Rice Flight

After two days of heavy rain, we had good weather today for flying and took rice by helicopter to the town of Jagart in the Gorkha district.  This area was the epicenter of the earthquake on April 25, 2015.  The remote area is barely accessible in the best of times and is now cut off except by helicopter.  The area is made up of very rocky steep mountains where people live literally on the side of a cliff.  We have made several trips to this area taking 6000 lbs of rice each time.  The helicopter must fly back and forth two or three times to get all the rice delivered.  The helicopter is taken as far as possible but even at this people hike for four or five hours to reach the meeting point.  The villages further into the mountains do not have a flat place for the helicopter to land so Jagart is as far as we can go.  Each time we are met with shouting and dancing villagers.  Local pastors are on hand to help with distribution.  Even the Nepali military men stationed near the boarder with China (Tibet) have by thankful for our rice as they have not received any other assistance themselves.  We have been receiving a 90% discount from  Mission Aviation Fellowship for the flights.  This discount will only be available for two more weeks so we will try and get in two more shipments before the fee is raised. Thank you for you generosity which has made this possible!