Malambo pictures

Just before Christmas I was in the Malambo area again for our monthly evangelistic 'safari'. I was with another pilot so took the oportunity to get some photographs:

Sunrise at Malambo with the volcano Oldoinyo Lengai in the background:

Ground crew preparing the aircraft at Malambo International Airport :)


On the ground at Engaresero waiting for our passengers, temp 39'C:

Still on the ground Engaresero, still 39'C, looking towards Oldoinyo Lengai:


Short final approach Lemugur:

Rain showers to the south of Loliondo:

The Gospel message in Kisandawe

A month ago I flew the 'Northern Shuttle' to Arusha with a stop in Magambua, a village about 120km to the north west of Dodoma. I had on board a large speaker which was to be delivered to Magambua and was also to collect 2 passengers from there, bound for Arusha.

I had completed my final checks before start up and looked over to the marshaller expecting the usual signal that it was clear to start the aircraft engine. Instead he signalled that I should not start and was pointing to something beyond my left wing tip. Looking over I saw that there was an unfamiliar man coming over to the aircraft to see me. A little annoyed that we were being delayed, I opened the door and enquired how I could help. The man presented me with 2 packages, one a data projector and the other a large envelope which appeared to contain some post. Not knowing about these items I was a little suspicious, but having checked with the Ops department who confirmed that this had been arranged to go to Magambua, I accepted the 2 items and we were once more on our way. In Magambua the speaker, projector and envelope were gratefully received and I didn't give them much more thought at the time...

A week later I was in Magambua again to collect the medical team for their monthly clinic in Birise (see the blog entry below). One member of the team happened to mention to me that the SIL (Wycliffe Bible Translators) family in Magambua were very excited because, after many months of hard work, they now had the Jesus film in the local Sandawe language. Using a generator and a data projector they had already given 3 showings of the film in the previous week in Magambua and nearby villages and it had been seen by more than 1000 people! By now I'm sure it's been seen by many more and I'm glad that I was able to play a small part in helping it on its way, even though I didn't even realise it at the time.

The rains have arrived!

Last Sunday was an uncomfortably hot day, even by Dodoma standards! It seemed as though the heat had been building up for some time and on Sunday it reached a peak. Well, on Monday morning, to our relief, we were greeted by grey cloudy skies and by afternoon we were enjoying cool refreshing rain.

Apart from a shower about 3 weeks ago, this was the first rain since March and it signals the start of this year's rainy season. It is wonderful to have the relief from the heat and to see the countryside gradually changing from a scorched dusty brown to green again, but it also brings new challenges for the pilots.

This will be my first rainy season of flying here in Tanzania and on Tuesday I had a good introduction to it. Being the first Tuesday of the month I was due to fly a medical team from AIC in Magambua to a village called Birise, where they carry out a mums and babies clinic for the day. After Monday's rain, Tuesday started with grey skies and it looked like some weather may build up later in the day, but as I flew out towards Magambua the sky brightened a bit and our flight to Birise was uneventful. During the morning it was very humid as the moisture from the previous day's rain evapourated in the heat, and by midday some serious clouds were building up in the area. I kept a close eye on the sky and in the early afternoon I suggested to the team that they should start to pack up as the weather looked like it would be closing in soon (a difficult call to make as there were still a lot of mothers and babies waiting to be seen).

The team packed up and I readied the aeroplane, but by the time the first of the team came out to the airstrip with their bags the first drops of rain were beginning to fall. Within minutes the rain had turned into a downpour and we stood sheltering (already very wet!) under the wing of the plane for about 45 minutes while the rain poured down and small rivulets formed and ran down the slope of the airstrip. When the rain eventually eased off I asked one of the villagers for a jembe (hoe) which I used to redirect some of the streams of water which were creating little gullies in the airstrip, and after a while the strip was suitable for take-off. We set off before the weather had a chance to change for the worse again and after returning the medical team to a Magambua I flew back to Dodoma, passing many more rain showers along the way.

It is great that the rains have come and people will now be able to plant their crops, and it has already cooled the weather a little and settled the dust, but it definitely also brings with it a new set of challenges for flying.

Malambo

This last week I had the privilege of visiting Malambo in northern Tanzania where MAF has been involved for many years with evangelism among the Maasai people. I was there for a couple of days with another MAF pilot to do some training on some of the more challenging airstrips which MAF uses in that area.

Malambo is right on the edge of the Serengeti and it is a beautiful area to visit and to fly in, with some challenging airstrips in the mountainous terrain. Each month MAF spends 3 days in the area doing the 'Malambo evangelistic safari', flying local evangelists to the various villages and bomas where they do their work of spreading the Gospel.

Learning flexibility

The one thing about being a MAF pilot is that just when you think that you know where you'll be for the next few days, something is bound to turn up to change it all. 2 Thursdays ago I looked at the booking sheet and it looked like it would be a quiet weekend in Dodoma, my next flight being the 'Northern Shuttle' to Arusha on Monday. Halfway through the morning that changed with a call for a medical flight from Iringa to Moshi, and the flight was planned with the return leg to Dodoma that same afternoon...

As is often the way, there were some delays with the patient and we departed Iringa too late to make it back to Dodoma the same day, so that meant an overnight in Moshi. The next day, not long after returning home, I received a call from the operations department to say that there was another request for a medical flight the following morning, this time from Tabora to Dar es Salaam, for a patient who was stretcher-bound and had been making the journey to Dar es Salaam by train. The train journey had proved too much for the patient (the trains here are not like the trains we are used to in Europe!) and the family had decided to call on MAF. This time there were no delays and after delivering the patient, nurse and relative to the waiting ambulance in Dar I was able to fly back to Dodoma that evening.

The following week, other than the flight on Monday, it looked like another quiet one. On Wednesday morning as I made my way into the hangar to join morning devotions, I was called in by the Ops team and told that they had received a request for a flight to Mbeya with an overnight stop, returning the next day. I asked when the passengers wanted to go and the answer was 'as soon as possible' (the 2 passengers were actually sitting in the reception area). So, an hour and a half later we set off for Mbeya. On the return journey the following afternoon I asked what the purpose of the visit had been and the one passenger told me that her father was very sick with Malaria and she had gone to visit him (the flight took less than 2 hours each way- by road it would be more like 12 hours). Evidently she was very pleased to have been able to make the visit and said that he was improving.

It is very rewarding to be able to make a difference in these situations.

One of the lessons I've learned quickly though is always to take an overnight bag...

Ferry flight to Uganda

This last weekend I had the oportunity to ferry an aircraft from Dodoma to Kampala in Uganda. The aircraft had been in storage for some time in our hangar but will now be used by MAF Uganda. It was an interesting experience and my track took me right over the Serengeti and around the eastern side of Lake Victoria. The flight took 4 hours to Entebbe and then, after clearing customs, a further 10 minutes across to the MAF airfield at Kajansi.

MSY just arived Kajansi

I was hoping to get a couple of good pictures along the way, as I have never seen Lake Victoria before, but unfortunately the weather was very hazy and none of my pictures came out very well at all...

An added bonus of doing the ferry flight was that I had the chance to meet up with some other MAF staff who I had not seen for some time, some in Kampala and others in Nairobi as I travelled back to Dodoma.

After such a long flight over the weekend this week is quite the oposite with 4 days of medical safaris with the longest leg being about 40 minutes...

Airborne at last

Well, we've been in Tanzania for almost 9 months now and I think it is safe to say that we feel fairly settled now. After the first few months of language school, conversion exams, orientation training, and waiting for paperwork it is great to be playing my part in the work out here and to be involved in the flying.