletter

November 9, 2009
Dear Friends,
Last night hurricane Ida came over. It had almost no wind, but lots of rain. It is more rain and higher creeks than anyone here has ever seen. The local little creeks are already dropping, it stopped raining around midnight here. The big rivers are still going up, and will not peak for some time yet. We don't know which bridges will be washed out, or which villages yet. Many Nicaraguan villages are right on the edge of rivers.
We arrived back from our 2 month visit to America one month ago. It was a good visit, nice to see all our family. We enjoyed meeting other missionaries at ASI, a meeting of Seventh-day Adventist businesses and leaders in Phoenix in August.
Since returning, I have been to San Carlos taking in a nurse and medicine, and checked 2 new runways being built. One is in Raiti, about 1/2 done, and the other in Kukalia, which is only waiting for paperwork.
The road we take to Puerto Cabezas every month is deteriorating. It now takes 5 to 6 hours to make the 75 mile trip with the truck.
We are almost done with the dirt filling to level a place for an airplane hanger and ready to start the construction. We have staked out the place for a cement widow's house and cleaned it. We will start leveling it as soon as the water goes down so we can get gravel.
We have an American named Greg here helping us get Internet. He is working where we use to work, at the Tasba Raya mission in Francis Sirpi, 1 hours drive from here. Right now he is staying with us because we are working on building a repeater on a hill a few hours hike from here that will transmit the signal from our nearest town, Waspam, to both us in Tronquera and him in Francia. It will be really life changing if it works.
Runway inspections are coming up next week, but all this rain we just got may delay that.
God Bless,
Clint and Marilyn
www.wingsovernicaragua.org
PS. November 7 update: The water from the hurricane appears to not have substantially hurt any villages upriver from Waspam, which covers our area.