Spider link

Below you will find a link to read about the spider that bit our pilot Fernando yesterday. Read for yourself...it is a nasty one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_wandering_spider

Prayer request

Today when I was leaving a village called Makuma, I was given an empty propane tank so that we could get it filled and take it back out to the jungle. We do this all the time. I loaded it up, later flew to Shell and didn't think anything about it.

Later, as one of my co-workers was helping unload my airplane, (our newest Ecuadorian pilot) he lifted out the propane tank, and then dropped it saying something bit him. Making a long story short, he was bitten by a tarantula type spider and had a very serious reaction. He is in ICU at the moment in the local mission hospital. The doctors are unable to give him any medicine because of the type of venom the spider has. Instead, they are just watching his vital signs and progress. It appears that Fernando will be fine with time, although he is in a lot of pain, and in a general state of discomfort. Please pray with us that his recovery will be quick.

I often write about the patients we fly and help, and it is weird that something so serious happened to one of our own, in our own hangar. Praise God it didn't happen to me while I was in the jungle loading that propane tank! If it would have happened to me (or anyone) out in the bush, I would have been unable to fly, and would have had to be flown out myself. Fernando quickly went to hospital after receiving the bite, which was a God thing. I'll let you know more tomorrow about his progress.

From the logbook...

I had two flights today, my first being several patient returns. It took about 1.5 hours and 5 landings and I was back in Shell. We had great weather again today, which helped us all get a lot done in an efficient manner.

My second flight we went to a village called Tiwaeno. It is inhabited by the same Indians that killed the 5 missionaries in the 50's and made international news. Many of you have seen the recent documentaries and movies about them. A member of the spearing party named Dewy is still living. Every time we land in TIW he prays with the pilot. I was able to enjoy this blessing today. It was a powerful experience as he prayed in his native tongue, of which I don't understand a word. We often use Spanish as a bridge with the many languages we encounter every day. I went with our instructor pilot Chad to TIW as he wanted me to get some more experience into this part of the jungle.
This is a typical house for these Indians. They construct their houses differently than the rest of the Indian tribes, although I'm sure it all works the same in the end.
This is the "owner" of the house above. He is seen here demonstrating how his blow guns work that he made. It was pretty neat.

This is a little parrot that I saw as we walked through the village. He is a pet they told me, but really mean. Therefore I didn't get to close, but he was colorful.

Our little cutie...

We were given this little "stander-upper-helper-walker" thing this weekend by some friends. Becca got some fun out of it today. Maddie is still a bit to young for it, but Becca found some smiles before Madison got too frustrated. (Notice by her cheeks she isn't starving)

From the logbook...

Today was the nicest day I have seen since Halloween. It was awesome. I didn't think once about fighting weather, where I could divert, etc. That was a good thing, because we were busy as always. One of the main things on the agenda today was hauling various church leaders into Makuma from various villages throughout the jungle. I flew south about an hour from Shell to the border of Peru to bring some Atchuar leaders from a village called Mashumarentza as well as some from Copataza. One of the missionaries that lives in Makuma works with the Atchuar Indians. Every once in a while he holds a large conference for his top leaders to encourage them and teach them more about the Bible.

It was a cool thing to be flying those indigenous leaders today. When MAF started our work here in Ecuador over 60 years ago, we were strictly flying western missionaries. Now, when ever we fly missionaries, or Christian workers, the majority of the time it is with national workers. There is still sooooo much work to be done for the kingdom, but this is a huge step that we are now flying the nationals to minister to each other.

The weekend...

I was on call this weekend which always makes things interesting in order to plan anything. Here are a few things that we did over the past few days...

• Our German Shepherd became an "it" on Friday. She (it) seems to be recovering nicely
• Our favorite Mexican food place opened back up in Puyo...Hooray Ernesto!
• Yesterday while taking a drive with the fam, Becca said "Sean, should the hood be sticking up like that?" Sure enough, one of our hinges had broken off and the spring was lifting the right rear corner up pretty far. I removed it today and my co-worker Mateo welded it for me. Now she shuts real nice!
• I was going to fly yesterday, but was delayed in getting my flight off because of rain. When the weather finally cleared enough to leave Shell, the village called us and said the patient I was going to bring out had died. It was a 3 year old with pneumonia. The realities of life are hard sometimes.
• Today I had another emergency flight. This time I was bringing out a 9 month old boy who had been stung by a deadly scorpion. The last time this happened we weren't able to get there soon enough because of weather, and the patient died. Luckily, today the weather was great, and hopefully this little boy will survive. Pray with us that his parents will come to Christ as well through this ordeal.
• Brooklyn and I gave away a lot of oranges, limes, and lemons today. We have 1 tree of each in our frontyard. Every week or two we like to just pick as much as we can and give it to our neighbors and the kids that come up to the gate. It is an easy way to meet our neighbors.
• I did some "gardening" by removing a palm tree in our front yard and transplanting it to the side of our house. It sure looks nicer over there, time will tell if it likes it's new spot.
• Becca made a pumpkin pie this past Friday. I somehow missed out on a piece of pumpkin pie during the holidays, so she made me one. It is already gone...darn!
• We received Madison's American passport. She is now totally "paperworked" and official in both Ecuador and the good ol' USA!
• Despite the lack of schedule, I still managed a nap everyday...ahhh nice!
• I tried to play printer fixer also and failed miserably. Brooklyn threw a corn kernel from some pop-corn into our printer a few days ago. Ever since it wouldn't print right. I was able to get our other printer to work that had some problems, but this one now sits in my trash barrel out front. It makes me sick to see such a nice, and expensive, piece of equipment thrown away like that, but I couldn't fix it. Reminds me of what my dad used to say, and I'm sure every other dad for that matter. "Sean, why do I even bother getting anything nice and new around here, all you kids do is break stuff." Now I am beginning to understand that is what kids do, sometimes on purpose, but mostly from just being kids.
  

More bugs...

Becca and I were outside this afternoon and all of a sudden she let out that shriek that only a woman can make. Those of you who have heard it know what I am talking about. It just about sends a man into cardiac arrest. The first time I heard Becca do it was when we were driving home to Alamosa from Creede, Colorado at night, and I about crashed. Becca saw a large herd of elk crossing the road and it scared her, and I experienced true startlement (is that a word?) for the first time. I didn't mention that I was driving with my headlights off just to see what it was like, but that's a whole other story.

Now, back to our backyard. As you can tell from our photo below we found another bug. Just another grasshopper. But, this is no ordinary grasshopper. Obviously it has an awesome disguise pattern looking like a leaf. But he was unique enough that he made me put on pink dish washing gloves just to get his picture. When a grasshopper is as large as this one was, you can see it's teeth very well. Later the gloves proved worthwhile as he tried to chomp right through the gloves. I know it sounds funny to receive a bite from a grasshopper, but things come big in the jungle, and you don't leave much to chance.

Old town Quito

Quito, for those that don't know, is a very old city. It dates back to Inca times, and once the Spanish arrived in the 1500's, they began to build as well. Below is an evening picture of one of the Catholic cathedrals in the city. Quito has a very unique colonial district where you can see really neat architecture and design. Most of it dates back to the 15-1700's, making you wonder who has wondered those streets. One of the neat things about this cathedral is that you can tour it. It has the largest golden altar in all of South America, and you can freely and easily climb into both bell towers, all for free. We haven't done it yet, but it is on the "to-do-list."

From the logbook...

Yesterday after waiting about two hours for weather I finally launched for my flight. As things would have it, my flight yesterday was purely Flight for Life. I took two returning patients back home to their villages, and then picked up 4 more to bring out to Shell. The patients I brought out ranged from a guy that got hit in the face with a log and knocked out his teeth, another with an overly infected arm, and another gal with advanced stages of what we would call bone cancer.

Our flight for life flights are a lot different than the ones I saw when working in Alamosa. My patients are never sterile. They almost always stink, and are filthy. And, I don't have a medical flight crew that goes with me. I am the nurse/doctor trying to tell everyone to hang on until we get to Shell.

Yesterday when I was landing in Shell, I found out I had another passenger. On final approach to land, I heard a loud chirping right behind me head. Upon landing, I discovered that one of my patients had stuffed a baby monkey in his shirt. I am not sure if it was a pet, or for sale, but he unbuttoned his shirt and searched for a strip of cloth. He began pulling it out and lo and behold, there was a baby monkey attached to the other end. It always amazes me what happens flying here. Most of the time it is very routine and ordinary, but then things happen like this stowaway that I have never even heard of before. It makes for interesting days indeed.

Today, I have the day off since I am on call this weekend. We hope to get some errands done, one of which entails converting our German Shepherd puppy into an "it," if you know what I mean.

From the Logbook...Jungle touring 101

I haven't written a lot lately about my flying adventures because there hasn't been any. I have been flight coordinating this week, therefore I try to keep myself on terra firma to aid in the logistical process of keeping everyone else going. But, yesterday I did join up with Chad to do a flight to some new places I had never been. Our first stop was 50 minutes away. The weather in Shell was questionable, but reports that I had from the sector we would be flying into reported "strong sun." We entered the clouds shortly after leaving Shell, and got out to our destination still in the clouds. All our other alternates were closed down as well, which gave us the only option of turning around and coming back to Shell. So, I got to log some good training time in the clouds with Chad, but as far as entering some new airstrips, that will have to be another day.

Today I have a flight to do as well. We'll see what happens with the weather. It's always a tossup. There is no predicting equatorial weather. It isn't like in the northern or southern latitudes where you see a storm system develop days, sometimes weeks, before it arrives and affects you. Although I wouldn't call our weather severe, it is most definitely extreme in its unpredictability and movement.

All of winters glory...

I have read a few times in the headlines back home, that it sounds like winter is really happening. Some people are getting snow, extreme cold, and a downright real winter. Having lived through that (although it is hard to remember) I wanted to encourage everybody with a taste of what a little heat and sunshine can do. Remember it is only a month or two away for most of you until you can begin seeing Spring in the air. Or, if you live in the San Luis Valley of Colorado, then you might have to wait until June until Spring arrives...sorry guys. For those of you with cabin fever, you might think about moving to an equatorial latitude, where things like this grow year round, and it really messes with your brain in January when flowers are blooming and you cannot wait to get off work and put your shorts on .

A bugs life

MAF has an apartment in Quito that we rent for our staff and other missionaries to use when we need to be up there. It is part of an 11 story apartment complex, and it has a neat view from the roof. Unfortunately, our apartment is practically in the basement. It is definitely NOT luxury living, but is totally adequate for it's intended purpose. The occasional trip in the elevator up to the roof for a great view and some fresh air make staying in that basement apartment bearable!

A few weeks ago when we were in Quito Brooklyn and I were on the roof. All of a sudden she said, "Wook dad...big bug....oooooh, gucky." Sure enough I looked over at this piece of pipe that she was indicating, and there was a HUUUUGE grasshopper. We are used to seeing huge and interesting bugs in the jungle of Shell, but in the high mountains of Quito it took me by surprise. See below for the pic...

The thing I am trying to convey is the grasshopper's size. That is a one and a half inch pipe he is on. The grasshopper is probably 50% bigger in real life than in this picture. I had a hard time trying to get a scale picture of him because he really looks like an ordinary grasshopper... except he was BIG and I could see his teeth! He was as long as my hand, from the tip of my middle finger down to the bottom of my wrist. I bet they used to call him a protein bar in the old days...yum!

Comet McNaught

I was reading wikipedia.com this morning and it talked of a comet that those in the Southern Hemisphere can see right now. We are barely in the Southern Hemisphere, but sure enough, we were able to see the comet tonight before clouds covered it. I looked at it with binoculars first, which was a lot better than my camera, and it was really neat to watch as it streaked across the sky.
You can read more about the comet and get better details (and pictures) on the wikipedia website. I lack the simple equipment needed to get a better shot, but maybe next time.

A few recent snapshots...

While our families were here we tried to get some family shots of everyone. This is taken of Becca's side of the family at an old Spanish villa built in the 1700's in the central Andes. Yes, Madison is letting out a shout of "joy."
Here is my side of the family on top of the world. There is a lookout point near Quito that we took both families to. It seemed to be a hit, and the views are awesome. We are at about 12,500 feet above sea level in this picture.
You have probably read about all the rain we are getting. Yes I know that I live in the RAINFOREST, but even the locals are saying we have been getting more than "normal," whatever that is. Anyway, my point is that is can sure make landings interesting, and sometimes the airplanes get a little dirty. Luckily I flew through some rain after this landing (go figure, it was raining) and it washed most of the mud off so I didn't have to when I got back to Shell.

Fun at the fair

I told you that I would try to get some more pics on here soon. Well...When my (Sean) parents were here the local "carnival" pulled into town. It was a very fun time. We first went for the Ferris wheel and paid a whole $.75 to get on. On top of that we must have went around and around at break neck speeds for at least 10 minutes, until I yelled at the sleeping operator and told him we were ready to get off. I'd say we got our $.75 worth on that ride. The other ride that they had (the only other ride) was a converted playground merry-go-round. They had put a bunch of airplanes and animals on it for children to ride. Brooklyn really liked this as well. After about 10 minutes of going in circles, we could see her swallowing her vomit. I asked her, "Brooklyn, are you ready to get off. No daddy, I haveen fun. (gulp)." I finally stopped the "ride" myself after we couldn't find the "operator" and got Brooklyn off before she puked, and then I "started" the ride again for the other children that were riding. It was definitely a fun time, and a few dollars well spent.

Back in the saddle

We made it back this afternoon from a marathon trip to the capital city of Quito. We were there for many reasons. My parents left on Sunday morning, and the past few days we have been working on passports for Madison at the Ecuadorian and US embassies. We are happy to report that Madison is now an official citizen of both Ecuador and the USA. We have an Ecuadorian passport in hand, and the American will follow shortly next week. I may go into all the details in a later blog of how we shouldn't have even recieved the Ecuadorian one, but God truly cleared the way for us, and I don't want to bore everyone with the details right now.

On a national note, Ecuador inaugurated their new president this past Monday. It was interesting to watch some of the proceedings on TV and especially wonder what is going to happen in Ecuador after seeing some of Rafael Correa's guests. They included none other than the presidents of Venezuela, Bolivia, and a very "special" president. (see picture below)

We happened to be at our hangar when some of the presidents and diplomats were leaving. Just before the president of Iran left, the president of Brazil left on his "Air Force One" as well.

I will be back at work tomorrow and we will be sure to start posting more now that things might "settle down" as the new year gets going. Thanks for hanging on with us...

Alive...

Many of you are probably wondering if we made some kind of new years resolution to stop blogging. Nope, nothing of the sort here. We have just been busier than a hive of bees in a flower patch, and it looks like things will lighten up next week. At work we have been real busy, and we also have my parents and sister with us. I flew almost 5 hours yesterday, and I have flown every day since last Thursday, including the weekend. I still don't have much time right now, just wanted to let everyone know we are fine, and doing great, we are just in a real busy season right now. Thanks for reading...I'll post more later, with lots of pics too.