Training...

Phew, it feels like Friday! We have both been so busy this week. This is the first night I have had home this week. Monday night I had to go to a meeting with the DAC and yesterday night I had English class. Tonite Becca is gone at an MAF ladies coffee/desert, and tomorrow night she will be at bible study. We haven't had much time to think this week, although we sure like it that way. It wasn't that long ago that we were in Costa Rica bored out of our minds, and now we are on the other end of the spectrum being so busy we just cannot fit anymore into a day.

Today I had my third training flight. I feel like things are coming along well. I wouldn't admit to have it all down, or be ready to fly solo operationally, but it is coming. Chad our instructor thinks I am almost ready for my checkride with "the general" so that may happen next week or the following. I tried my hand at Air Traffic Control communications today in Spanish, and lets just say it leaves a lot to be desired. But at least all those involved including myself were laughing. It reminds me of those first flights 6 years ago as a private pilot canidate flying into the "big" towered airports, and being so nervous about the communication part. With practice it all came together, and along with it confidence as well. So, here I am again bumbling all over myself with ATC, but it will come with practice.

I was able to make an operational flight this morning with Chad. First we flew a lady and her new baby back to their village. I had brought them out with Kevin about a week ago. She was having a tough labor. Once she got to the hospital it was determined that the baby would have died if she had waited any longer, and the mom also had a bad blood infection. Basically when we loaded her into the airplane the baby was "coming out." The interesting thing is that she walked out to the airplane and got in and sat down. The Indians from the jungle have a reputation for having tremendous pain tolerances, and she was no exception.

The other flight was to a nearby village to pick up a shooting victim. We couldn't get all the details out of the man, but he had been shot in the leg the day before. From what we could gather he had some enemies in that village, and things may have escalated. It was an interesting dynamic when we picked him up. You just never know what or who you will be flying, and the circumstances therein.

Yesterday I made the "water run." I don't think that we have ever explained that we don't use the water out of our tap. Most of the locals of course use the water from the tap. Their bodies have grown accustomed to the extra "nutrients" that come from the tap, but it would probably just make us sick. We do use the water to wash dishes and take showers, but we don't consume it. So, we make a water run once a week to a natural spring and fill up water jugs. We fill up jugs for most of our expatriate staff, as well as a few community members from Shell. Usually our maintenance man does it, but he was so busy yesterday that he could not do it. So I had a free chunk of time yesterday and he asked me to do it for him. So I loaded the jugs up in the truck and swung by the house to pick up Brooklyn and Becca, and we went on an outing.

The spring is at a large Christian camp and they have an outdoor swimming pool. It is basically a creek that has a makeshift dam on it which then pools and walla, insta-pool. It is a pretty neat setup, and Brooklyn of course was wet from head to toe in just a few minutes. What started out as just putting her feet in, turned into a take all of her clothes off and let her get in. She was actually walking on the "boat ramp" and walked off the edge into deeper water and instantly she was drenched and in heaven. She didn't want to go home she was having so much fun. Finally we drug her into the truck just wearing her underwear and put her seatbelt on. She loves swimming.

Today, Becca, Brooklyn and a few other MAF families all went swimming again. This time in Puyo. They all had a blast.

Here we are filling jugs before Brooklyn went swimming. It was a fun little excursion, and Brooklyn will surely want to go on the water run again some time.