Wings Over Nicaragua Mission Newsletters: May 2011

Wings Over Nicaragua Mission
Reaching the Miskito People through Aviation and Medical Work

Baby in a tractor trailer

The radio crackled to life just after breakfast calling us, it was the hospital in Waspam. A man had just come in with a bullet wound, and they were stabilizing him. Could we transport him in 1 hour? A quick check of the weather via Internet looked good, so I started getting the airplane ready. Just then, a man came up on his bicycle and said his wife was in labor, and needed to go to the hospital. We didn't have a truck, and the village was 45 minutes walk away. I told her husband if they could bring her here, then I could take her in the plane. I told him I would be leaving in 1 hour. He was on his bike, so he could be back to his village in 15 minutes. Time would be close, but no one wears watches or pays any attention to the time here so there was little hope they would be back in time. At 50 minutes there was still no sign of them. I had the stretcher in the plane and was ready to fly. I got on the motorcycle and thought I would at least see if they were close by before I left. I got ¼ mile away, and there was the lady lying on the ground beside the road, and her husband had a desperate look on his face. I told them to just wait there, and went straight back to the house. I yelled to Marilyn to come quick with her baby delivery bag. She was ready to go because the lady's mother had just arrived on a different path. Marilyn jumped on the back of the motorcycle while I yelled to our hired hand, Ervin, to bring the small tractor and trailer as quickly as possible. Now the trailer is a very rough ride, not much suspension, but is faster than walking and easier for carrying someone. I dropped off my wife and things weren't looking very good. I left to get the plane started. The tractor arrived and they maneuvered the lady into the trailer and took off over the bumpy ¼ mile road to get back home. Marilyn delivered the baby halfway home, in the back of the trailer. When Erivn pulled in front of the airplane hangar he was shocked to see a new baby already delivered. Brandel (our 7 year old son) was able to hold the brand new baby for a few minutes while all the adults flew around getting everything done.
After Marilyn got the mother and baby cleaned up, we loaded her in the airplane so the hospital could double check them both and be sure there were no complications. In Waspam I unloaded the mother and baby, and loaded the guy with the bullet wound. It is not very often I get to make my trip both directions with patients! That will be the only baby in Nicaragua that can claim being born in the trailer of a walking tractor.

Here are some of our projects that we wish to share with you. We do this for three main reasons. First so that you have knowledge of what the Lord is doing in Nicaragua. And second to solicit prayers. We ask that you will please pick one project and put it on your prayer list. Thirdly, none of these projects can be done with the financial support of you, our supporters. Thank you for your support in both money and prayers.
Truck:
Our first priority is a TRUCK.
Our 4x4 truck quit working last October. It has made life much more complicated, as well as limiting our emergency medical transportation. We have $9,000 saved of the $15,000 we need for a used 4x4 Toyota.

Leadership Training
As we have spent our last four months contemplating where we are and what the Lord wants us to do, we realize that much of what we have done is temporary. When we leave, so will our work. We would like to touch the lives of the people around us in a more spiritual way. To this end we are starting the "Leadership Training" seminars. They will be monthly 3 day Bible training seminars that will teach Biblical truths as well as Christian lifestyle and health. Each month a different topic will be offered. Because we feel our inadequacy in this department we are looking to bring in presenters to help facilitate the education of the laity and members.
Part of the problems with the churches is that there are so few spirit-filled and educated ministers on this side of Nicaragua. There is only one ordained pastor who has to oversee as many as 10 or more lay-pastors who each have 5-10 churches to care for. Much of the cost of this program will be for travel costs for presenters to come from the Pacific side of Nicaragua bringing a refreshing addition of spiritually focused education with them.
We would also welcome people to visit us from the United States, that are willing to prepare and present a 3 day seminar. Translators are available.

Health Worker:
Some villages have a government clinic building, but no medicine or nurse. We would like to hire a part or full time health worker and stock them with simple medicines. They can triage patients before flights to maximize the use of the airplane. They would also assist a doctor when there is one to fly in for a mobile clinic.
The first place to put a health worker would be in Lapan a 2,000 person village that is 35 minutes flight from here. We fly there on average of once a week. It has a government clinic but no medicine or nurse for many months at a time. In order to get a nurse to live there, they would have to be paid the going (or higher) wages, and would open the clinic under MINSA (government hospital) guidance for 5 days a week. Because it is so remote, no one wants to go live there and the government nurse leaves for her own home when she runs out of medicine.

We would like to take a girl with "promise" from the village and send her to nursing school for 1 year (a practical nursing). With that minimal training, she could return to her village and work for us. And she would be willing to stay in the village because it is her home. She would also stay because we could provide her more consistently with medicine. Wages for a new practical nurse start at $150 per month with a mandatory increase yearly.

Runways:
We are slow to build runways at this time because we are waiting for the village people to build it themselves. If we provided some incentive such as shovels, picks, machetes, files and/or food, we could get a few built more quickly. Barbed wire fencing for runways is also needed.
The runway in Raiti is the next one I am working on. I plan to go there soon to work some. It is a 2 day trip (45 min flight) by river and I would work there a few days. If a volunteer came and knew Spanish, they could spend a week or 2 there (+ travel from America would be 4 days on each end, min 2 1/2 to 3 weeks) and probably get it done. The people need motivation and management, and an American could do that quite well. Not speaking Miskito and knowing the culture, it would be harder, but if they knew good Spanish they could probably do it. I would go get them set up for a couple days. The rainy season is starting, so it would need to be soon for a volunteer. Money to purchase tools would also help to get it done much quicker.

Water.
Biosand water filters. I built one out of cement, it will last forever. They cost about $200 each to build, and one per family would be ideal at some time in the future.
Other water projects. We drilled a well in 2 villages, ours and one a few miles away. I would be interested in a solar pump and tank as a trial in one of the villages. The well water is clean, so would not need filtration. The problem is not everyone can easily access one place, but it would be a start.

Agriculture program:
The agriculture program is one of our hardest areas since neither of us have any expertise in this area. Slowly Marilyn is working on her own garden and sharing techniques and seeds with people who are interested.

It would be nice to have some agriculture classes from a visiting "expert". Also some Spanish literature about agriculture would be read if rightly distributed.

Last year we did a project with Wings Of Hope and distributed seeds that they sent. It worked well and many people have brought us fine vegetables that they grew using the seeds. We are looking forward to repeating this project again in the fall.

One drawback to most village gardens is that they plant them out away from the village on their plantations. Since they don't visit them every day, often they are destroyed. The people are afraid to plant close to their house because of the pigs, sheep, cows and chickens that run free in the village. As part of the project, some fencing material would be well received. Barbed wire works great for cows but the other animals go right through. Some kind of pig wire type fencing would be better. One project passed out barbed wire and almost everyone used it. It now keeps the cows out of many of the gardens but fails to keep out the sheep, pigs and chickens.

Sincerely,

Clint and Marilyn Hanley

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