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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