From the logbook...

Today we had a busy day flying, and once again we had great weather. I sure hope the past few days indicate that a change has occurred in the season, giving more good weather than bad. Our main objective today was transporting various pastors from all corners of the jungle, and bringing them to Makuma. You may have read about something like this we already did this week. These flights were different, as another missionary/pastor is holding a conference with some of these pastors. It was a neat thing once again to be bringing all of these kingdom workers to one place for a long weekend of encouragement and teaching.

MAF is paying for the majority of these flights that we did today, although it was asked of the pastors that we flew that they pay $10 towards their flight. I received money from some of my passengers, and then the last pastor I picked up told me he would pay me when we got to Makuma, since his money was in his bag, which was in the belly pod. When we arrived in Makuma, he was prompt to give me his money which, it turned out, was 3.5 grams of gold. He comes from a part of the jungle where gold is found, and he was paying me with it. I hadn't a clue on what to do with it, so I told him to keep his "money" and pay the host in Makuma that was holding the conference. We had heard of people getting paid with gold from people of this sector of the jungle, but I think I was the first to ever get paid firsthand with the real thing.

Later, for my return flight to Shell, I had a not so happy flight. I landed in a village called Chumbi, to bring out 3 teachers and their families. What makes it sad, is the government, along with Compassion International, decided to close this school. I don't know all the reasons, other than they aren't good. So, this community will be given another chance at a school this fall, but for the time being, due to their behavior and choices, they had lost their privilege of having their own school staffed with teachers.


On my flight to Makuma, I met up with Chad en-route, also flying to Makuma. He was making the rounds as well picking up pastors, and we just happened to be coming from the same direction and had the same ETA for Makuma. We flew in "formation" for about 30 miles, which was a lot of fun, and I got some good air-to-air photos, which we don't get a lot of.