Wildlife Park

After Christmas, a bunch of families spent a few days camping at the wildlife park a few hours south of here. A group of people went down the river in canoes and boats to get to the park. We drove to the park and met them there. At the entrance of the park, we picked up a guide. As we drove through the park, he sat on top of the vehicle giving us directions and trying to spot animals. Our kids actually had keener eyes than he did and usually spotted the animals before he found them. Brynn really had eagles eyes those days! This picture is of the paths through the park. There is a lot of tall yellow grass and smaller trees/brush. There are lions in the park. Some others in our group spotted lions, but we never saw any. They could have been laying down in the grass two feet from the road and we never would have seen them.
We saw lots of antelope and other deer-like-creatures.
We also saw some elephants.


Much of Africa has Baobab trees like this one. There were a lot of them in the park. For much of the year they are leafless and look like an upside down tree with it's roots sticking up in the air. The fruit (monkey fruit or monkey bread) is rich in vitamin C. These trees can get very large in diameter so that they can be hollowed out and used for shelter. They also can hold a large amount of water which can be tapped and used. Some of you may remember these trees as the "tree of life" in the Lion King movie.


The girls really liked this bird. I haven't been able to find what type of bird it is yet, but it is pretty.


Here's a Giant African Millipede. They can grow up to 11 inches long. This one was about 8 inches long. Apparently millipedes are herbivores and centipedes are carnivores. No worries, this guy won't hurt you unless you get the liquid from it's glands in your eyes or mouth.

We enjoyed hiking on the rocky hills near the campsite.Here's the view from the top of the hill overlooking the river and campsite.

We also took a ride on the river looking for the elephants that are often near the water. We didn't find any on that ride, but we enjoyed the views along the river.


We also ventured up the river a few miles to an island where a lady has built 10 cabins like this one. If you'd like to spend a few days in a cabin on an island in the river, come on over... we now know where it is.


The kids love camping. It was a good family break before we began the new year.

A Cowboy Christmas Play

One of the perks of working together with family is spending holidays together. The kids have a tradition of performing a Christmas play every Christmas Eve with their cousins. This Christmas, they decided to add a twist to the play and perform it as a cowboy Christmas play.

Mary and Joseph were unable to find room in the "bar" so they had to stay in the barn.
Gabriel the cowboy angel proclaimed the good news.


Silas was a cowboy shepherd. Notice his sister's pink cowboy boots that he was sporting. He could only find one of his boots that day, so he wore Elayna's pink boots instead.


The neighbors' dog participated in the play as well.
Here's the cast after the closing song. An encore performance was a must this year so we could fully enjoy the play.

Surprise!

Someone bought a plane ticket for Joy to go home to see her parents for Christmas. Her sister, who teaches at Sahel, planned it so that the trip would be a surprise to their parents. Joy arrived here from school in Europe early in the morning. Our family and a group of her friends met her at the airport and went to the hangar for an early breakfast. I then flew Joy and her sister home for Christmas.


In the southern part of Mali there are some mesas that reach to 3000 - 4000 ft.


They jet up out of the flat barren land around them.

The steep sides are impressive.


Joy's dad asked me to make a detour on the way to their home to take some aerial footage of some fire breaks he had cut through the grasslands. Technology can be a wonderful thing! We talked on Skype before the flight. He described the location of the fire breaks while I looked at Google Earth. I was then able to get some coordinates for where the fire breaks would probably be. After 2 hours of flying to get there, the fire breaks were right where he had described. You can see the black ribbon weaving through the brown. That's one of the fire breaks he cut. The people in that area feed their herds of sheep, goats and cows with the grass. Brush fires rush across that area every year destroying the grass vital to the survival of these people. Joy's dad has been cutting fire breaks for about three years now to show the people and the government the effect they can have on stopping these fires.


Here's a little village we flew over.


And a herd of cows.

There's a large lake in that area. Apparently there is a lot of wildlife that gathers at this lake which is surrounded by sand and grasslands. Elephants venture north to this lake after the rainy season is over.


The second fire break we filmed was near this lake. It had actually stopped a brush fire. You can see the burned area to the right of the fire break in the picture. Joy's dad wanted the video footage to include in a dvd presentation he's preparing for the government.

The surprise worked out perfectly. We landed in the town where Joy's parents live. Joy hid in the plane while her parents pulled up. We told them to close their eyes and then Joy came out of the plane and walked up to them. Tears of joy flowed all around.

We enjoyed another quick visit with Joy on her way back to school after the break. The kids still consider her to be part of our family.

Fistula Hospital Construction

Construction on the Fistula Hospital is roaring along. Not only is the hospital construction in process, but also a guesthouse facility is being built there as well to house the teams of doctors and nurses who perform the surgeries. We continue to fly there regularly, taking Chad to supervise each stage of the construction. This is a picture of the roof being put on one section of the guesthouse.

Right before Christmas, we flew a plane load to spend a day and a half wiring the guesthouse facility. There were 6 of us: myself, Ed (one of our pilots), Chad, Craig (Chad's brother) and their two sons. Our trip began with a little setback. As we taxied onto the runway to takeoff on the flight, our right main tire went flat. We had to shut the plane down on the runway and I called the tower to have the firemen come help us. With their help, we were able to push the plane off the runway a few feet at a time. They pushed up on the wing to take the weight off the flat tire and we pushed the plane 10 feet. We then set it down to rest and went again. We had to move the plane about 60 meters to get it clear of the runway. Once it was clear, we got a ride to the hangar with the firemen and brought tools back to change the tire. We were on our way again about an hour later than planned. That made our ambitious schedule even tighter. Chad planned for us to wire up the three guesthouse buildings that day and the next morning before flying back home. Here's a picture of the building that will be the common area, kitchen, and laundry facility. You can see the wood framework in place for the ceiling.


We worked hard pulling wires for lights, fans, outlets, switches, etc... Here's Ed wiring up one of the junction boxes.


The boys worked hard as well. They were invaluable walking across the ceiling framework for us pulling wires to where we needed them to go.


Meanwhile, we were busy labeling wires and hooking them up.


Chad kept us efficiently on track with the master plan. He had the fun of making the maze all come together correctly in the circuit box. The last junction box was closed up 15 minutes before we had to leave for the airport to make it back home in time before dark.


At the beginning of January, an electrical team from New York came out to do the much bigger job of wiring the entire Fistula hospital buildings. They spent 3 weeks there along with Chad. We flew out three other families for a week each to help them and cook for the team. On one of those flights, I had the left tire go flat as I landed on the runway. Deja vu. I managed to get the plane stopped on the runway. We were turned sideways on the runway by the time it finally came to a stop. This time, though, we were at a runway that is not nearly as busy. The tower said there were no other planes coming that day, so we could leave the plane on the runway to fix the tire. We used the jack from a vehicle and a cement block to jack the left landing gear. Once we got the tire off, we took it to the house of one of our co-workers in that town who had patches for inner tubes. We were able to patch the tube and get the tire back on the plane in a couple of hours. Then, I flew back and put a new tube in the tire once we were back at our hangar. Nothing like a little improvisation in the bush.

Sahel Academy also sent a team of students for a week to lend a hand. It was a huge success with all the wiring being completed. This is a picture of the administrative building.


Here's the operating room building. Now that the wiring is completed, the tile is being installed on the floors of all the buildings.


Here's the ward. Notice the bottom side of the roof. It has reflexive insulation installed just underneath the metal roof. I can personally attest that the insulation works great. After spending a day and a half crawling around in the ceiling of the guesthouse facility underneath that insulation, I was very thankful for it. I've spent many hours above the ceiling in our house which doesn't have insulation under the metal roof. The metal roof is too hot to touch, but with the insulation you can touch the insulation and not feel any heat coming through.

December fun

Happy birthday Kira! She turned 8 in December. We're proud of the young lady she's becoming. With her birthday coming right before Christmas, we have her party on her half birthday. She chose to have brownies for her "cake" this year on her real birthday.

The kids' school had a dress up day for Christmas the last week of school before their break. Brynn dressed up like an angel.
Kira was a Christmas tree.


During the break Silas and Elayna had fun making cookies with Krista.

They also got into the dress up fun at home. Here's the glamorous Elayna.
And rough and tough cowboy Silas sporting his vest passed down to him by the teenage son of our teammates.