So, as best as I can understand it, a Letsema is kind of like an old-fashioned barn-raising. People from the community all come together on the same day to work on a particular project, then when the work is done they share a meal together.
Last fall,
MAF hosted a Letsema in the village of Nohana. The runway condition had gotten
pretty bad. Small clumps of grass had grown on the dirt/gravel runway, and over
time the small clumps turned into large, hard bumps that made for a very rough
ride in the airplane.
On Monday
morning, two airplane loads of MAF staff showed up and we started clearing the
clumps of grass with picks, shovels, and rakes. Over the next hour or so, more
and more people from the village showed up. In the end we had about 50-60
people working on the airstrip! Though we were not able to complete everything
that we had hoped for, we were able to clear the grass clumps out of the
parking area and the first third (approx. 600ft.) of the runway.
Everyone
worked until 2pm, when we stopped to share our meal together. A few of the
ladies from MAF had spent the day cooking a delicious meal of papa (a corn meal
based dish that looks like mashed potatoes), some fabulously seasoned
vegetables with a little touch of spiciness, and mutton.
When we
arrived in the morning we landed on a very bumpy runway. But when we left in
the evening, we enjoyed a nice, smooth takeoff!
