2nd Diesel Plane Update

The work on the 2nd diesel plane continues. Here you can see the new paint job on the fuselage with the new windows installed. We sent Ian to the States for a few weeks to help with the work on the plane. They have the diesel engine bolted onto the plane now and are working on the installation of the radios and instruments.

Co-pilot

Silas has waited for this day for a long time. He's watched each of his sisters have a turn being my co-pilot for a day when they turned 4 years old. Today, there was a flight scheduled to Galmi that had room on it for Silas to go along. In his rush to get out of the house this morning, he could hardly spare a moment to give mom a hug. He proudly toted his backpack, lunch and water bottles to the van and later to the plane.

Do you think he had a good time? I sure did. It was a treat having him fly with me for a day. We had the fun of carrying 50 lbs of frozen turkey and 22 lbs of potatoes with us to Galmi for their Thanksgiving celebration. We were happy to help make their celebration a little more special. One of the highlights for Silas was seeing Buddy in Galmi. Buddy is one of the puppies our dog had almost two years ago. He now belongs to a family there. Silas was excited to see him sitting at the gate by the airstrip.



Here's the view from my "office" taken a little over a month ago near the end of rainy season. You can see the patches of green from the crops in the fields. Pray for the many people who had poor harvests this year due to the sporadic rains and damage done by grasshoppers and worms.

This picture from my "office" was taken today. Just a few weeks after the last rains fall, everything turns brown again until the rains come again in 8-9 months. The straight line cutting diagonally across he picture is the main road across the southern part of the country.

Wells

Water is a precious commodity in this part of the world. Our hospitals in Danja and Galmi have wells that not only provide water for the hospital compounds, but also for the residents in the nearby towns. Each location has had some problems with their wells. Galmi's pump broke, which created a crisis for several days until the pump could be temporarily fixed until a new pump arrived. These problems showed that a good back up well was needed as the hospital, staff houses, and town residents all depend on the water. Danja needed another well to help with the increased demand from the new Fistula center.

A friend with another organization has a ministry that includes drilling wells for villages. In between drilling projects, he agreed to send their drilling team to Danja to drill a bore hole well there. I flew him out for a day to see the location for the new well and discuss the logistics with our construction supervisor. Shortly after that, the drilling team went and drilled the well. That well is now operational.

When their drilling rig was headed back to the city, he had them stop at Galmi to drill a back up well. Once again, I had the privilege of flying him to Galmi this time so he could meet with his team and get them started on drilling. Here, you can see the drilling rig and the team of guys getting everything set up to start drilling. The bore hole well at Galmi is successfully completed. They still need to hook up a pump and pipe it into their water system.


Shortly after the rig left Galmi and returned to the city, they got to work drilling a well at Sahel. This well will serve the school and help reduce the cost of water from the city system. We're thankful for the ministry these guys have providing good clean water to communities that desperately need it. We're also thankful for their willingness to provide this service to our hospitals and school.

Phone shots

I don't always have a camera with me, but I usually have my phone. These are some pictures I snapped with my phone over the past two weeks that give you a glimpse into daily life. When we're not flying, we still have a lot of other things to do to keep the planes flying and the program running. Sometimes we are in the office doing finances, flight scheduling or updating maintenance records. Other times, we are running around town to government offices or getting fuel for the planes. A lot of the time, we're doing maintenance or inspections on the planes. Last week, we ended up pulling one of the propellers completely apart. It had been leaking some oil. The prop company mailed us new oring seals from Germany to fix the leak. They arrived last week, so we spent a day and a half pulling the propeller apart. Thankfully, we sent Ian to Germany a few years back for training with the prop manufacturer. As a result, they gave us permission to do this work ourselves instead of sending the prop to Germany for the repair, which would have cost thousands of dollars and taken several months. The seal that needed to be changed was on a piston inside the prop hub behind the blades. Ed is cleaning the inside of the hub in this picture.


Here, Ian is cleaning the prop blades. You can see all the pieces on the table that go with each blade.


The day after we changed the seal on the prop, I flew 3 men to Galmi Hospital and spent the night. The men were with another organization that's working in some villages in that region teaching sanitation and hygiene. They also loan female goats to families at risk in the villages so they can start their own flocks. The female goat is then passed on to another family at risk to do the same thing. While meeting physical needs, they are also seeking to meet the spiritual needs of the people in these villages. I stayed at the hospital compound and checked out the construction projects. The original hospital buildings were built in the 1950s and are falling apart. The hospital is in the process of completely rebuilding everything. In this picture, you can see one of the old buildings on the right and the new surgical ward being built on the left. In the foreground, several workers are loading sand, gravel and cement mix into a mixer to mix cement. This is one site where we actually have a small cement mixer. Most cement mixing is done by hand on our other projects.


We have some great guys helping supervise the rebuild project this year. We'll need some more construction supervisors for the next stages next year.


At the same time, they are also building a new duplex on the hospital compound. The hospital has been blessed with more long term staff, but that also means they need more housing. Here you can see the walls going up on the duplex.



There are always lots of animals to see driving around the city. A few days ago, I was driving and saw these camels and some cows in the back of this flat bed truck. I got my phone out in time to catch the camels, but not the cows that were with them.


Over the weekend, we spent a morning relaxing down by the river. Some men from a nearby village were fishing not far away. You can see them casting their net into the water from their wooden pirogue.

Elayna turns 6

After returning to Africa, we celebrated Elayna's 6th birthday a few weeks ago with her friend, Eliza. They share the same birthday and are good buddies. The last two years, they've asked to do their parties together. This year, the decided to have a tea party and sported their matching dresses. We call them the twins. Eliza's mom made this beautiful cake.


The girls made little dolls at the party and had a dress up relay.

Being the only boy at the tea party, Silas' job was to be the butler. He took his role seriously, holding the door for the girls and escorting each one to the table.


Elayna got this doll for her birthday. She'd been waiting several years to buy the doll with her money. Being a nicer doll, we told each of our girls they could buy one themselves when they turned 6, so they are old enough to take care of it and feel more responsibility having paid for it themselves. Elayna had watched her sisters each get one and greatly anticipated her turn.

Wayside Inn and Mary Had a Little Lamb

We returned to MA for our last week in the States before returning to Africa. On the way there we spent a few days in Maryland again with my sister, Amy, and her family. We got to watch one of my nephew's play soccer as well as test out the snow cones (water ice) at the shop where my other nephew works. I'm all for eating ice cream to show support to our family. We also spent a day at a local farm picking blueberries, blackberries, and nectarines.

Back in MA, two of Krista's friends (Joyce and Lisa) flew in to visit us for a few days. We enjoyed reconnecting with them and showing them some of our favorite places in MA. High on that list is the Wayside Inn, which is a historic colonial inn. Eating there with my dad and Grandma is always on our "to do" list while we're in the States.


After feasting on the great food at the Wayside Inn, we headed over to the Little Red School house on the property. This school house was moved to the property by Henry Ford. It's the school house of the famed song, "Mary had a little lamb."


Silas is showing he's king of the rock in the school yard.


Kira testing out the school supplies and desks.

Brynn drawing Mary's lamb.

Family Times

The day after the wedding, we enjoyed a relaxing day at a park with all of Krista's family. Bethany and Jacob joined us before heading off on their honeymoon. It was nice to enjoy hanging out together without having to take care of wedding plans. Here's a picture of Krista with her brother and sisters.
We were blessed to stay in a house owned by Krista's home church during our time in NC. Aside from being a great place to stay, it also gave us room to host family and friends. My brother, Drew, and his family drove up from Atlanta to visit us our last weekend in NC. Here's Elayna with her cousin, Rayna, who is the same age. We're very thankful for Jacob's family who let us crash their homestead for day to hang out and swim with my brother's family.