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.

On the road again...

We have had an awesome week with the Ecords and Howards with us. Vicki and Ron did make it out to the jungle with me on a flight on Tuesday, but because of the weather, that is all that we could get done. I guess the Howards will have to come see us again to make it out on a jungle flight. We are already heading back up to Quito today to take everyone to the airport. Although they don't leave until Sunday morning, we wanted a few days to play around in the Andes and see some of the sights together. On Monday, my family comes in, which will prove to be fun as well, I'm sure. As evidenced by our lack of blogs this week, we have been real busy, and this morning is no different. Our ride to Quito is going to be here in an hour, so I better get going. Happy new year to everyone!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Hope you are enjoying a joyful and memorable Christmas day. May you take a moment to remember the First Christmas and the significance of the God of the Universe sending His Son to a little stable in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago. What a miracle!! That tiny baby grew up to take the sins of the world upon Himself that we might enjoy fellowship with God - for eternity in Heaven but also during our time on Earth. Wow!

We are enjoying a very special Christmas with my family. Words do not describe the joy of spending this Holiday with loved ones. When you only see your family once a year it makes those moments together just that much more precious. We are so blessed that all of my immediate family was able to come this year - and then as an added bonus Sean's family is coming too! Not many people are so blessed and we praise God for our families.

Oops, better go. There are four little girls (ages 2 months to 13 years) who are dying to open their stockings. Then its time for some turkey, ham, and the fixings and a piece of "Happy Birthday Jesus Cake."

Love, Becca

From the logbook...busy, busy, busy

Since I have been flight coordinating this week, I have tried to stay on the ground, and have our other pilots fly. This isn't always an option. So, I put myself on the schedule on Wednesday to make two simple flights. They would have added up to just over two hours. But, on only my second stop on my first flight, I received reports of bad weather in Shell. I happened to be in Makuma (MAK) which is a great place to be if you get stuck in the jungle for any amount of time. I landed there about 9:30am, and Shell was shut down the whole day. Therefore I ended up spending the night in the jungle.

At 6:30am yesterday morning I awoke and got going trying to get back to Shell. I made two other stops and was on the ground in Shell just in time, by around 8:00am. Shell, and the whole jungle for that matter, was shut down until around 2:00pm.

Many of you know about the travel delays because of blizzards and things in Colorado, and probably many other states. This time of year there is a huge influx of travelers doing their holiday traveling. It is no different here. There are literally hundreds of teachers, missionaries, doctors, etc, that want to leave the jungle for the holidays, and then go back the first of January. I had a huge list on Monday to begin planning how to get them all out by today, and it has been a nightmare trying to get it done. Although the weather we have is far from blizzard conditions, it shuts us down, just the same as an airline. If we could only get one good day of weather today, we could get it all done. As I sit here and drink my morning coffee, guess what, it is raining! I guess we will see what happens today.

My family and I are all jumping on the bus tomorrow to head to Quito to welcome the first of our holiday visitors. Becca's parents and her sister's family are all coming down to see us. Pray that the Colorado runways will get cleared out by then, so they won't be stuck like so many others! Oh, the logistics of flying, mixed with "wonderful" weather. I have a good job!

Moving up the ladder

Recently I got an "upgrade" at the hangar, and became part of the "elite" group that call themselves the flight coordinators. Really, I was asked to help in this role because we are so short handed at the time being. As I have stated before, we have more airplanes than pilots. Our workload and requests for flights hasn't lightened at all, and therefore we find ourselves doing a lot more than just flying.

What flight coordinating entails is really quite simple in print. I take all the flight requests, the various cargos, and put them all together in a logical manner trying to make the most of our flights. What makes this job hard is the amount of flights requests, the weather, which makes flights impossible, and people that don't show up for their flight or come with more people and/or cargo than planned. It can become a logistical nightmare. Because of the workload involved with flight coordinating, the flight coordinators try not to fly. It is very helpful to always have someone at the hangar that knows the flights that are happening, the next flights that will happen, someone that can check the weather for you, get cargo together, make flight plans, etc. Because of this I haven't flown the past two days. I had myself on the schedule today, but weather prevented my flight from happening all day. So, I will try and do it tomorrow. At this point we have 9 flights planned for tomorrow, among 3 pilots and 3 planes. Our fourth plane is getting a new engine, and our 5th is the one I brought down from the States, still held up in the red tape of certification.

Although I haven't flown since Saturday, it has been nice. It is refreshing to not have to think about making a flight happen, fight weather, have precise landings, make smart takeoffs, etc. I am only 2 days into a 2 week shift, but at this point so far so good. Tomorrow will prove to be different, since I will be hopefully making 2-3 of our 9 flights. I started working on the flight schedule today at 10am and finished at about 5:15pm. Now, add that kind of workload, with over 4 hours of flying, and I might have a different opinion tomorrow.

From the logbook...

As stated earlier, today was my first weekend on call. We try to have someone available almost everyday of the year. We fly weekends mostly in case medical emergencies come up. I wasn't at the hangar long this morning before we had an emergency. In a town called Tena (TEN) there was a car accident and one of those involved needed more advanced care, only available in the capital city of Quito. Tena is only about a 20 minute flight north from Shell. I am not approved on the various Quito routes that we have, so my boss Dan came with me to help begin the checkout process of the Quito flying.

En-route to Tena, we barely made it VFR (out of the clouds). When we pulled up to the awaiting ambulance, there were also about 50 other people there waiting with it. I don't know who this person was that was all banged up, but he knew a lot of people. After about 10 minutes on the ground, we loaded up the patient, a doctor, and a family member at set off for Quito.

The flight to Quito would take us back south towards Shell, and then towards the west into the Andes mountains, and then north into Quito. We quickly encountered the same bad weather leaving Tena as we encountered flying to Tena. This time we just went IFR (into the clouds) and continued our climb to Quito. We finally broke out of the clouds at around 12500 ft, after leaving Tena at 1700 ft. The rest of our flight into Quito was VFR and very stunning. Every time I see the Andes from the air, they are just so impressive. All the little farms and villages are absolutely gorgeous.

We were shortly joining the Boeing's and Airbuses in Quito and made a quick landing and taxied to our hangar. The airport ambulance was already waiting to assist with getting the patient to the hospital. They were quickly on their way, and then Dan and I proceeded to get things ready for our return flight home.

As we were getting ready, we heard the buzzer at our hangar gate. It was the police. They were wondering if the patient had showed up yet. We told them yes, he is on his way to the hospital. They were glad to hear this, and unbeknown to us, he was also a criminal of some sort, and the police were going to keep him in supervision.

The return flight to Shell was very pleasant, and we were able to stay VFR the whole time. About 50 minutes after leaving Quito we landed in Shell, whereupon I found out I had another emergency flight waiting for me, this time out in the jungle. Here is a shot of our hangar in Quito. It is very small, and cannot even house an airplane. Three people work there during the week keeping things going for us in the capital city. The airport medical staff are helping us unload the patient in the photo.
What's a Quito flight without a good picture of some big iron. If I have my airplanes right, I think this is the UPS plane that comes in every day, and makes stops all throughout South America before heading back to the States to sort out all the packages. The B-757 has always been one of my favorite aircraft. I'll guarantee you that those pilots didn't work as hard as we did today. Sometimes I wish I could just fly one of those big boys, flip on the autopilot, let the plane do all the work, land on a long runway, and then have a ground crew to do all my grunt work when I land. Ah, that would get boring I suppose, and I would get a beer belly from not sweating anymore.

My second flight entailed hauling a planeload of cargo to Makuma (MAK) and then I hopped over a hill 6 miles away and landed in Kusutka (KSK) to pick up the awaiting patient. The patient was a 1 year old girl leaving with her mom. I don't know what was wrong with the little girl medically, but the doctors form said she had severe diarrhea among other things. Diarrhea is one of the top killers in the world, especially of little people. We take it for granted, and just let time run it's course, or take a swig of Pepto. It is amazing some of the little things that make life so hard for those in the jungle. It served as a good reminder of why we are here.

From the logbook...

From our lack of blogs over the past few days, one can surmise two things. That nothing much is happening worth writing about, or we are too busy to write anything. It is obviously the later. There is always something to write about. We live in a third world country, remember? In just the past two days I have flown about 8 hours and had 20 landings. I have flown everything from medical evacs, to patient returns, roofing metal, missionaries, medicine, medical teams, etc. . It has been a blast and it makes for good sleeping. Although, I didn't sleep that great last night. I think it was to do with some of the food I ate while in Tsetsakentsa. While there yesterday, they offered me some of the best white meat they know, parrot breast. Not too bad I must say.
The picture above is from Sharamentza. It was a fun strip, and dropped off about 100 feet at the one end into the Pastaza River below. I was dropping off some medical patients returning to their homes.This is a picture of the runway at Tsetzakentsa (TSE). I was there yesterday as part of a radio install again. We were very close to the southern Ecuadorian border with Peru in that village. After we landed, we still had to hike about 15 minutes to the village. Needless to say, I was sweating a little bit. The people of TSE were incredible. They had never had a radio before, and they were so grateful to us for finally coming and putting one in. The simple radio represents such a life link for them. They have had people die just because there wasn't anyone, or anyway to tell someone of the sickness. Now they have hope, through just a simple radio. The villagers fed us until we were bloated, and as we were leaving, they sat me and our radio guy Rob down at a table and they all thanked us personally for coming, and for caring about them. It was very touching indeed. There are many villages that I go into that I can't wait to get out of. The spiritual difference from one village to another that is only 5 minutes away is sometimes very noticeable. This was a typical home in TSE. Surrounding the house is the yucca plant. They harvest it's large root, and make all kinds of food from it, including the famous chicha drink.

Tomorrow I have the day "off." I am on call this weekend to fly, so we try to take Friday off if it is our weekend. I sure have plenty to do tomorrow, but that is better than nothing to do. We are going to try and get our driver's licenses tomorrow. This process has been discouraging to say the least. Please join us in prayer with this simple matter, that we will glorify Christ, as well as walk out of the police headquarters with our licenses.

From the logbook...another radio install

After we figured out some last minute planning this morning with my flight, I was finally off around 10:00am to make my first of 6 stops. We installed a radio in a village called Copataza (CPZ). I actually took both of our radio technicians and while they got started I did some other flights hauling around some other missionaries, and some general cargo. We had great weather today, and there isn't a whole lot to write about. As far as mission flying goes, today was very smooth. It was a nice change from some of the flights I have had in the past week. Below are some of the things I have seen lately...

One of the guys in the village of Copataza had a pet monkey. I forgot what species it is. After living in Costa Rica, I enjoy seeing monkeys, but I would never want to have one as a pet. They are dirty little guys, and in some ways just too human like.


The other day at the hangar, I saw the C-130 on approach to land. This is taken right in front of our hangar. There are no taxiways at our airport, which leaves things up close and personal sometimes.

From the Logbook...

I didn't write a whole lot this week because we were shut down with rain most of Monday, all of Tuesday, and all of Wednesday. Since then, we have had decent weather, but tons of flying to do. Because of this, I have been to tired to do anything when I get home. I have gone to bed at 8:30 the past two nights. My last two days of flying have been very fun.

Yesterday, I hauled some interesting "cargo." I flew a cadaver and a passenger about 50 minutes south near the Peruvian border back to their village called Tucupi, (TUC). When I landed, no body had warned me beforehand what was going to happen. Even while I was still braking during the landing, I began to hear a loud clamoring. When I finally got stopped and shut down, all (you know what) broke loose. We had brought this dead person out alive a few days earlier as one of our medical evacs. Sadly, we weren't returning this person alive like most. The villagers knew that two people had left, and when they saw only one sitting in the airplane when I landed, they knew what had happened. Maybe some of you have seen footage of how Asians and Middle Easterners wail when someone dies, in particular the women. When I finally got stopped and they all saw the casket sitting right next to me, an uproar began of wailing and crying. It broke my heart to be bring such sad "cargo" to this village, and it really shocked me afterwards how they deal with mourning and the death process. I wanted to get some pictures of the whole thing, but I never had a respectful time to do it. I will never forget that landing.

Below, are some pictures over the past few days that I have taken. It has been an interesting few days for sure...
This boy is from a village called Yampuna (YAM), one of the 8 stops I had yesterday. I was waiting there for a medical missionary. While a waited I took a few shots. Does anything look wrong to you in this picture?

On Thursday we had a radio installation again. The building that we put the radios in had some huge spiders on it. I am NOT joking when I say this spider is as big as my hand.

This is an overall shot of the village of Nuevo Sasaim where we installed a radio on Thusday. It was some of the hardest work I have done in a while, mostly because there wasn't anyone to help us in the village. You can see the antenna and solar panel on the right of the blue and white building. The pole for the antenna was a killer. It probably weighed at least 1000 pounds. Jungle wood is very dense, and this was no exception. I wanted my mommy when we were putting that pole in!

Enjoying Her Room

One of the best things about the house we just moved into was the special, already fixed-up bedroom for Brooklyn. The missionary family that lived here before us had fixed up a darling room for their little girl and we were able to buy the whole set-up for Brooklyn from them when they left. This is the first time in Brooklyn's life that she has had her own very special, decorated room. She has really been enjoying the room - filled with her own toys of course. I caught her this morning with her dolls all lined up in chairs teaching them to sing (that is what she told me she was doing). I am always amazed at the things she comes up with all by herself. What amazes me most is that I remember playing the very same things when I was a little girl. Makes a Mommy feel all warm and fuzzy inside! -- Becca

From the Homefront...

Here I am again, Rebecca - you know the wife of the exciting, adventurous pilot! No, I don't get to blog that often any more. Sean pretty much hogs the computer. His news is a lot more exciting and different everyday than mine is - not that I don't enjoy my days at home in Shell but most people don't find my stories of getting all the laundry done in one day very exciting! Actually, I just don't get much extra time to sit down and write at the computer any more (three words: Brooklyn and Madison) When I do get a quiet moment, I'm usually not sitting at the computer but trying to get a box unpacked, dinner in the oven, myself showered, etc, etc, etc....You get the picture.

Speaking of pictures. I know you all are just dying for more pictures of Madison, so here is one we took yesterday. We find it difficult to get a good picture of her right now - or at least one that shows her as cute as she really is. (I think it might have something to do with the fact that she can't hold her own head up very well yet)
Maddie is doing really well. She's already 8 weeks old! We just moved her into her own room and she seems to sleep even better when she doesn't get awakened by Dad's snoring all night long. She wakes up once in the night for a "midnight snack" and then goes right back down to sleep until about 6 am. We can't take any of the credit for that - even though she can be real fussy in the evenings, Maddie has always been very good through the night.

We had a nice weekend in our own house! We're pretty much unpacked and settled in. We even got our Christmas tree set up (we'll blog later about that ordeal), although it did feel a little strange to be decorating for Christmas when it was so hot outside! I don't know, but where we're from picking lemons in our front yard for lemonade and "dashing through the snow" just don't go all that well together. Like Sean said, it may not feel like Christmas here in the jungles of Ecuador but we're going to fake it anyway. I have a feeling that it will begin to feel more and more like Christmas - especially when family is here to celebrate it with us! I'll just keep playing our Christmas music until I'm convinced - it may take a while though, which is bad since we have really awful Christmas cd's!!

From the logbook...Airstrip map

I know that when I write about where I went and what I did, it can be hard to visualize where I really was, and then where I went, etc. I scanned our airstrip map that we use. I don't claim it to be very good quality, but you can at least get a sense of what we do and where. This portion of the map is only the southeast corner of the country. You may be able to find Shell with the identifier of "SHL." All of the little black and green dots are our airstrips. We have over 200 of them and I have been into about 35 at this point. It will take me years until I have been in all the airstrips. I hope to figure out a way to put a better quality image on the blog when I have more time, and then link the airstrips that I am talking about for those of you who are like me and enjoy maps and finding places. If you click on the map, and then click it once more after that it will be a little better for viewing quality. Today my flight was very simple. I went from Shell, "SHL," to Conambo, "CON," and then back. See if you can find it. It is about 40 minutes to the east from Shell to Conambo.

From the logbook...Radio Install

Today I was part of helping one of our radio technicians install a new FM radio in a village called Chinkianentza. We have an extensive network of radios throughout the jungle. They help us to know the weather, medical emergencies, needs, etc. We have been working on a complete jungle upgrade these past few weeks, replacing old HF radios with new FM radios. Here is a small look into what we did this afternoon...
The men pictured here were the majority of the helpers that we had. Here they had just placed the pole in the ground that holds the antenna. It was stinkin' heavy. The man on the right with the paint on his face is wearing the typical Shuar makeup. He was the only one that I saw wearing the traditional makeup.


I have said that it rains here right?


Here we are taking the old antenna down, so we can put a new cable and hardware in. Did I mention that it was heavy?


What is a good jungle trip without some bug pictures. Many places I have been in the jungle are literally swarming with butterflies. It is a pretty stunning sight. I think these butterflies were licking salt from the dirt.

From the logbook...

As expected yesterday, I flew a lot once again. At the rate I am going, I am flying about 15-20 hours a week, which by flying standards is a lot. Not to mention I am landing on average every 20 minutes into something somebody calls a runway. But it is so fun!

My first flight yesterday involved moving around a medical team, and taking back some patients to some villages about 40 minutes from Shell. I was able to come home for lunch, which is always nice. During my lunch break I also went and bought a real Christmas tree. Ya, I know, Christmas in the jungle feels weird to me too, but we are going to fake it and give it a try.

After lunch I took all the seats out of the plane except the co-pilots seat, and loaded up two full 55 gallon drums of avgas to take to Makuma. We use Makuma for a staging area sometimes, and like to have extra gas there. Also, when we have to divert there like I did on Monday, sometimes it is nice to be able to put on extra gas if we need it to get where we are going.

En route to Makuma I got the famous "call." The doctor at our hangar was wondering if I would go to Iwia afterwards to pick up a mom, and her 23 day old daughter that was having respiratory problems. I didn't plan on any extra stops, therefore I didn't have a lot of gas, and I only had 1 extra seat. Fortunately I didn't have to use any of the gas I had just brought to Makuma, and I had the one seat for the mom and her baby. So, after Makuma I flew 10 minutes to Iwia and picked up the awaiting patients. Combined the baby and mom probably weighed 120 pounds dripping wet. Shortly thereafter we were on our way to Shell, and 25 minutes later we landed, and the mom hopped into the awaiting ambulance taking them to the hospital.

When I arrived home, I was bushed, and so was Becca. Dealing with two little kids, and trying to unpack would have whupped me to. That crazy lady has just about the whole house unpacked and organized, she did some painting, and she even sewed some slip covers for one of our chairs. I know without a doubt that I would fail miserably and quickly if we were to trade jobs for even a day. I got me a keeper!

From the logbook...

What a beautiful morning I am seeing right now. When I woke up yesterday, it was raining...go figure, equatorial rain forest. As expected, we had a lot of flights to get done yesterday. It wasn't until 11am that I launched on my first flight taking Compassion International folks to a village called Chinkianentza. Even after waiting until lunch time, mid-route I still had to divert to Makuma because the weather was shutting down around me the farther I got out into the jungle. I landed in Makuma with my tail between my legs and was glad to be on the ground. I was there for about 2 hours while we let the weather rain itself out a bit.

All wasn't lost in Makuma. I enjoyed lunch there with there with the Holmes, some missionaries that work with the Achuar Indians. They are awesome people. Dwain Holmes is also a reptile buff. For those of you that think I am always playing with bugs and things...well, he has be beat...bad. He has so many snakes in his house, some don't even have an English or Spanish name...meaning they have never been documented before. He had about 12 different species at his house yesterday. They were impressive. He has even had universities come and study at his house and document these new species. While Dwain is walking through the jungle to Achuar villages, barefoot I might add and in shorts, he takes his snake grabbing stick and just keeps his eyes peeled. Anything that comes close to his path is quickly snatched up and put into the collection, at least for a while.

Finally the weather in Makuma subsided, and I had good reports from Chinkianentza. I made the 20 minute flight and dropped off my passengers, and then flew back to Makuma to bring out some other missionaries who needed to come out to "civilization." When I got back to Shell, the weather was becoming beautiful in the late afternoon, so I loaded up for one more flight to the village of Wayusentsa. Again I had a load of Compassion International people and their cargo. I returned to shell after the 45 minute flight and landed for the last time at about 5:30 pm.

When I got home, Becca had done a great job of beginning to make our house a home. I am so glad for the ability God gave to women to be able to do that. If it were up to me, I would already be content the way things are. Not because I like bare walls and boxes everywhere, I just lack the ability to know what to do.

Today we are busy again flying. I have a least one long flight, and we will see if anything else comes up, highly possible.

Thanksgiving in Ecuador

We got back from our retreat just a few hours ago. Since then we have been doing the standard unpacking and getting back into the swing of things, although we are still figuring out what that swing is with our new house and all of our things in tubs still. But, it is still good to be home nonetheless. Our Thanksgiving weekend was truly one to remember. We had an incredibly refreshing time, and a lot of fun too. We have a wonderful team here that we work with, so to all be refreshed and encouraged together was wonderful. We had 4 people come down from California to "put on" the conference. We arrived in the town of Cuenca about 6 pm on Thursday evening. It was a long trip, about 10 hours, but it was really enjoyable for Rebecca and I. Seeing new countryside was wonderful. This country could really leave you captivated for years if all you did was travel from one corner to another. There is so much diversity in Ecuador, all in a country about the size of our home state of Colorado.

Of the 4 people that came down from the states, one is on the MAF board, and he did most of the teaching. By trade he is a judge in Orange County. He was awesome. He had some incredible teaching and encouragement for all of us. The other three on his team were 3 college kids that gave up their Thanksgiving to be with us, and mostly to watch our kids while we were meeting together. They really did a great job with our kids. Brooklyn seemed to grow up even more with all the social interaction in just a few days. Sometimes I feel like she is already getting away from me, and all I can do is watch.

This coming week is sure to be busy. While I cannot say for sure what will happen or in what order, I am sure there will be a lot of flying to be done. We also need to finalize some of Madison's Ecuadorian paperwork, as well as finish our driver's license process. (Thanks Vicki, the special papers arrived with the California team.) Not to mention getting unpacked and trying to put a little order back into the home front.

On the way to Cuenca near the place where we ate lunch, Brooklyn was dying to go see the nearby burros and sheep grazing in the nearby pasture. So while everyone was waiting in the restaurant for their food, we snuck off and went and petted the burros. She thought that was pretty cool. They were really woolly also. They average temperature where we were is about 56 degrees year long. Quite a difference from the jungle heat we are used to.

This hill is a good example of the endless patchwork quilt like fields that cover the area. It is amazing where they farm, and that most of it is still done by hand. But is does make for a gorgeous landscape.


Most of the Andes Mountains from Columbia to Chile are inhabited by one of the world's largest indigenous groups called the Quechua. They are remarkable people, and are as diverse as the countries in which they live. They are incredibly hardworking as noted by the farms above, but most striking to me are the beautiful garb that they wear.

Happy early Thanksgiving!

I know that tomorrow is the real holiday, but I am writing now for many reasons.

1.) We thankfully just got done this morning moving to our new house. While everything is moved into our house, those that have moved know what is is like, and our situation is no different. Our house is a WRECK! We already have internet service at the house, but I don't think I will have our computer hooked up for a few days. I am writing from our hangar right now.

2.) We are also leaving on a 4 day retreat tomorrow. With our recent move, and the retreat tomorrow, I can't give the time to get things hooked up before we leave. MAF is taking us to a mountain town called Cuenca. It should be a good time of refreshing and "bonding." There is a group coming down form the states that is going to minister to us, take care of our children, etc. It should be a Thanksgiving to remember for sure. We come back late Sunday night.

Talk to you all next week!

Smiley Face

Madison 6 Wks.

Due to some people complaining that we haven't put enough pics of Madison on (I admit, we haven't, but she isn't very photogenic) here you go people.

A picture for the Vickies

Being that Becca's mom Vicki, and my mom Vicki, both have an affinity for arachnids, I caught this one in the office this evening, and I thought they would enjoy the picture. Happy sleeping!
note-This picture is life size :)

"Mission to the headhunters"

A few blogs ago I told you about the book called "Mission to the headhunters." I also told you I found it in the local school library, and let me just say, it is awesome. I am about half way through it, and I just cannot believe sometimes what I am reading, and that it is describing the same places that I serve and fly. Things have changed so much here in Ecuador in the last 50-60 years since the stories in this book took place. I highly recommend anyone interested to find this book and read it. Amazon.com has it for about $10 new, if you wanted to buy it.

On a side note responding to some of the things Becca wrote about in her last blog, I just need to clarify some things. First of all, I am in total agreement that the home life is much more dangerous than my "day job." It goes without saying that living with 3 women, and three girl dogs, and 2 girl cats is very dangerous. I am the only form of testosterone to be found for miles.

Secondly, I did not offer my help to Becca to hang the curtain. Any wise man would know to steer a wide course around such trouble. When I walked into the room, she said, "hey, you, mister, get yer' little tail up here and help me before I get mad." Being the diplomat and humble servant that I am, I quickly and willingly jumped in to help narrowly avert destruction and ruin.

Third, yes I did have a close call on the roof yesterday. As with most things of this matter, in hindsight it is really funny. It was just like you see on TV. There I was "just a hanging on the precipice," in fact hanging for dear life by only the strength of a few fingers, and Becca finally got out of bed and made her way onto the roof to help me. I must have been hanging there for 10 minutes by the time she came. If she was going to take so long getting up there, the least she could have done was to bring the camera and get a picture of me hanging there like Sylvester Stalone in the movie "Cliffhanger." But at least we will always share the memory of the "roof day."

Fourth, stinkin electricity. It finally came on about 4pm yesterday afternoon. Of course almost all of Shell had electricity, but our block got pretty fried by a lightening bolt, so it took them a while to fix it. Praise the Lord we had a generator to keep things cold. I am going to have to buy one when we move to our new house. The electricity goes off at least twice a week. Usually it comes back on in decent time, but every once in a while it goes for a day or more. But, on a side note, it is fun to eat dinner by flashlight. While I wouldn't go as far and say it is romantic, it is memorable nontheless.

ps-Kids, be carefull on those roofs!

A Word from Becca

Sean tells you all about his exciting days as an MAF pilot but in a minute you'll read the rest of the story...

You see, Sean's flying adventures account for about a quarter of what life is like here for the Cannon family. Most of it isn't very exciting, I'm afraid. Occasionally, though, exciting things do happen in the day to day routine.

Last night (Friday) Sean brought home Chinese for dinner on his way home from work at about 6:30 p.m. I was in the bedroom trying to hang a stupid curtain and was ready to become very unladylike when Sean showed up. We are getting ready to move into our own house (yes!) and so I spent all day Friday washing and re-hanging curtains (no!) in this house that we have been house sitting. I was almost done and was trying to hang a swag thingy in the bedroom. Sean walked in on me standing on a chair strangled by billowy green fabric, trying to keep my balance, pull the curtain out of Brooklyn's grasp and get the thing to stay put on the curtain rod, which by the way, it refused to do after repeated attempts. Anyway, he offered to help and between the two of us we managed to put the thing up - it ain't pretty but it's clean and it isn't falling down on anyone's head....

Madison was pretty fussy by this time in the evening (it seems to be her habit to get mad at around dinner time) and so I told Sean to go ahead and eat while I tried to calm Maddie down. So Sean dished up some fried rice and breaded corvina (fish) for himself and Brooklyn. A big storm moved in and BAM! no more lights. We're used to that by now, so we just got our flashlights out and everybody kept eating. It wasn't long before the lights were back on and Madison seemed content enough for me to be able to eat. Well, Madison didn't stay happy for long and so Sean picked her up so that I could finish my plate. Next thing we know there was another very loud blast and it all went black again. Brooklyn had been fine with all the loud thunderclaps that had been going on all night but that one was very close and frightening - so I was hurriedly fumbling around for the flashlight that was next to me on the table while Brooklyn and Madison were both screaming at the top of their lungs. Once I found the flashlight and things calmed down a bit I finished my already cold meal holding a scared Brooklyn in my lap. The electricity never did come back on so we all went to bed early (and that was fine since Sean had a tiring day of flying and I was exhausted after losing a wrestling match with a stupid green curtain.)

The next morning we were able to sleep in a little bit. It's an unspoken rule that I get to sleep in on Saturday morning since I never sleep a solid night anymore. So Sean (after much prodding by me) got up with Brooklyn. Since the electricity had never come back on, Sean decided he'd better set up the generator so that our stuff in the freezer didn't go bad. I was laying around in bed still when I heard him up on the roof (the roof is flat and there is a storage space up there) banging around. I heard a loud noise and then heard Sean saying "Becca I need your help - NOW!" Something in his voice told me that I probably shouldn't even take the time to go to the bathroom before heading up so I jumped out of the bed and made my way up the stairs. I was trying to clear the cobwebs from my head when I heard a rather desperate plea again - "Becca, are you coming?" It sounded serious but not deadly so I didn't break into a run our anything but I did pick up the pace as I took the last three steps to the roof. I could see Brooklyn - she was fine but had a funny look on her face - but Sean was no where to be found. Then I heard him say "I'm over here." Still I couldn't locate him...until suddenly I saw just the top of his blonde head and his wide blue eyes peeping over the generator (which is about a foot and a half tall). There he was with his arms and one leg, barely holding on to the edge of the roof! There was a sort of desperate look on his face...but he was surprisingly calm there clinging to slick tile for his very life. I hurried over to him and immediately started firing off questions about how he got himself into such a predicament. Ever so calmly he reminded me that it wasn't really a good time for him to have a chat and began instructing me in what to do to help him. Once the generator was out of the way, I was able to help him crawl back onto the roof - miraculously he had been caught by a water drainage pipe on his way down or I would have been taking him to the emergency room with a broken something or other. Whew! Who knew that the real danger Sean faces would be at home.

Hangar Happenings...

Man, what a crazy past few days! I was flying a lot earlier this week, but on Wednesday, I had to be the flight coordinator, which means dispatching all the airplanes with their appropriate loads and people, with the right amount of gas, and with flight plans, ect. It also means taking radio calls from the jungle in case emergencies come up, dealing with new passengers and cargo as they come in, and generally just being around the hangar being available to help anybody for anything. It had me tired. Flying is a lot easier than coordinating.

Yesterday, I was on the flight schedule again. I had to wait until about 11am until rain in my sector of the jungle had lightened a little bit. Finally I was off again for Makuma taking some more missionaries that live their home as well as their cargo. I also had some FM radio equipment. We are in the process of a massive jungle radio upgrade, which means we are putting numerous radios into villages throughout the jungle. I did find the book I mentioned earlier called "Mission to the headhunters." I will let you know how it goes. Yesterday in Makuma, I did recieve some interesting "cargo" to bring back to Shell. I was handed a mustard jar full of urine, so that I could take it to the hospital when I got back and have it tested. It is from one of the Shuar bible translators who is in Makuma right now, who has turned very sick lately. When I got back to Shell, I had the test done at the hospital, and everything came back ok. This doesn't mean the fellow isn't sick, it just means that he has something else than previously thought. I used our old HF radio system to relay the test results back out to the jungle once I got the tests done.

Before I could start helping with testing urine, I still had another stop. From Makuma I made the 8 minute flight to a village called Copataza. By far it is the shortest strip I have been turned loose into as of yet. It has about 380 meters of usable landing length, which made for a fun approach. I wish I had a video of it. On final approach you are flying over the Pastaza River, and actually descend below the cliffs on the north side. Suddenly, you are over the river, below the cliffs, and the airstrip appears like an aircraft carrier and you either stick it on right there, or you pour on the coals and give er' another try if things aren't looking right. I went into Copataza to pick up a Compassion International team of 3 that had been there since Monday.

Last night we had a guest over for dinner. He is a volunteer from England. He seemed like a fun guy, and VERY intelligent. Afterwards, Becca took him "home" on her way to bible study. I thought I would blog a bit this morning before heading off to work. I don't know what we have planned today as far as flying goes, but I will know soon enough.

From the logbook...

Once again, another good day of flying, although the weather sure gave us fits. I was to have a decently long flight with several stops, but some of my patient returns never showed up (very common) and so I just reduced my total number of stops to 1, planning to take the bible translators back to Makuma, with about 600 pounds of cargo. This prop is from a C-130 Hercules that was in Makuma a long time ago. From the picture you can tell that things didn't go to well. It's original intention was to bring a hydro-electric power plant into Makuma, which it did with no problem. Any military operator of the aircraft will tell you of it's short field capability. The problem that this airplane had, occured on taxi. The pilots were taxiing to the end of the runway (it's a "long" runway, about 2400 ft long) in order to take off. Due to the large size of the C-130, the aircraft began to sink into the soft dirt-mud, and became stuck. The pilots tried to use the extra power of the 4 engines to try and get er' unstuck, but what they accomplished instead is kinda funny, in hindsight anyway. At full power trying to turn around, the aircraft wouldn't budge. What happened instead was the hot exhaust from the engines caught the nearby grass on fire, which in turn caught the airplane on fire, and burned it to the ground. No one was hurt, I don't think. I was told that most of the airplane simply melted, and what remained they just hauled off into the nearby jungle, which is where this prop now lies. I had to stomp down a lot of 6 foot tall grass in order to clear the area a bit to get a picture. All of the work in Makuma, including the story of the C-130, is told in a book called "Mission to the headhunters." I have yet to read it myself, although I want to. I have been told it is awesome. (If anyone has read it, let me know what you thought) Makuma is a bible translation hub so to speak, and is one of the oldest airstrips that exist in the jungle. Dan was also flying today, and landed at Makuma bringing in Shuar Bible translators from the distant jungle. I was waiting in Makuma, because Shell was shut down with heavy rain. I was on the ground there about an hour and a half. Once I finally did get a good report from Shell, I still had to divert a long way around a storm cell before turning on course to Shell. Weather is definetly a factor EVERY day here in Ecuador. It isn't like flying in the desert southwest of Colorado.

From the logbook...

Again, today, they had me busy flying...yesss! Man, what a joy to be flying so much lately. It looks like I will be flying as much as possible in the near future due to our lack of pilots. At this time we have more airplanes than pilots, which is good for the new guy that wants to fly a lot.
This is a shot of my second of three stops called Pitacocha. I took two Compassion International workers and a LOT of cargo, about 500 pounds to Pitacocha. When we landed the community jumped right in helping me unload, which is nice, because it can make you tired in the jungle heat.

My third flight was again to Montalvo. I took doctors back out, as well as a Compassion International "scout." His name is Juan Carlos, and he is coming out tommorow. His purpose of being there is to see the possibility of opening up Montalvo to the work that Compassion can provide. I look up to him, because he didn't know a soul, and was simply walking in faith to see what doors the Lord is going to open up for him in the next day or so for future work. Join me in prayer for him.

From the logbook...

Today was my longest day yet of flying. We only had two pilots and lots to do, so me and my co-worker Steve went at it. I flew just over 4 hours today, and had 8 landings. I made my last landing at about 5:30pm, which to us is only 30 minutes before sunset. I had two different flights that oringinated in Shell. My first flight was out to Montalvo taking some patients back, and then picking up some teachers and bringing them back to Shell. My second flight was a little more involved.
For my second flight I went first to a village called Pimpintza. I was dropping off a medical return, a man and his son. Just as I was getting ready to leave, trying to beat the rain, it "caught" me, and I had to shut down and stay about 15 more minutes until the rain lightened and passed by a little bit. You can tell from the picture that the kids there in Pimpintza were a lot of fun, and enjoyed having the wing for a place to stay a little drier.

From Pimpintza, I flew 15 minutes to Surikintza, also to drop off another patient and his baby. Everything there was a non-event, and soon after I was en-route 10 minutes away to Charapacocha.
I dropped off my last medical return here in Charapacocha. I then loaded about 250 pounds of corn seed in the belly pod, and made the 5 minute flight to Numbaimi. There I dropped off all the corn seed, and picked up a government medical team of 3 ladies, and took them 5 minutes back to Charapacocha. We took them into the jungle on Tuesday, and we have been moving them around everyday to a different village. Tommorow we will bring them back to Shell after a week in the jungle. Of the three women on the medical team, one was a doctor, one a nurse, and the one seen here a dentist. Immediatly they had a lot of work to do, and the doctor quickly found two patients that needed more professional help from a hospital. So after spending a little time in Charapacocha, I loaded up my 2 patients, and headed for Shell. 45 minutes later I made my 8th and final landing of the day, and saw my patients to the awaiting ambulance, for a ride to a hospital in nearby Puyo.

God's glory of creation

On my way to bible study this morning before work, the sunrise was very powerfull. I have blogged before about the volcanoes, but I thought this pic of El Altar that I took this morning was worth putting on. Remember, almost 18,000 feet tall, and snow capped year round on the equator.

From the logbook...Villano roadkill cafe

Last week I took a team of Compassion International people into a village called Villano to do various things for a week. Today, was their ticket out. When I arrived, they were not quite ready to leave. This was the only flight I had today, and the weather was good, so I told them I could wait for them. Here is a little look at what happened while I was there...
This is the cooking area for this part of the village. It was almost lunch time when I arrived, so they invited me to eat lunch with them. I gladly accepted, knowing that today's lunch might be an adventure.
We had a little free time while lunch was cooking, so I thought it would be a good idea to start getting their cargo near the airstrip, so that when we were ready to leave, it would be there ready to be put in the airplane after lunch. We have been shut down the past 2 days with rain, and they were not exempt in the jungle either. They had recieved a lot of rain, thus explaining the muddy trail.
I purposely didn't mention what was cooking for lunch in the picture above. I wanted to show you first hand what it looked like. The big claw/foot/leg on my plate is armadillo. Behind it is the typicall chicken, and in the green mug at the top of the picture is a drink called chicha. I have to admit, it was my first time eating armadillo. The funny thing...yes it did taste like chicken. Despite it's poor presentation, it was actually very edible. The drink is made from yucca root. It was a little harder to put down than the armadillo. Luckily, they gave me the non-fermented version. Chicha is notorious as the jungle alchohol. After the pulp is juiced from the yucca root, then village members begin to chew up pulp pieces, and spit it into a common pot. The saliva quickly ferments and makes the chicha alchoholic. Mine was "freshly" made, and was not the pre-chewed or spit-out version. Despite my hosts increadible hospitality and friendliness towards me, I am not in the mood for chicha or armadillo in the near future. Also in the top corner of the picture you can see what looks like a banana. They are plantains, which are similar, but not sweet.

From the logbook...

Today I flew to two villages. First I went to Ayuy (I-U-EEE) to get a patient, and then to Makuma to bring out some bible translators. Below you will see a bit of what Ayuy is like, and what it can be like to live there.
Here is what school in the jungle usually looks like. It is just a simple wooden building with all the kids from the village inside. They did come out for recess while I was there and there was probably 25 of them, ranging from 1rst grade to 5th. For those of you that were wondering, the flag is the Ecuadorian flag.

The man on the left is the dad of the patient that I brought out. He is walking to the hospital to be with his daughter. He said he should be there by tommorow afternoon. He is holding the boys pet mouse/rabbit thingy. I forgot what they called it in the Shuar language, and I know there is a name in Spanish, but I forgot it as well. The little boys dad is the one with the rifle. It is an old style flint lock gunpowder rifle. I asked them what they were hunting and they said "whatever." And then of course there is the mom with her trusty machete. They use those things for more than you would imagine.

This is a jungle stretcher. The girl I flew out is inside the blanket, as though she was a dead pig or something. She was unable to walk, so therefore some men of the village had to bring her out this way. It took them about an hour to bring her to the plane, and finally we were off to our second stop of Makuma. The patient was a girl of 15 years, and she was in a lot of pain and scared to leave. She was originally scheduled to leave to have a checkup after breaking both of her legs. I don't know all the story, but her legs didn't work after some time without the casts, and she had many other problems as well, which her dad thought he needed to show me.

Madison 4 Weeks Old!

From the Logbook...La Co-pilota

On Wednesday we recieved a call late in the afternoon for a medi-vac. Because of the distance of the airstrip, and the time of the day in which we revieved the call, we had to put it on hold until the following day, which was yesterday. I was on the schedule yesterday to get this patient out, but the weather was to bad all day yesterday. So, the patient was still needing transport today, so me and my new little co-pilota went and got her from her village called Montalvo.
Brooklyn did pretty good on her first jungle flight with her dad. She had flown some when we were in the States, but she was really young then. Our flight was about 45 minutes each way, and I think she was getting a little airsick by the time we landed in Montalvo. Other than that, she did great. On our way back, she was my little stewardess. I also brought out 2 doctors with my patient and her mom. She kept handing pieces of her bread roll to the doctors sitting right behind us. They thought it was pretty cute, as did I. But it did leave a lot of crumbs in the plane. But there has been a lot worse left in the plane, believe me. We also sang a lot of songs on the way home, Ol' McDonald, ABC's, Twinkle-Twinkle Little Star, Jesus Loves me this I know, ect. It was a first class flight on the way home, full of entertainment and food. I got another good glamour shot of my co-pilota. Isn't she cute!

Wisdom teeth con't...

Like I mentioned previously in my blog when I got my wisdom teeth pulled, the wife of the dentist (who is also a dentist) took some pictures of me. She sent them to me today and I think they turned out pretty good.
Here is the general picture of what over 40 people went through in the 3 days that they were with us. The famous dentist's chair is only a lawn chair on some saw horses. Everything that came out of the mouth went into the trash can right next to Jay the dentist. This incluided teeth, gauze, whatever. They had a really neat portable set-up, and you could tell they had done it before.
One more pic looking a little more down the "trap." I think at this point they were telling me a story to keep my mind on other things. If I remember right it had to do with a "surgury" they performed on a dog the previous weekend before coming to Shell. Lucky guy...

Lots of airtime...

Today I had my biggest flying day yet. In fact when I finally got home around 4:30, I sat down to talk to Becca and the next thing I know I woke up a little after five. I went to work just before 7:00am because I knew our flight schedule was busy. Weather shut us down totally yesterday. With the flights we couldn't get done yesterday, on top of having a lot on the schedule for today, we all tried to arrive a bit earlier to get things going today. I flew a total of about 3 hours, and had 8 landings, which put me landing every 22 minutes or so. I had two flights to a village called Villano full of 4 Compassion International staff, plus their weeks worth of cargo. They have many things to accomplish on this trip. For those of you that maybe support a child monthly, or know someone that does, you have no dought seen the pictures and yearly stats of the supported child. That is the main purpose of this trip; to take pictures of the children, get current updates, and even have the children write something to thier supporters. My third flight was taking some missionaries from Quito to a village called Kusutka. They will be there about 5 days doing some construction work. Overall it was an uneventfull day, but it is sure strange how flying can make you so tired. Even my co-workers that have been doing this for years say that is doesn't end. But it was a great feeling to be flying so much today. The way things are looking at the hangar because of a "lack" of pilots, I will be flying more and more like I did today.


Usually I ride my bike to and from the hangar from our house. Along the way I pass the town "plaza" or center. EVERY afternoon there is a soccer game. It is fun sometimes to sit and watch and see the passion that the latins have for the game. It is also a good place to go and learn new vocabulary if you know what I mean. This picture of the plaza, and its poverty motife is basically how most of Shell looks. We are constantly reminded of the poverty that we live among, and in some cases the desperation that accompanies it. One of my co-workers usually goes and plays soccer here at the plaza about 3-4 times a week. In fact he was playing when I got there. I admire him, he has more guts than I do. One of the desires for the teams that show up to play is to wear thier shirts. They always play shirts and skins, and for obvious reasons, you don't want to fall and slide on this "field."