Dear Family,
We have been quite busy the last few weeks. I spent a nice 5 days working with Steve Long on the airplane doing the annual the end of January. Steve is the head of all the mechanics at Wings of Hope out of St. Louis, who helps us keep the plane flying. When we were done with the very extensive annual, we flew to Managua (2 ½ hrs) because I needed to organize getting a new airplane hangar I had bought, to the truck to transport it across the country. First the company sent it up partially (in several little pieces) so I could check it. I labeled all 82 pieces carefully. It is 20 feet tall, 57 feet wide, and 37 feet long and consists of 3 major steel trusses with steel tubes between to hold the PVC canvas. They said it will take 20 people to set it up, or a crane.
I got back from Managua Wednesday afternoon, and Thursday left to Kukalaya to do a GPS confirmation on the runway. This was the place I went the end of July, and we still don't have the runway approved. Many things have caused the delay, but the reason I had to go back into it was because there is a special requirement of location information that is only available with my airplane GPS in one spot at a couple locations for at least 10 minutes at each spot. I hiked in last time through chest deep water in the rainy season, this time it is the dry season. I flew to Lapan, left 2 watchman with guns in charge of the plane, and started the hike. It was much easier, not so muddy. The problem was the river we got to after 2 hours of hiking had no boat. Last time there was a boat there and someone took us across. It was about 75 yards across. There was no wood to make a raft for us that would float in the whole area, we looked all around. After an hour of waiting for a boat, I decided to swim. The guy with me was worried about crocodiles, but they are usually cayman's, and are small, so I told him they were no problem. We made a tiny little raft from sticks to hold my pack, and pushed it across with our clothes and boots on it. We then walked another 3 hours to the lagoon, and waited there 3 hours for the people that had 1 small boat there to come back from their plantation on their way home. I was happy they came 1 hour before sundown, I was thinking we might have to spend the night in the bush. I watched as they grabbed globs of black mud and poked it in the holes in the dugout canoe. The wife used her husband's boot to bail water most of the time while they paddled the 45 minutes to the village. The next morning I walked the 20 minutes to the runway with the village leaders and checked it with the GPS and tape measure. They took me in a boat most of the way back, and I enjoyed watching many kinds of birds, turtles, and fish as we wound along the little creeks. When we reached the big river, the one we swam over, the guy who knew the river well asked about us swimming. He wondered if we were scared of the crocodiles. I told him the same thing as I had told the other guy, but he said, "well, they are not so small, up 8 feet long here, they will take a person". Then he asked, "What about the sharks?" Only a couple miles from the ocean on a big river . . . I had forgotten about those.
I was happy to get back Friday and rest Sabbath. I had just set up our projector in church Sabbath morning and Marilyn started on the Sabbath school class for the kids, when our watchman came over and told me the radio was calling. I ran the ½ a mile home, and they said there was an emergency in Waspam that needed to go to Port. It was windy, so I was happy to have the Internet to call and check the wind in Port. It looked OK, so I put the stretcher in the plane, changed clothes, and took off in the plane. The guy was very sick, so a doctor accompanied him with all his IV's. In Port the wind had risen since my call, it was gusting to 40 knots, which is past the limit for the plane. Fortunately, it was coming down the runway (mostly) so I was able to land with some prayer and heavy work on the foot pedals. The waiting ambulance whisked the guy away with its lights flashing. The doctor went with them to see the patient through to the other hospital, then came back and I flew him back to Waspam. The wind is always better inland, away from the ocean.
Today I was up at 4:40 AM and on the road by 5:00 heading to Francia Sirpi to get the doctor and nurse who have agreed to help us out with some mobile clinics. I showed the local village leaders in Francia the beginning and end of the runway I had started there several years ago. It is getting quite overgrown and needs lots of work. I was back in Tronquera by 8 AM, got my wife and the medicines loaded up and delivered them 15 minutes away to our nearby village of Santa Rita. They saw 17 patients there, then came back to Tronquera and saw another 8. I got everything ready to install a radio in Lapan, where we will do a mobile clinic tomorrow. It is 40 minutes flight away. They haven't had a doctor or nurse since the 1st week of December, when we were there last.
I still need to get the floor poured on the widow's house, the hangar is coming overland, and I have to put some new steering ball joints on the truck – I need more hours in the day.
Sincerely,
Clint Hanley
Wings Over Nicaragua Mission
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