Noah seemed to enjoy the flights and made himself right at home on the clinic grounds -- playing and handing out stickers and clothing we had brought for the patients. I was very proud to watch him walk up to patients and give them socks and stocking caps we had brought. (These were clothing items donated as part of a project my sister Keeli is organizing back in the States.)
Lebakeng is an absolutely beautiful place. The airstrip and medical clinic sit on a plateau at an elevation just over 6000'. The plateau is at least 2/3 surrounded by a river canyon. 
Like many other mountain clinics, Lebakeng serves a large area of villages but there are no houses right near the clinic grounds.
Lebakeng is an interesting challenge when it comes to missions work and remote medical care as you cannot access this area by road. I do not mean the roads are rough, or poorly maintained, or long, or dangerous -- there literally are NO roads into Lebakeng. So unless you enjoy a long hike or horseback ride, your only means of reaching the people in this area are by MAF airplane.
In fact, everything including building supplies has to be flown in. Right now PIH is expanding the medical service offered at this clinic and is building several new structures including a pharmacy, staff housing, primary care clinic, TB clinic, AIDS clinic, generator/solar/battery building, and storage buildings. EVERYTHING needed for the construction project (well over 100 tons of material) is being flown in by MAF plane. MAF South Africa pilot Mark Laprini has been assisting our Lesotho team by flying shuttle flights of building materials in a larger Cessna 208B Grand Caravan. This larger aircraft can run 6 flights a day and must be loaded and unloaded by hand.
It was amazing to watch the construction activity at the site and think about the tremendous effort involved in bringing medical care to this remote place. The amount of brick and stone, concrete mix, steel bar, window frames, etc. that have to be flown in. The workers hand shaping stones for the buildings and operating with minimal power tools. Bags and cans of food. Cooking fuel. Heating fuel. Wood and coal. Medication and bandages and gauze and blankets and all the other things that are needed for people to live and work and strive to provide adequate health care in Lebakeng. What a huge task!Spending the day in Lebakeng was another good reminder of why MAF is serving God here in Lesotho. In this remote place our planes are fundamental in delivering the materials and medical professionals needed to extend the lives of the Basotho mountain people.
About an hour before our return flight to Maseru, we noticed some women carrying very heavy stones on their heads. At first we thought they were moving the stones from a central pile to one of the building sites. Upon further investigation we learned these women were carrying the stones well over a mile, uphill, from the river below the airstrip. Imagine if all the building materials for this growing clinic had to be carried in on the heads of local Basotho women!I am thankful that MAF is here to help carry the load.
As always our family thanks you for your prayers. We ask that you continue to pray for the Basotho people living in the Lesotho mountains. Please pray specifically for the growing clinic in Lebakeng, that construction would be swift and that the work being done in this place would bring much needed medical care and extended life to thousands of isolated people. Thank you and God Bless.
Traig
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