From the logbook...

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

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

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

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

From the Logbook...Jungle touring 101

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

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

All of winters glory...

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

A bugs life

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

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

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

Comet McNaught

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

A few recent snapshots...

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

Fun at the fair

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

Back in the saddle

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

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

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

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

Alive...

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

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.