Food Relief Arrives To Yehebi

                 When we arrived in early February, it was obvious the long drought had affected everyone. People were thin. Most women didn't seem to even weigh 90 pounds. Plus some children had the big belly and thin legs caused from lack of proper nutrition. I noticed the children from a family of eight children were especially thin.

                 In mid-March, we heard that long-awaited food relief was finally coming to the area. Months and months of a long drought had everyone struggling with sago as their only source of food. With earlier promises of help I wondered if this would be realized, but on the morning of March 23^rd, we got definite news that Yehebi would be receiving seven plane loads of rice for six villages in the area.
               

A big crowd watching the plane arrive.

               Excitement mounted as people gathered on the station to await the first plane. Those coordinating the relief asked that we have many men waiting to unload quickly so the pilot would have a fast turn-round for the next run. Flights started early and lasted most of the day as a friendly Australian pilot made five runs of rice—1000 kilograms on each plane (or about 2,000 pounds).   

Dale talking with Australian pilot, Chris

               Men were ready to assist with unloading the 20 kilogram bags (about 44 pounds). The next day the last two loads of rice arrived. Over 7 tons of rice was delivered in those two days.

A long line of men quickly unloaded the rice.

               Next was the task of dividing it up equally for the six villages. We were asked to help figure out how many bags each village would get. We were told village population counts and the amount of rice per person by an Australian friend coordinating the relief. With my handy-dandy phone calculator, we figured out the number of bags for each village. Then they set to work dividing the rice into large piles in the school rooms for each village. It would stay dry there until each village could carry their share home.

               Each village was then responsible for dividing their rice equally. Here at Yehebi, it worked out to two bags per household and then depending on household numbers they got 1-3 extra bags accordingly.

 It's not often that two planes land in one day at Yehebi. But it is a rare event when two planes are on the airstrip at the same time. Here, as our area MAF plane arrived to take home the pastors who attended the workshop, while the Central Aviation plane taxied for take off.

                At the end of the day everyone went home happy, we knew the cooking fires would be starting up soon to boil a pot of rice. We gained a sense of relief that food would be in everyone’s belly that night. More than a month later, the rice has been eaten. But we just got news today that more food relief is coming in the next week or so. And the people are excited. What a blessing to have those willing to work hard to get help to the area.

               Many thanks to all those who helped to coordinate the relief.
 

(C) 2016 Carin G. LeRoy