Papallacta trip...in pictures

Our trip to the town of Papallacta was great! Rather than describe everything, I thought I would put some of my favorite photos and tell you about them. Granted, there isn't a lot of pictures of family. You will have to check Becca's blog for that...For those of you who like pictures like me, I will be putting more on the web album.

"You steer and I'll pedal." I wonder if this conversation really ever took place. It's not uncommon to see 4 people on a bike.

In the Quechua communities that we drive through in the mountains, this is a very common sight. A man or a woman carrying a huge load of something on their backs. Needless to say, you also see many people without a load on their back still in this same bent over position. It makes my back hurt just looking at it. This is just a look at the country side as we climbed high into the Andes on our way to Papallacta. The scenery was stunning!

This is the only shot of Antisana volcano that I got. She only came out one night, the rest of our time at Papallacta it was covered in clouds. Pretty impressive sight even at night.

One afternoon, I went on a hike while my girls took naps. This little blackbird gave me a good time trying to get a good picture. The hike was awesome as well. I even fell asleep in a grassy meadow, and there weren't any chiggers to eat me alive like in Shell. Granted, not many insects live at over 11,000 feet.
I know it may seem common to most of my readers, but I haven't seen a good ol' bunny rabbit in years. I was about as giddy as Brooklyn for seeing this one.

This is main street Papallacta. Very simple, and very small.
This is the whole town of Papallacta as seen from the road as it descends into the little village.




We did some exploring one morning, and this is one of the lakes we found. Can't say how long it has been since I saw a mountain lake either. It was a very refreshing experience to just sit enjoy the quiet nothingness at the lake.
This is a shot of the páramo as we drove to the lake. Again, another great experience of vast nothingness. Quite a significant difference from the dense jungle we live in. We felt like we were in a different world, or at least a different country. It was a little surreal.

Mommy took a fun shot of me and Brooklyn goofing off on this big rock. Brooklyn had a blast just running through the grass and throwing rocks into the lake.
Here is another shot from the lake. We found a road that went around it, and then stopped for a while and threw some rocks in the water and just relaxed. Madison just stayed contently in the car.
On the way to Papallacta, Becca took this photo of one of the many uses of a trunk, or maybe one of the many uses of children, to hold your trunk door open. We still can't get used to some of the things we see.

Various

• I changed some things in the sidebar of my blog again. I liked the tracking widgets I was using, but they were only on a trial basis of two weeks. In order to keep the full service I had to buy them. I guess I am too cheap to fork out the money. It was interesting though to see where people were reading from. Most were not very surprising, but others were.
  
• I added another widget to reflect my larger web album and deleted my link to my Flicker site. For me, Picasa is easier for what I do.
• This past week at the hangar was probably the hardest week I have ever had in our time here in Ecuador. I was flight coordinator and therefore didn't fly much myself. The stress of this week was due to many factors which would be too long (and boring) to divulge here in the blog, but let's just say I'm glad it's the weekend. I was about ready to pop!
• After coming off the hardest week ever in my missionary career, it is nice to know that I am now basically on vacation. I have next Monday through Wednesday off for a few days away. Tomorrow we are heading to the high country (The Andes Mountains) to enjoy a few days at a hot springs resort. We are all looking forward to it. Becca is pretty wiped out with normal life as a full time mom/housewife as well. At least she will be able to leave the housewife part behind for a few days. That said, I probably will not be blogging for the next 4-6 days.
• When we get back from our short vacation, I still don't think I will be going to the hangar. We still don't have driver's licenses after being here for a year (again, another boring, frustrating, and long story) and we are going to try and take a few days to get that taken care of. Man, I thought having to wait in line for 5 hours in Costa Rica was bad, but at least I walked out with a license.
  
• Our air ambulance contract still did not get signed. A few small changes were made after the meetings, which negated another trip up to the Ivory tower for approval. That said, it still might be a few weeks before it is approved. But, even if it is signed as it is written now, we will not have enough money in it to continue flying for air ambulance. The budget allocated is basically already used up in our first 4 months of emergency flying, which leaves the rest of the year pretty lean.
  
• I mentioned last week that this past Sunday were elections here in Ecuador to decide if the Ecuadorian people wanted a new constitution/government. It was unanimously approved to draft a new constitution and government model. I can't say what this means for us as North American missionaries at this point, but we might begin to get an idea in the next 6-8 months.
  

I took a picture of the mushroom in our front yard a few days ago. Then a funny thing happened afterward; my dog Maya come right up to it and ate it.

My favorite sister

For reasons unknown to me, April is a huge month of birthdays in my family. My sister is no exception. Although April 20th is sometimes known in history for some weird world events, it is also my sister's birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHAEL!!!

She is attending Colorado State University, works in her non school hours to support herself, and is still excelling with her schoolwork as her work load increases as she approaches graduation.

I am proud of you like no other brother can be Rachael. I am honoured to call you my sister and look forward to the stories we will always be able to tell our children around the table someday. I admire your stubborn dedication to stick with things even when they are hard. I admire how you stick true to your convictions and don't always follow the crowd, although it has meant heartache. Keep working hard knowing that no drop of sweat is ever in vain. I love you more than you know. You are a great aunt, sister-in-law, and sister. I would have it no other way. We all love you aunt Racher, have a great day...
Here is my family with a Quechua woman that sold them some things on their visit to Ecuador. My sister on the left, the tall guy on her left is my dad with Brooklyn in his grasp, the vendor lady and her daughter, and my mom on the right.

Coming up for air

We have been very busy lately. At the hangar we have more flight request than we can even come close to meeting right now. I am coordinating which can make things crazy. Trying to sort all the flight combinations, cargoes, and available payloads has me doing a lot of math everyday. Luckily it is not trig or physics. It is just your everyday addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. And then doing it over again because somebody brought more cargo after everything was weighed, and then realizing you are 41 pounds overweight and having to figure out what stays and what goes. Needless to say when I am coordinating my Spanish improves a lot, but by the end of the day my tongue is pretty twisted. Here is a shot of Kevin landing in Shell yesterday afternoon. Nothing spectacular about the shot, I just had good lighting so I got the camera out before I went home.

This is another shot of the mountains trying to come out from under the clouds yesterday afternoon. The Andes are impressive mountains, and are always fun to see in new perspectives and lighting conditions.

Sean D. Tucker Aerobatics to Steve Morse

I saw this video and was amazed as I usually am with aerobatic pilots. Knowing just a bit of what it takes to make a plane do the things that you see makes it all the more incredible. I had the chance to do some aerobatics with an instructor in this same model of aircraft. It was one of the most unforgettable flights I have ever had. I would love to get into this type of flying some day, but not to this level. Learning how to perform simple loops, rolls, spins, etc. with precision would be good enough. We'll see...

Various

• Did you read Becca's blog about how a local Internet newspaper in Colorado used one of my photos for it's Thursday edition? As Becca said, I thought it was pretty cool, even though it is a very small scale newspaper. If you stare at the little circle of the sun going down, watch what happens to the picture. It begins to dance. I am pretty sure it is due to the refresh rate of a computer monitor, or maybe I am just off my rocker.

• Speaking of that Internet newspaper, SLV Dweller, they also have a neat YouTube video about straw bale houses on Wednesday's edition. In all honesty it really appeals to Becca and I. I know it sounds a little earthy and hippy-like, but I guess my parents continue to rub off on me. The video is a promo and doesn't give many if any downsides of that type of construction. It obviously wouldn't work here in the Ecuadorian jungle where it rains 22 feet a year. Can you say mud pie?
  
• If you look on the sidebar of the blog, you will see yet another addition. I have another web album at Flicker. Maintaining two web albums is a lot of work. I don't know if I will keep it, but I'll sit on the idea for a while and see what happens.
• We still don't have a contract signed with the Ministry of Health for air ambulance flights. My boss Dan has a meeting with all the big wigs in Quito on Tuesday. Join us in prayer about that.
  
• We have been doing a ton of flying for Compassion International. Right now they are hosting church camps in various parts of the jungle. It is our job to be the logistical support. This means hauling hundreds of children, thousands of pounds of cargo, and whatever else comes up. Tomorrow, I have the lightest flight schedule of anyone, and I am slated to have 12 landings and over 3hours of flying. I'm already tired.
  
• My Becca has sure worked hard lately. She described very briefly in her blog about having and feeding 20 people in our home Thursday night. She describes it like it is no big deal. My hat's off to you babe, I have trouble feeding myself, let alone 20 other people. You did a great job!!!
  
• Ecuadorians are back at the voting booth today. They are voting on keeping their current constitution with some updates, or allowing the new administration to make a totally new constitution/government model for Ecuador. Might be interesting to see what happens.
  

Threatening

Yesterday afternoon the sun came out with some really stormy clouds nearby at the hangar. I took this shot and converted it to black and white...reminds me of The Wizard of Oz.

Jungle pets

Today one of my stops was in Tiweano. I took some people from New Zealand there to visit the Waorani. I have been to that village a lot, but I always have my camera because I never know what new thing I will see. Today I saw a fun assortment of pets...


You can see the end of the leash on this monkey dangling from his neck. He was pretty friendly with his owner, but he didn't warm up to many other people. Monkeys seem very possessive with there masters, and are very cold towards outsiders. I don't see myself ever wanting a monkey for a pet.


This scarlet macaw seemed friendly. He was perched a little to high in a house for me to get at, but beautiful nonetheless.

La gloria de la creación

Here are a few photos I snapped this afternoon...

Sangay Volcano was really beautiful as the sun went beyond the horizon tonight. Some big lenticular clouds are forming at the top, indicating some strong winds. So strong are the winds that the ash cloud is barely noticeable going from left to right.

Tungurahua Volcano didn't disappoint either as the sun went down.

El Altar is always inspiring when it comes out from its cloud blanket. Every time I look at it close up through my camera I am just in awe of the power I see, and the contrast with the snow and glaciers, as I take the photo from the middle of the tropical rain forest.

This rainbow I caught just as I was getting on my bike again this afternoon to come home. I altered it some to show the rainbow better. Isn't it neat how God continues to show his promise through the rainbow that he will never destroy the earth with a flood again? He could have chosen to only show it once to Noah and his family, but we are blessed to continue to see them worldwide, and remember the promise of God.


I found a neat scarab beetle this afternoon in the hangar. They are neat beetles because of all the different iridescent colors they can be. This one was small, about the size of a half dollar coin.

Another picture of Shell, Ecuador

I took some more pictures yesterday in my maintenance flight and decided to label some things for my readers. It is mostly self-explanatory. Shell is a town of about 2500-3000 people. As noted by the picture, everything on the south side of the runway is military, which probably doubles the population at times. The Chinese restaurant is very good. Just ask my dad. He went there about everyday when he was here. When he left Ecuador he spoke more Chinese than Spanish, and had to start taking cholesterol medicine. Our church is a block from our house, which is incredibly convenient. Our MAF hangar didn't quite make the photo, but it lies just a little more east . Click here to see a previous post of the town plaza. The footbridges are fun to cross as well. They are pretty high, just ask my mother in law, Bunny, how fun they are. I heard a few funny whimpers out of her when she was crossing.

Overall, the small town community feel of Shell is just what God designed us for. Although we like some of the amenities that a city offers, we hate everything else. We are very content to live in Shell, and live within walking distance to everything, or in some cases, nothing.

Busy weekend

After our fun day off on Friday, I had to get back to the real world and go to work this weekend. It is my turn to be on call this Easter weekend. It was a pretty laid back day at the hangar yesterday. I was able to catch up on a lot of little projects that I couldn't seem to get done previously. Becca and the girls came by and we gave it our best trying to get a family picture. Let's just say we will be having retakes.

I did have one flight in the afternoon. It was only a post-maintenance flight, which kept me close to Shell. For those of you who have never seen my pictures of Shell, below is what the big city looked like yesterday afternoon. Basically, the town runs the length of the 5,000ft long runway. This picture is looking out to the east towards Brazil and the Amazon Basin. If you were to look out my right side window, your eyes would be filled with the Andes Mountains going right up to 20,000ft. with snow caps. Pretty distinct contrasts.


Today I am still on call, but I won't go into the hangar unless there is a life and death emergency. I have to help lead worship at church, and then leave early to go help cook brunch. The MAF'ers are having an Easter brunch, and I got elected to cook pancakes and waffles. Not a bad election, I enjoy cooking breakfast, or in this case brunch. Afterwards, if there are still no flights to do, maybe I will get a nap in the afternoon...probably wishful thinking.

Additions

After seeing some cool things on another blog I wanted to put them on my blog as well. They are visitor tracking tools to help everyone see where they are reading from. I still might make changes here and there to personalize it better, but it is pretty neat at this point.

A few recent snapshots

Last night as I was getting on my bike to come home after work the sun was setting behind the ash plume of Tungurahua Volcano. It was a pretty sight.

Yesterday I was in Nemonpade again, and got a neat shot of Mincaye. He is one of the greatest examples of the transformational power of Christ that I have ever met. Although we don't understand each other very well, there is nothing more disarming than a smile as big as his. He has invited me to go hunting with him the past few times I have been in NEM. I don't know if it would ever work out, but I think it might be fun. (hunting meaning 4-6 days in the jungle chasing whatever we see through the wild)

While walking through Nemonpade a few days ago, I noticed these fungi on a fallen tree. The jungle is a haven for weird types of fungi, and I thought these were no exception.

From the logbook...Nemonpade

I had only one scheduled flight today. Before I could get around to doing it, we got word of a snake bite, a complicated pregnancy, and a serious ear infection. So, I set out on a medical flight first thing this morning. I was back just before lunch after making the rounds picking up these people.

Finally, I was able to make my original flight into the village of Nemonpade (NEM). This is a Waorani community. I had a fun time in there and the people are so nice. Two men of the spearing party that killed Nate Saint and his friends live there. They are a lot of fun, and 100% proof of the changing power of Christ.This little girl just lit up when I pointed the camera her way. Her people are full of smiles, and they are easy to make laugh. I always enjoy when I get to go into their area.

Here is a close up of the parrot. We would like to have one like this as a pet. Some day I am going to figure out what I can trade for one. Of course it would live outside. Birds are filthy animals, but he won't have to worry about freezing in his cage outside like he would if we still lived in Colorado.


I saw this centipede belly up as I walked through NEM. He had just died. I had never seen one like this, so I picked him up and put him on the wood planking of a house and took some pictures. His design is awesome. I'm glad he was dead, because I wouldn't have messed with him. They are to creepy and have to many legs going at the same time.

Happy April Fool's Day

I have had two funny things happen recently with two of my favorite people. While I won't go as far as to call them fools, you can be the judge on that one.

Story #1

When my parents were here the first part of the year, my dad was enjoying one of the Spanish Guitar Cd's that I had. I made a mental note and thought maybe I would buy it online and have it sent to him. My dad and I both share a love for all types of music, and I could imagine him at home just like when I lived with him, with the speakers pounding and the floor vibrating in their house. Finally a few weeks ago, I went to Amazon.com and ordered the CD and had it sent to my dad. Some time later he and I were talking over Skype and he didn't mention anything about the CD. Whenever my dad receives something he is ALWAYS quick to say thanks and express his gratitude. In this conversation he didn't mention a thing. I didn't get my feelings hurt, but it did make me wonder if he could forget something like that. So finally I asked him..."Dad, did you get a CD in the mail this past week?" He said, "Yeah, how did you know about that? Wait a minute, did you order it for me? I thought I had ordered it."

Having similar musical tastes, my dad had actually went to Amazon.com as well, just days earlier and looked at the same CD but he didn't order it. When it showed up on his doorstep, he was really confused because he thought he had just looked at it, not ordered it. To make matters worse, Amazon messed up my name as the buyer and put my dad's name. So even the bill said that Ben Cannon had bought the CD. So, my dad just went on with life, happy that he had ordered himself a CD, but a little baffled that he had forgotten about it. My mom and I gave him a hard time for becoming such a crazy old man.

Story #2

This story I am particularly proud of. I have done my fare share of pranks, and I don't see any end to them coming soon. Here's how it went...

My father-in-law Ron is a die hard KU Jayhawks basketball fan. I must admit that it has rubbed off on me a bit, and I even enjoy watching and keeping up with their season's progress. Last Saturday, the Jayhawks were playing UCLA in the Great 8 match up as part of the annual NCAA spring basketball tourney. They were part of the last 8 teams playing towards the championship game from an original pool of 64.

Knowing Ron would be watching the game, I thought of a great idea right as we were walking out the door to go watch the game ourselves at a friends house. The game had been on for about 5 minutes when I called Ron on our cell phone. Here's how it went...

(Vicki) answering the phone always "Hello"
(Sean) "Good afternoon, this is Ben Cunningham with Great Lakes (airlines). Is a Ron Ekert available?"
(Vicki) "Yes, just a minute"
As Vicki hands Ron the phone, he asks her "who is it?" In a tone of annoyance Vicki says "some guy from Great Lakes."
(Ron) "hello"
(Sean) "Hi Ron. Sorry to bother you. This is Ben Cunningham from Great Lakes. We landed a little while ago here in Alamosa and we were needing to get some fuel. We can't find anybody to help us. The doors are all closed and locked, and the hangar door is down, and the ramp is just deserted. I have flown this Alamosa route before on the weekends and have never had a problem getting fuel, but this afternoon I can't find anyone. I did find one gentleman named Joe (airport manager) and he gave me your number. Could you come and give us some fuel perhaps?"
(Ron) "I have 2 guys working today. They should be there. They are there until 6."
(Sean) "I'm sorry. I looked and looked. Everything is shut down and locked up. There is no body here. If you could just swing by real quick and fuel us up, we would be on our way"
(Ron) with a little heat in his voice this time. "But I have two guys working!....
(Sean) I interrupt him "Hi Ron, this is Sean calling" ...very long pause... "Ron, this is Sean in Ecuador calling. I knew you would be watching the game, and wanted to call and give you a hard time" ...still paused...
(Ron) in loving anger "You meat head...you idiot...you meat head...you idiot..."
(Sean) dying from laughter "Hey Ron, just wanted to bother you, I'll talk to you later, maybe you can sell me some fuel some other time"
(Ron) still in loving anger "Yeah, I love you to, but you're on my list now. You're lucky you are down there in Ecuador. You meat head...you idiot!

I found out later that Ron's two employees that were working the weekend together had asked Ron if they could leave early. When "Ben Cunningham" called and said there was no body there, Ron's blood began to boil, and I'm sure he was wondering who he was going to fire on Monday morning. Ron still says I am on his "list." Whatever that means. For as hard as he had me laughing, being on his list is definitely worth it.

A matter of prayer

I wanted to inform everyone of some happenings lately with our flying and ask that you join us in prayer about it...

Around the world, MAF has dozens of flight programs like the one in Ecuador. Generally speaking we all fly the same things. These include missionaries/church staff, cargo, medivacs, etc. One of the things that makes the Ecuador program unique is our medical flying. Often you read of the patients that I fly to and from their villages. Often times without the airplane they would have died in their jungle community. We fly so many medivacs in fact, that it accounts for about %50 of all our flights. The interesting thing about our medical flying is that the Ecuadorian Department of Health has had a contract with us for as far back as anyone can remember. In other words, the Ecuadorian government pays us to do the medivac flights.

Our most recent contract with the Dep. of Health expired last November. When we tried to renew it, they wouldn't (I don't know why) but we did get a "gentleman's" agreement verbally that we could still keep on flying and getting paid for these flights. We did get paid through December, but January, February, and March are all unpaid, totalling thousands of dollars. There has been a changing of staff in the Ivory Tower in Quito, and our verbal agreement went with it. Basically, those in power now say that they don't have a contract with us and therefore don't have to pay us. My boss Dan on the other hand said it can work both ways. If we don't have a contract, then we don't have to fly medivacs. This was, and still is, a very hard decision to make.

There has been a lot of pressure put on the government now by us, jungle communities, and even the national media to do something about the contract renewal. It has been almost 3 weeks now since we stopped flying medivacs. We are still flying those patients that will surely die without a flight. Snake bites and broken bones and things that someone will obviously die quickly from we are still doing. This has totalled to about 3 flights per week.

With a decision like the one we have made to halt all medivac flights until we have a new contract, and are paid on outstanding flights, it has been difficult flying these past few days. Many people in the jungle communities don't understand the way of "our" world, the one in which money rules everything. They don't understand that it takes money to put gas in the tanks, and without money there is no gas in the tanks, and therefore no flight. There has been a lot of confusion and misunderstanding in the minds of those living in the jungle. As pilots it is getting harder and harder to fly. EVERY place we go now there is someone needing a medical flight. But, the reality of it is, they won't die from what they have. So, we have to diplomatically tell them that we can't fly them out, because they aren't close enough to dying, or their problem isn't serious enough. This is really pulling on the emotions and heartstrings of the pilots, myself included.

Join us in prayer that:

• We have a contract signed this week with the Ecuadorian Department of Health, and all outstanding debts are paid.
  
• For understanding within the jungle communities as to the decision we have made.
• The pilots can be diplomatic and loving to the communities that they enter.
  
• Ultimately, God's will be done. Perhaps we shouldn't have a renewed contract. Either way, to have a definite yes or no with the medivac flight ops would be nice.
  

From the logbook...Where's the runway!?

The other day en route to my destination, I snapped a quick shot as I was passing an airstrip. Can you find it? If not, follow the river from left to right and you will see it just under my wing and in the middle of the photo. The miles and miles of "broccoli" that we fly over everyday is impressive. I can't speak for the rest of the world, but you won't find large and widespread rain forest destruction/depletion in Ecuador like you hear in the news. (Click on the picture for an enlarged view and you will see the airstrip easier)

Doctor visit

Growing up I always remember my mom saying weird words. I knew she was just inventing ideas and sicknesses just to get me to do something. At one time I thought she had invented the word "kooth" (sp?). She said I didn't have any, which didn't bother me, because with a word that stupid who would want some anyway.

The other was a medical invention on her part, or so I thought. She was always talking about impetigo. Supposedly, I was destined to get it if I didn't clean up my act, or take more showers etc. Well mom...Guess what I went to the doctor for today? Yep, I now have impetigo. It broke out a little on my chin and lower leg. It should be cleared up in a few days with the medicine I have. There are any number of places I could have got it, one of which is the people that I fly as passengers everyday, but I'll probably never know. Anyway, I just wonder what other words I am going to realize are real that my mom used to tell me as I grow older.

The blues

Yesterday afternoon the clouds cleared and the sun came out really strong. What that left us were some beautiful views of the Andes. They are always so stunning to behold. They are so HUGE and the way they just drop into the Amazon Basin covering themselves with jungle is gorgeous. They are quite a bit different from a Pine or Aspen tree forest in the Rocky Mountains, but beautiful none the less.


These are just the foothills visible from our hangar. They looked so awesome with the clouds just wisping through them. You could sit there and just watch God's handiwork and how the wind was blowing the clouds into different shapes and directions.


Here is Sangay Volcano to the south. Sangay, Tungurahua, and Reventador Volcanoes are all very active right now. Sangay and Tungurahua are within a 30 mile radius of my house. Reventador is north about 50 miles. You can see the wind is out of the south in the picture above, blowing the small ash cloud our way towards the north in Shell.

I often post things about mountains, bugs, animals etc. I am facinated with nature. If you just stop for those small moments everyday, and observe what is around you, you cannot help but be in awe of what God created and continues to create. Everything from clouds, weather, waterfalls, etc is so awesome. God's creation is so dynamic. Even the apostle Paul talks of the power of God's creation in Romans. (1:18-20)

The root of all evil

I found a neat image in Wikepedia about corruption levels in the world. Click on the image below to see where Ecuador falls. Kind of interesting...

Transitions

When we joined MAF several years ago they made it a point to prepare us for our future life overseas in more ways than just flight training. One of the seminars we had was all the transition in staff that we will see in our time in the mission field. We have almost lived in Ecuador for a year and this is definitely true. In a lot of ways, staff turnover in a mission might be the same as a secular stateside job. People come and people go. But I guess there is something different about it when you work side by side someone achieving a common goal and know their lives, their kids, their habits (good and bad), you have sweat and in some cases bled with them. It doesn't help that they usually leave the field of service and move back to the USA and reside in their home state thousands of miles away. You can't just sit down over lunch and catch up.

In our time here in Ecuador we have had 4 families leave our program for various reasons. In my opinion they all seemed good, and I think I would have done the same thing if I were in their shoes. Most recently, our chief mechanic and his family packed up and went stateside. We had the privilege of having them over for dinner one last time before they left yesterday. Perhaps we will see them again in the States, but for sure when we all cross over to the other side of eternity. This is probably one of the hardest things about being a missionary. Getting to know people, both national and expatriate, and knowing that a day might come, probably unexpectedly, in which either of you needs to leave for various reasons. I count it a privilege to work so intimately with some of the greatest people in the world, and to be able to share in their lives and work, if even for a short time. It is worth it.

From the logbook...Monkey business

I only had one flight today. After waiting half of the day for the weather to get better, I was finally on my way after lunch. My flight was only taking a visiting group of New Yorkers (I told you I haul interesting cargo!) into the village of Tiweano (TIW) for a quick visit/tour. All together, the NY group was 10 people, so we used 2 airplanes, Steve was the other pilot. These type of flights are usually pretty fun. I always see and learn something myself that I didn't know before.

Here is a top down view after I took off from TIW. Steve was airborne himself about 30 seconds later in Alas 12.


I have had my share of monkeys to see this week, each one different. It is fun seeing God's creation in it's natural setting. Sometimes you truely do feel like you are at the zoo.


This guy was just swinging through the trees as we were walking back to the airplanes to leave. Notice those huge cupped hands for swinging. He could sure swing from tree to tree. Tarzan would have had a run for his money today. He was the biggest monkey I have ever seen in the wild. He was probably as big as your average 5-6 year old child (not including his arms).

From the logbook...stranded

In the flight plan today I had two long flights to get done...but you never know what a day may bring.

En-route to my first stop of Mashient (MSH) flying Alas 14, I began to feel an erratic thumping from my engine. I was almost to my destination, and everything seemed fine from the gauges, so I just kept going. After I landed in MSH, I tested some things with the engine still running before shutting down. Sure enough, I had problems with my left magneto. After unloading my over 900 pounds of sheet metal roofing (WEAR gloves!) and concrete, I took the cowling off and tried to figure out what was giving me problems.

Some may remember the problems we had with Alas 14 in out ferry flight from the USA. Long story short, it was the same problem today. So, after diagnosing that the problem I had could not be fixed with my simple tool kit, I was destined to wait in MSH until parts could be brought to me. The part I needed was a magneto harness. This is the thing that has all the wires that send the spark to the spark plugs. At about 3 in the afternoon, (6 hours after I got there) my boss Dan landed and helped me put the harness on, and sure enough after start up the problem was gone.

I was soon on my way back to Shell after a quick stop to pick up a passenger in Copataza. I didn't have enough daylight left to get my other stops or flights done. I guess that is why God invented tomorrow.


As with most big white pilot guys that have to spend unplanned time in a jungle community, you quickly develop a following. The people of MSH, including the adults, are great. I was shown around the whole community, and even sat in for about 30 minutes on a highly competitive game of high school soccer. For having to get stuck in the jungle with maintenance problems, I really had a great time. The weather was great (I am sunburned now), the people very welcoming, and the parts fixed my problem. Most important, I had my lunch with me. An older pilot told me once; "never get separated from your lunch!"
Here is Dan taking off after helping me get things up and running again.

It's always interesting the pets people pull out when I'm in their communities...literally. This monkey is the pet of the teacher in MSH, and he literally hangs out inside her shirt. He didn't like me too much.

"The throat of fire"

Tungurahua Volcano has been at it again. In the Quichua language Tungurahua means throat of fire. When we woke up this morning, it was clear without much wind. After I got to work, I took a picture real quick of the ash plume raising before the clouds came in and covered it up, which they did about 20 minutes later. You still cannot see the actual volcano from Shell, just the ash plumes it sends up.

Little house in the jungle

A while back I talked of how I built Brooklyn a playhouse from our old shipping crates. I was done mostly with my part, and Becca wanted to add a little bit to it, to help make it "homey." We are finally done with it. It is no masterpiece by any means, but Brooklyn likes having it. All told I think I have spent less than $10 putting it together and making it "nice."

Dad...Look what mommy caught!!!

When I came home tonight, Becca was excited (and proud) of what she caught in the house today. Supposedly our dog Maya was chasing this lizard and it found the nearest escape, which was under our door and into the house. Good catch Becca! This particular species of lizard is VERY fast and they can jump a few feet. How she caught it I don't know. I have seen many of these and I haven't been able to get my hands on one. Guess you have to leave some things for the wife to get done.

From the logbook...

I always say this, but we were really busy today flying. Here are some of the things I did...

• My first leg I flew a Compassion International team of 4 and their cargo into a village called Chinkianentza.
• Then I went and picked up 2 guys with HCJB World Radio that are working on some water projects in the jungle. I moved them from Taisha to Makuma
• In Makuma I loaded up a dead woman and 3 of her family members and flew them 10 minutes away to Ayuy. The customs they have of mourning the dead are very interesting. I wish I could think of a respectful way to record it and show everyone, but I can't think of it. I guess I'll just keep it saved in my mental hard drive.
• From Ayuy, I flew back to Shell and loaded up my next flight. I ate my lunch en-route. Best cafe I know of, and it always has a great view.
• I took 2 Compassion International workers to the village of Quewadiono (QWE). They took a ton of stuff. My airplane was literally full to the ceiling with their things.
  
• After landing and unloading in QWE, I flew 10 minutes to Damointaro to pick up another Compassion worker and I took him to QWE as well.
  
• I had some medicine on board as well for a patient in Quenahueno (QNO). From QWE I flew to QNO and dropped off the medicine. I had hoped to simply hand the medicine out the window and be on my way back to Shell, but I learned after landing in QNO that Shell was shut down with heavy rain. After waiting a while in QNO, things cleared up in Shell and I was back on my way.
• After 10 landings, over 4 hours of flying, and hauling everything from concrete, dead people, living people, dogs, chickens, backpacks, clothes, medicine, mail, money, food, propane, gasoline, foam pads, school materials, a stereo, 100's of lemons, a broken radio, and some fresh bread I am thankfully home. All in a day's work. Looks like it will be the same tomorrow.
• A missionary living in the jungle once told me that for every minute we fly, it would have taken him an hour on the ground hiking. Therefore, I flew roughly 252 minutes today. With more figuring, the same goods and services I flew today would have taken 21 days to accomplish, hiking 12 hours a day. That is impressive, and a good reminder of why we are here doing what we are doing. Praise God for this opportunity to serve, and thanks to all of you who support us in your prayers and with your pocketbooks. Together we are making an eternal difference.
  

This is a pic of some of the villagers that came and hung out with me in QNO while a waited for the weather to clear up 50 miles away in Shell. We sure weren't worried about the weather or the rain in QNO. It was HOT!!!

Another blogger

Just wanted everyone to know that Becca started her own blog. You can all go there and read why. For those of you who enjoy reading a well written article, then that is the place to go. I can be a good writer if I take my time, but I usually take 5-10 minutes and whatever comes out great. I don't have any college profs grading my writing, although we have some in our reading audience that occasionally give me a hard time as though they were grammar teachers. I don't need no stinkin' gramer and speling.

Click here for Becca's new blog.

From the logbook...Maintenance

This morning I had one flight to get done. It only had 5 stops on it, although it took me about an hour from Shell at it's farthest point. I was mostly taking returning patients to their homes, and bringing a few folks out. It was pretty non-eventful, which was nice.

Later in the afternoon I was asked to do another flight. I quickly prepared the airplane and myself, and I was quickly on my way. But I didn't make it to far. I noticed in my taxi to the runway that my starter was still on. I quickly taxied back to the hangar and shut everything down. By the time I had the motor off, it was too late. The starter was fried, and smelled like it too. So, I canceled my flight until tomorrow, and put a new starter on the engine. I thought the reason my starter never went off was because the ignition key stayed in the start position, instead of returning to the run position. We have had problems with this ignition switch ever since I flew Alas 14 down from the States. So, I threw on a new ignition switch for good measure also.

It was a good thing things didn't work out to go flying anyway. While I was in the middle of fixing things, it started to rain. And when I say rain, I mean POURRRR!!! It was the hardest rain I have ever seen in my whole life. That is saying a lot after living in the tropics the past few years where rain can get really serious. After things settled down a bit, people were discovering that parts of their roofs were missing, trees were blown down, etc. It really rained hard. I probably wouldn't have made it home had I gone flying. So, I just chalk up another one to Providence, and gave God thanks that all things work out to the good of those who love Him.

An unexpected day...

When I got to the hangar today, Steve and I were looking at our flight schedule and determined that maybe I could take the day off due to a "light" number of flights. Usually when you are on call like I was this past weekend you take off Friday for sure, and then the following Monday if you ended up flying on Sunday. Well, due to the large amount of flight to get done last Friday, and the fact that it is just me and Steve as pilots at the time being, I couldn't take Friday off. So, without much convincing I ended up coming back home today with the whole day ahead of us to do something fun!

Becca and I hadn't had a good day to just goof off and just see where the day takes us for a while. After we ran a few errands, we jumped in the Bronco and headed for the mountains. Becca doesn't usually know what she is in for when she gets in the car with me on my "let the car take you where it wants to" expeditions. We ended up covering a lot of country today, and seeing some awesome things. We only had to put the Bronco into 4 wheel drive once. We didn't see much pavement, and we saw a lot of country roads, Ecuadorian style.

I have been eyeing a bunch of side roads on the road to Quito for some time. Today was our chance to start taking some of those that started about an hours drive from our house. We saw some of the most stunning scenery and people that we have encountered thus far living here in Ecuador. We got to drive across a few streams, a few bridges the width of my Bronco, and even stopped once and got our feet wet.

I was able to get some more ideas for some great photo locales for some great shots of volcanoes when the weather is good. We even gave one woman and her two girls a ride up one of the mountains as the girls were getting out of school. It was the steepest road I have even driven on, and these girls walk it to and from school everyday. The mom told us that it is 1 hour to school, and 2 hours home walking uphill. Needless to say they were skinny. There is a reason America is fat and unhealthy, and it is because we don't walk anywhere anymore. That is the one thing that continues to amaze me living overseas. We have two legs, and the people I live around actually use them to walk from point A to B. Novel concept!

The fun thing about exporing like this, is that it just continues to open up your curiousity. So, rather that be satisfied now that I know where all these road lead, and to what, I have seen even more roads and pueblos that I want to explore and drive to. Good thing I have this coming weekend off too. Maybe another spur of the moment road trip will be in order.

Here are a few shots from today's wanderings....a great day off work indeed...
Mommy took a picture of Brooklyn and me as we were goofing off in one of the mountain streams. It was some pretty cold water, and Brooklyn wasn't to thrilled about getting n too deep.
This is the road that we gave the mom and her two girls a ride up. Pictures always do a bad job of showing steepness, but we were in STEEP country! Although it was in the clouds, Tungurahua volcano is also directly in the center of this pic. Hopefully one evening I will go back up on a clear night and get some cool lava shots. Once again, the volcano is getting very active, with large plumes of smoke and ash burping out. Although this latest stint of activity hasn't produced any lava flows, they could begin again without warning.

The legacy lives on...

Yesterday as planned I had a lot of flying to do. Most of my flying had to do with bringing an American work team out of Makuma. It took me three flights to get them and all their gear out. They were in Makuma since last Tuesday putting a roof on the village church. It sounds like they all had a great time, and they all got sunburned. My loads going into the jungle entailed returning patients to their villages, and also hauling two full 55 gallon barrels of fuel on my last flight. As anticipated, I was pooped when I got home.

Below you will see the newest airplane in Shell. As with most communities in Latin America, everything in the town is centered around a town plaza, or square. Shell is no different, and ever since we got here last year they have been sprucing up the plaza, and really making it nice. The centerpiece for the plaza just arrived this past week. It represents the two things that have developed the province of Pastaza and made it known, perhaps around the world. The two things are oil and aviation. It was pretty neat when the truck pulled into town with the little yellow Piper Cruiser replica on it's flatbed. It is a 1:1 scale model of the airplane that Nate Saint was flying when he served here. Surprisingly, many locals do not know the history of the little yellow airplane, but word is spreading fast. They even equipped the airplane with functioning nav lights and strobe lights on the wingtips. It's pretty cool.

I mentioned earlier that I was to lead worship today. I didn't have any emergency flying to do today, so thankfully I was able to make church, and help out. It was my first time leading worship on this scale since we left Costa Rica almost a year ago. It was also my first time leading in Spanish. It went pretty well, although the English wanted to come out a few times. I had a great time leading worship again, and I'm sure I will be helping more in the future.

Life in the fast lane

These past few days, the whole week in fact, seem like a blur. The past two nights we have had guests over for dinner. Since Wednesday, we have been only 2 pilots at work, myself included. Two of our pilots are in Costa Rica at some MAF regional meetings. Yesterday, we were rained out ALL day, as well as Monday. Therefore, today we had a lot to get done between Steve and I. We didn't get it all done, but the most important flights were done. I am also on call this weekend. Usually when you are on call you show up at the hangar on Saturday morning and see if there are any flights to do. I already know I have at least 3 flights for tomorrow, perhaps more if we get our usual emergency calls. Then, tomorrow evening I have worship practice at church. I am leading worship at church this Sunday. Hopefully I won't have any emergencies Sunday morning to go fly and pick up, or I will have to miss church, and I don't know what will happen. I do know life will go on. Amidst all the craziness lately, we are taking it easy tonight. Brooklyn is watching one of her new Barbie movies, which she loves. I will probably try to watch with her, but I might have to use it as an excuse to fall asleep early.

This morning I caught a good sunrise when I woke up. Living on the equator we don't see many "good" sunrises or sunsets. The sun comes right up, and goes right down. It isn't like in the lower or higher latitudes where the light lingers for "X" amount of minutes before the sunrise or sunset. But this morning with the way the clouds were, it looked pretty neat. The antenna in the middle of the picture is from our other pilot Chad's house. We actually share internet with his family, and the square thing on the antenna beams our signals back and forth.

From the logbook...first experiences

When you begin to fly on whatever kind of level, personal, military, airline, bush, etc, you begin to hear of certain encounters or experiences that you know some day will be yours as well. These can be good things, and bad things. This week, I have had the "opportunity" to cut out a few more notches on my experience tree.

The first one happened as I was leaving the hangar in Shell. You have all no dought seen the funny looking pod on the belly of our airplanes. We use these to carry a lot of different things. On our pre-engine start checklist, one of the items requires that that the pod door is closed. Well, you guessed it, I begin to taxi away for takeoff with my pod door open. Luckily I was stopped before I did anything real stupid like trying to go flying with it open. Leaving the pod door open is maybe the equivalent to leaving your zipper down. It's not the end of the world, but it sure is embarrassing.

My second experience that I can now "chalk up," has to do with the pictures below. While not a common problem to the ordinary pilot, ALL of our pilots have been stuck at one point or another. This is usually due to mud, lots of grass, whatever. My case was a little different today.

I was turning around preparing for takeoff when all of a sudden my left main landing gear sunk into the dirt big time, and I immediately shut everything down including the engine. After my passengers and I climbed out, we began to dig out my wheel and try and figure out why a seemingly smooth surface would suddenly swallow my wheel. It turns out that the end of the airstrip that I was using for takeoff is new, that's to say less than two years old. When we were digging, we found bits of burned tree stump, indicating the presence of a tree in that exact spot. The stump was covered over, and over time rotted, leaving a void in the earth, which I happened to taxi over today, and sink into. Praise the Lord it wasn't my nose wheel that went into that hole. I still might be in the jungle if that happened. That propeller likely would have contacted the ground, which opens up a whole new can of worms. Needless to say, after a little digging, my passengers helping by pushing the airplane, and myself inside giving it full throttle, we were out of the hole 5 minutes later and shortly thereafter airborne.



This is at another airstrip that I went to to bring out a patient. I was about 5 minute flight from the Peruvian border at this strip called Wachirpas. I just always think it is neat to see what the villagers use as pets.

Las parasitas

I have been having some weird gut problems for about 2 months. When you live in a tropical third world country like us, you expect that eventually the little critters are going to find a way into your digestive system, no matter what lengths you go to in order to prevent it.

The doctors here recommend that every 6 months you take a de-wormer and anti-amoeba medicine, regardless of how you feel. We have lived here 11 months now and we haven't done anything...until now. Yesterday I started on my intestinal Drano medicine, and finished it today at lunch. Time will tell if it is effective, which I am sure it will be. I am just glad that we have medicine for such things. Parasites can really reek havoc in the long term, and can even cause death if not taken seriously. Luckily at my stage, they are more of a discomfort and inconvenience than anything. Hopefully after all this medicine takes effect, they won't be anything but dead and eliminated!

Playhouse

While my girls were gone in the States, I wanted to build Brooklyn a playhouse to surprise her for when she got back. When we moved down here we used 4 big crates to ship our big things. Since unpacking them, they have just been sitting around waiting for the termites to find them. Rather than wait for that day, I thought I could put something simple together with the wood and make a simple playhouse. I got most of it done while the girls were away, but I ran out of time to complete it. This weekend we went ahead and finished it. We put hinges on the door and shutters, put a roof on it, and painted it. At first it looked pretty awful. Brooklyn thought it was our dog's house when she first saw it. I'll be the first to admit that is isn't a wooden marvel, but it will work for who it's for. And after we got done painting it, it looked so much better. Just like someone told me once, "paint can cover a multitude of sins." We moved a plastic table and chairs inside, and Brooklyn was really happy with it. She even told me thanks for working so hard and making her a house. How cool!
Here is my little helper painting. She really pitched in, and she helped me paint the whole thing until we were finished. Usually she does something for a while like any 3 year old, and then looses interest. But, she stayed the course with me until it was all done. I think Mommy is going to make it even a little more personal with some other painted pictures and maybe some real flowers. After it is all done we will put a picture of the final result.

From the logbook...fish anyone?

VERY early this morning my previous lunch from yesterday came a calling. I was out of commission if you know what I mean for quite a while, and didn't even think I would make it into work today. I did eventually go to work, albeit a little late. When I got there I had two short flights bringing out Compassion International teams, and I was done flying at around 1 pm, or so I thought.

At around 4 pm we got a radio call saying that there was an emergency in a village called San Juan, where a 7 month old boy had eaten a lot of caustic dish soap. So, we pulled the airplane back out, and about 15 minutes later I was airborne. The flight was thankfully a non-event, and a little over an hour later I was back in Shell, and the little boy and his mom were on their way to the hospital.

Steve was the only other pilot flying with me today. He brought back some interesting cargo on his last flight...

This is called a "Bagre" or jungle catfish. They can get huge, even bigger than this one. There are actually two fish on the hand truck. The bigger fish was put on our scales and topped out at 120 pounds. That's a lot of fish! The woman standing next to the fish for scale perception is our secretary Elsa.

From the logbook

Today I was once again moving around a lot of Compassion International people throughout the jungle. At my last stop on my first flight, I landed in Copataza around lunch time and had an invite to join one of the villagers for lunch. I always try to accept these kinds of invitations, and today I had no reason why I could not. As I sat down with the village leader to eat lunch his wife soon put a bowl of "soup" in front of me along with a plate full of boiled eggs and jungle potatoes. The soup was good and had some meat in it. After asking what kind of meat it was I deduced that it was none other than the world's largest rodent. Click here for more info. The food was good, and so was the company. Earlier in the week I was in Copataza dropping off a dental team and I was able to get a fun picture of my host in front of our airplane.
Later in the day I was basically the flying ambulance again. I had a few returning patients to take home, and them I made the rounds and filled up my airplane with patients to take back to Shell. We fought weather most of the day, and finally I landed back in Shell just before the airport closed at sunset.


Here is the view from the cockpit on the way back towards Shell. The Pastaza River is on the right.

New pics

This past weekend when I went to pick up my girls at the airport, of course I goofed off the whole way up to Quito taking pictures and doing some light off road exploring. I ended up at our hangar at the Quito International airport trying to get some fun shots. I did get some neat shots of departing and arriving aircraft from our hangar apron, before security came by and told me I couldn't be there. Oh well, I guess next time...Here are a few that I took on my drive. Be sure to check the web album every once in a while for new "exclusive" photos of more than just airplanes.


An American registered Boeing 747 prepares for takeoff. If you have never seen one of these, regardless of the model, up close and personal, you will never understand it's size, and marvel at the power of aerodynamics that enable thousands of pounds of metal to cheat gravity and soar skyward. I assume this "freight-dog" is carrying roses for export.


Here is the nose of the big boy as he taxied by our ramp. Ginormous!!


Here is another freight-dog coming in for landing. Another impressive aircraft, the MD-11.

From the logbook

I have been at it again flying a lot. I haven't written much because I have been too tired. I can't believe tomorrow is already Thursday, and the first day of March. Today I flew with our instructor pilot Chad to begin my instrument checkout. We have this process to enable our pilots to fly when the weather might be bad. What it enables us to do is safely fly within clouds and be able to navigate to our destination safely and also land the airplane. I have legally had this capability for years in the USA, and from the day I received my license in Ecuador as well. MAF had put a "restriction" on my instrument flying until I flew "X" amount of hours, while learning the weather patterns, terrain, communications in Spanish, etc. I am grateful for this "restriction," because at times the workload has been high enough. Now, I do feel ready to take the next training challenge and begin the checkout to fly in instrument conditions. This process doesn't take as long as the airstrip checkout, of which I am probably %80 done. The remaining %20 of our over 200 airstrips will take some time due to varying factors like location, use, and of course...more experience.

Of my flights today, I pulled many missionaries working in the jungle out so they could attend a conference. Along with these missionaries, I did some more airstrip checkout with Chad, and flew out some critically ill patients totaling 3.5 hours of flight time and 10 landings. The rain and challenges of flying are beginning to return after 4 weeks of dry weather. Good thing I am beginning my instrument checkout!