Wednesday 30 September 2015

A ton of soap, literally!

Today was another double rotation to Motot for Tearfund. Once again no pax (that's pilot talk for passengers), only freight. Today's loads included fresh fruit, veg and eggs for the team based up there, stationery, and more than a ton of soap, among other things.

Motot is one of the airstrips which can get really wet and soggy in the rains and we have had to cancel many flights there in recent weeks. This week it is dry and so our partners are making the most of the opportunity to get supplies in.
Round one

...and the ton of soap.

Tuesday 29 September 2015

Doctors for Africa

Last week I did a double rotation to Mundri to evacuate 16 people for an organisation called Doctors for Africa. This morning one of my colleagues flew a small team from that same organisation back to Mundri where they wanted to carry out an assessment of the security situation. This afternoon I went back to collect the team and bring them back to Juba.

On flights like this one it is so sad to hear about the many people who have had to flee their homes due to the fighting and for fear of being attacked. Pray for those who will spend tonight in the bush because they are too scared to return to their homes...

Monday 28 September 2015

Motot x 2


Today I flew a double rotation (pilot talk for going there twice) to Motot for Tearfund. No passengers today, just freight. The picture above shows the second load unloaded in Motot.

Each of the green bins pictured is a water purification kit. The bin serves as the clean water storage, with a tap fitted on the side, and inside each bin are boxes of water purification granules with instructions for use. Each bin contains enough granules to purify 12,000 litres of water! and today we delivered about 45 units. I've just worked it out and that equates to 540,000 litres of clean drinking water!!

Unfortunately we had a rather alarming end to the day due to a shooting incident very close outside our compound. I was still at the airport finishing up paperwork but it was very frightening for all those who were here at the time. Praise God no-one on the MAF compound was harmed and all seems to be back to 'normal' this evening. Liz's Bible reading this morning was very appropriate- Psalm 5:11&12, what an encouragement!

Friday 25 September 2015

Loki again

Business as usual today. I flew the shuttle to Lokichogio, via Kapoeta to drop off 3 passengers. We swapped aircraft in Loki and I returned direct to Juba. I must say I'm glad it's Friday...

Thursday 24 September 2015

A shuttle, some shuffling and nobody on the radio...

Today I was scheduled to fly once to Kajo Keji on the border with Uganda as a part of our Western Equatorial Shuttle. 4 passengers out of Juba and another 4 from Kajo to Juba.

Yesterday afternoon our Ops department received a request from Doctors for Africa to evacuate 16 people from a town called Mundri, about half an hour's flying time to the west of Juba. My Kajo flight was shuffled around and we planned 2 trips to Mundri in the morning to collect these 16 new passengers.

Despite a slow start due to some issues with ATC (air trafic control) in Juba- ie. nobody answering on the radio! we managed to get the 2 evacuation flights done, followed by the shuttle.

Apparently the 16 young South Sudanese passengers from Mundri had been forced to spend some time in the bush due to the insecurity in the area and some had tears in their eyes when they were met in Juba.

Tuesday 22 September 2015

Lokichogio

I forgot to write about yesterday's flight, must be because there's not much to say. Each Monday and Friday we fly to Loki in northern Kenya to link up with MAF Kenya and to enable us to swap aircraft when needed as our aircraft are Maintained by MAF in Nairobi.

Yesterday I took one passenger (for MAF) and 150kg of freight (for MEDAIR) to Loki and came back empty with a different aeroplane.

On the ground today for a security training excercise... (someone else is flying to Renk).

Friday 18 September 2015

Soggy runways

This morning when I woke up for work I knew I was going to Jaibor, Keew and Lankien for CMA (Christian Mission Aid).

Well, I just got back from work a while ago and didn't go anywhere near any of those places! 2 of the 3 airstrips were judged as wet and un-landable (perhaps not a real word but gets the idea across) by the charterer, so Ops were able to offer the aircraft to another organisation. After some quick work by the ops team to prepare the new flight I took just over a ton of soap to Pibor for ZOA-International.

Thursday 17 September 2015

Holy Trinity Peace Village, Kuron

Today I had the privilege of visiting the Holy Trinity Peace Village, Kuron. As a MAF pilot I get to see a lot of this country, but more often than not it is from quite a distance. Most days I will cover quite a lot of ground but only really get to see the airstrips at our destinations and not the actual work that is changing people's lives.

When I landed in Kuron today I was invited to have a look around with the group of people I had flown in and, since there was no hurry to get back to Juba, I accepted. Over the next 2 hours we bumped over some rough roads to see a Vocational Training Centre, a Health Centre (the only one for more than 60km in any direction), a Youth Centre (a large hall where conferences can be held and including accommodation) and the Administrative Centre. If I understood correctly, all this seems to have grown out of the vision and motivation of Bishop Taban, clearly a man of God with a heart for peace in this country. Now that's something worth flying for.

Bishop Taban (with a big fish!)
Youth Centre
Vocational Training Centre
Medical Centre

Wednesday 16 September 2015

Its a long way to Renk

We've been back from Home Assignment for just over7 weeks and today I flew to Renk for the 7th time since we returned. It's a long way. The run up to Renk for MEDAIR is the longest flight we do here in S Sudan and it's about 3 hours each way. Although it's a rather long flight, it's great to be part of the work that MEDAIR are doing and it really hits home what a difference the aircraft can make: the 3 hour trip would apparently take about 5 days by road and part of the 'road' is only passable in the dry season.

Instead of the usual prayer from the cockpit today it was great to stand under the wing of the aircraft with 6 or 7 others while one of the MEDAIR team members prayed for the flight and for those who remained behind to continue the work.