Immigrants

Finally...I can tell you the covert ops we have been part of, now that the grandparents all know about it. What am I talking about? This past week I blogged about my trip through the Andes, and how beautiful they were with all the snow capped peaks. What was I doing in the Andes in the first place when Shell is in the jungle? I was on my way home from Quito, after dropping off Rebecca, Brooklyn, and Madison at the airport.

Wednesday morning they started an epic, yet successful, journey to Colorado. Currently, my 3 girls are at Becca's parents house. The purpose of the trip was to surprise Ron and Vicki (and everyone else involved) for their 40th wedding anniversary. It sounds like everyone was more than surprised. Of course, we couldn't have pulled off this kind of secret operation without some trained help. Many thanks to the Howard's for their role in providing a transport mobilization unit, encrypted communications, and some good ol' bluffing. Thanks to Anita, Richard, and Steve as well for keeping things on the down low.

Total, my girls will be in the good ol' USA 10 days. I will leave next weekend to go to Quito and pick them up at the airport.

I'll leave it up to Becca, if she desires, to share what she is feeling, seeing, smelling, etc, after being gone from our homeland for more than two years.

Now, if I could just remember how to run the washing machine!

Smokey!

Today was the worst haze/smoke I have seen. I had one flight in the afternoon, but I had to let another pilot do it, since he is approved to fly IFR and I am not. The smoke had reduced visibility to about 3 miles at one point. It really made for some weird looking daylight. I need a little more field experience before MAF will turn me loose to do IFR flights. (IFR meaning control of the airplane solely by reference to the instruments)
This is what it looked like when Steve took off on what was going to be my flight, in the middle of the day. Looks like sunset!

From the logbook...First landing in Nemonpade

This past Tuesday I made my first landing in a Huarani village called Nemonpade (NEM). I was there to pick up a Compassion International team and move them to the village of Tiwaeno. It was a fun little strip, and the people just the same. I have mentioned before the different atmospheres that each village has in the jungle. Some are very nice, happy, and excited that you are there. Then, you fly 5 miles away and feel like you are getting the cold shoulder. Of all the Huarani villages I have been going into lately, it has been a nice change of atmosphere. In all the villages the people just seem generally happy and excited to live. It is fun to land in their villages and enjoy their sense of humor, and the ability they have to laugh easily.

Here is a group shot of some of the people that were at the airstrip the other day in NEM.

For those of you who have seen "Beyond the Gates of Splendor" you may recognize the guy on my left. That is Mencaye, who played a large role in that documentary. This was my first time meeting him, and he was just as nice in person as he seems in the documentary.

I should be going back into NEM today. Hopefully I can find it. We have been covered in smoke here in Shell. So bad in fact, that they have almost closed the airport because the visibility is too bad. I'm not sure where the smoke/haze is from but I have heard it is from cane fields that are burning in Colombia and Brazil. Regardless of where it has it's beginnings, it sure makes the flying interesting here. We haven't had much rain for 3 weeks now, so instead, something had to come and make the flying a challenge, this time it is dense smoke instead of rain and clouds.

The volcano strip

I was driving through the Andes recently and had one of the most beautiful drives I have ever seen. It was definitely the clearest morning I have experienced here in Ecuador while being in the Andes. Below are some of the pictures I was fortunate enough to take before clouds came in and began their daily covering of the awesome peaks.This is Tungurahua Volcano(16,596 ft.) and El Altar Volcano (17,553 ft.) in the background. They are about 40 miles off in the distance in this pic, thus explaining the lack of clarity. A little steam can be seen exiting the vent of Tungurahua.


This is Corazón Volcano. It is 15,800 feet high, and dormant. It can be seen just south of Quito from the Pan-American highway.


This is Chimborazo Volcano. If you were to stand on the top, which many people do, you are closer to the sun than on any other point on earth, including Mount Everest. Chimborazo is the tallest volcano in Ecuador, at 20,823 feet, and the highest active volcano in the world. Because of it's proximity to the equator along with it's altitude, you are at the point closest to the sun on planet earth.


This is Illiniza Sur (south). Many people climb this 17,318 foot peak before they climb some of the higher volcanoes in order to acclimate themselves.


This is both Illiniza Sur and Norte. I drove a little off the beaten path getting these photos, but that was half the fun. Being able to take side roads, and see parts of the country that are lost at the high speeds of a highway is an integral part in developing a feel of the people you live with, and how they feel attached to the land they live in.

Hangar Happenings

Recently Alas 10 went into maintenance for many reasons. First of all, it is getting a new engine. Hopefully we will get it soon. Right now it awaits in customs in Quito.

Secondly, we are doing some airframe modifications. We will be "retiring" Alas 12 this Spring, therefore we are "robbing" some modifications like wingtip extentions and putting them on Alas 10 since it will be staying in the fleet. Alas 12 will probably make it's voyage to the States sometime in April or May. Any buyers?

Thirdly, all of our airplanes are getting major instrument and navigation equipment upgrades. This process is very time consuming, and as you can tell labor intensive. Our radio technicians have torn into the cockpit and about cleaned it out, preparing for the new instrumentation that will be installed. "After" pictures will be sure to follow, although it might be 6-8 weeks before Alas 10 is online again. Once Alas 10 is done, Alas 11 and 13 will be following to receive their new engines and avionics. Alas 14 already had the equipment and airframe upgrades before it left the States, therefore it will just keep flying along keeping the rest of the fleet afloat while they are undergoing reconstructive surgery.

From the logbook...

The past 2 days I have been able to fly Alas 14. Yesterday was my first operational flight in it since I last flew it in July, after flying it down from Kansas. We haven't had hardly 10 minutes of rain in the past 2 weeks (it's a nice thing), therefore the villagers have been hauling out a lot of fish as personal cargo, since the rivers are so low. The fish you see below was a unique one.
This is Ron our base maintenance manager. He flew out with me today to pick up a snake bite patient. As stated, one of the cargo items was fish. I don't know the proper name of this fish, but we call it an armor fish. It was really weird.

Here he is laid out on our cargo cart. After our 45 minute flight from Conambo, and who knows how long out of the water, he was still alive. They say the fish will live sometimes a few days outside of water if the conditions are right. When you tapped on the fish, it was as though you were hitting a coconut. He really had a hard "shell." His scales were REALLY rough as well. Notice how deeply set his eyes are into his sockets.

And of course, what is a good gross picture without a good gross mouth. Wouldn't want to be on the kissing end of those lips.

From the logbook...

We have been really busy flying this week. It seems like I always say it is busy, but I guess it's true. The other great (and unusual) thing is that we haven't had hardly a drop of rain in over a week. This doesn't make conditions conducive to growing a jungle, but the flying has been easy. Because of this, I was able to fly over 4 hours yesterday and I made 13 landings. Most of my flying entailed moving people from Compassion International around to some extent or another. Some went with me from one community to another, while others came out of the jungle altogether. It was neat to realize again as I was flying yesterday that the folks we fly for Compassion could not do their work without someone flying an airplane. They do awesome work, and very effective work as well. To be part of their team is a good reminder of how we all fit into the body of Christ. Some are feet, others arms, but we all come together under the head of Christ.

From the Homefront...

Becca, here, with a little news from the Homefront. We've had a great weekend as a family. Sean spent most of his time outside "piddling" - his favorite! Our yard looks great and he spent lots of time pruning the citrus trees so that now there is lots of light in the front yard. It has been downright HOT lately - no rain in several days! We hardly know what to do with ourselves. It's nice for a change...but I'm starting to want that rain back to cool things off again! I'm making a chocolate cake today and we're going to grab some Chinese for dinner before watching the Superbowl!!! What a treat.

Okay, so here's a couple of pictures you might enjoy...no airplanes or bugs today!

Maddie is getting to be such a joy! Here she is in her Sunday outfit, happy and smiling. We've seen more and more of her smiles lately. She'll often wake us up in the early morning with happy coos and giggles. She seems to have adjusted more to life and is becoming much easier to keep content....her newfound interest in toys and using her hands has caused her (and us) much delight!

Brooklyn loves to pose for pictures, as you can tell! Here she is in our orange tree just being a princess! I'm amazed every day with how much she is learning - she colors in the lines, recognizes a good 80% of the letters of the Alphabet, counts to 10, and is becoming quite the little communicator. She's a big help around the house now and even does her own chores in the morning (making her bed and feeding the dog and cat).

From the logbook...14 getting it's feet wet (or muddy)

We began using Alas de Socorro 14 this week. This is the C-206 that I helped fly down to Ecuador from Kansas last July. Just this past week it finally cleared all the hurdles of government red tape, and is officially usable.
One of the flights it had today was bringing out...you guessed it, a patient. This guy looked really bad. Somehow while he was cutting down a tree, he got walloped in the head, and it didn't look to good. Our hangar doctor said he may have a fractured skull, definitely a fractured cheekbone.

Cannon Web Album

If you look to the side of our blog, you will notice a new feature. I am working on starting a web album, which will take a few days since I have a lot of pictures I want to get on there. I will still be putting pictures on the blog, but now there will be a place to see more pictures of a wider variety of things than I put on the blog, for those of you who like pictures.

From the logbook...

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

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

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


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

Fernando Update

Yesterday morning Fernando was able to leave the hospital. He hasn't been back to work yet, and I think he was told to come back when he was good and ready. Thanks for all of your prayers to help him get out of the hospital. I would expect him to be back to work next Monday.

Spider link

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

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

Prayer request

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

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

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

From the logbook...

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

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

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

Our little cutie...

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

From the logbook...

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

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

The weekend...

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

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

More bugs...

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

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

Old town Quito

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