Sometimes things do go according to plan

Well, that's it for this year. As planned I flew to Kuron this morning for the Holy Trinity Peace Village. Payload included a few hundred kilograms of food items plus 3 passengers.

Kuron is one of my favourite places to fly to, partly because of the beauty of the natural surroundings but also because of the warm friendly welcome we always receive there. Today I got to share the experience with my wife! This morning, for the first time in our six years with MAF, Liz joined me for a flight without the children and 'just for the experience'.

It was great to be able to share my work day life with Liz, and now it's time for a break as the MAF office closes for 2 weeks....

Nimule and Kajo Keji

Today I flew down to Nimule and Kajo Keji for UNFPA. I was collecting one lady from Nimule and another two from Kajo as they were leaving the field for their Christmas break.

As our Christmas break gets closer many of our national staff are also making plans to travel to be with family and today three joined the flight to Kajo Keji.

One more flying day for me and then MAF Juba will be closed until the new year! If all goes according to plan I'll be off to Kuron tomorrow...

There's a live goat in the plane - it must be Christmas!

Yesterday I had another double rotation to Motot for Tearfund. As usual it was all freight on the way out, but on the first rotation I had three Tearfund passengers returning to Juba for their Christmas break.

On the second rotation I had a rather unusual passenger on the return leg, in the pod rather than the cabin. A live goat was being sent down to Juba to help (!?) with someone's Christmas celebrations.

We don't tie all our passengers to the vehicle when we get back to Juba, but it seemed wise in this case...

Kajo Keji

A short day today, flying wise. I flew down to Kajo Keji (which, as those who follow this blog will know, is just half an hour away to the south) for the Baptist Convention of South Sudan. Ten passengers out of Juba and another nine on the return leg.

It's always good to see passengers who I've flown before and the group returning to Juba today were the same men who I flew down to Kajo Keji on December 3rd for a training course. As MAF pilots we usually pray before each flight once the passengers are seated but today, while I was preparing my paperwork before boarding the passengers, I noticed that they were gathering in a circle to pray a prayer of thanksgiving already.

Pedal powered water pumps

Today I flew a double rotation to Pibor, just one hour to the north east of Juba. The flights were for an organisation called ZOA and we were carrying some food items, seeds and small scale farming equipment.

The first load was made up mostly of hoes (or at least the metal ends of hoes) and the second was mostly a type of pedal powered water pump for small scale irrigation (see http://www.kickstart.org/products/super-moneymaker/).

A plane load of pedal pumps

Food supplements for Motot

Today I flew a double rotation to Motot for Tearfund. On each flight I carried just over a ton of something called 'Supercereal Plus' which is a food supplement similar to Plumpy Supp (which I've written about here before).

To give some perspective: the distance from Juba to Motot is exactly the same as the distance from Heathrow to Ambleside in the Lake District, but there is not one mile of paved road between the two...

A bag of fresh fruit and vegetables

Some call this the burning season because there are so many grass fires around the country, and due to the atmospheric conditions the smoke tends to hang around in a hazy layer from the ground up to about 8 or 10 thousand foot. As pilots we are usually spoilt with the beautiful views we get from the cockpit, but during this season even the most spectacular landscape fades into the hazy background.

Yesterday I had another fairly busy shuttle day. Stops in Torit and Kapoeta on the way out to Loki and then Kapoeta, Kimatong and Torit on the way back home. Organisations served were MSF Belgium, War Child Holland, American Refugee Committee, Association of Baptists for World Evangelism, Presbyterian Relief Development Agency, Christian Mission for Development, Nile Hope, Carter Centre, and World Mission Inc.

Funnily enough, one of the most satisfying parts of the day was delivering a bag of fresh fruit and veg. to a missionary in Torit. The AIM AIR pilots in Loki regularly do some shopping and deliver fresh produce to their partners in various remote places where such things are hard to get hold of. Yesterday my routing meant it was more convenient to send a bag with me and I really enjoyed playing a small part in that ministry.

All the stops

Yesterday was a busy day. When we fly to Loki for our twice weekly shuttle we normally stop in one or two places along the way. Yesterday I stopped everywhere along the way!

My routing was Juba-Torit-Lohutok-Kimatong-Kapoeta-Kuron-Lokichogio-Kapeota-Juba and with quite a few short hops I felt a little like I was back in Tanzania flying the Malambo Safari. The flight times were something like 30 minutes, 10 mins, 10 mins, 10 mins, 30 mins, 40 mins, 30 mins, 1 hour. I really quite enjoyed it although I was rather tired by the end of the day.

Organisations flown included Life Bridging Works, ECS, Persecution Project Foundation, Holy Trinity Peace Village Kuron and Carter Centre.

Akobo, where it all began

My first flight today was down to Kajo Keji for the Baptist Convention of South Sudan. Most of the passengers had Arabic sounding names and I learned that they were going to Kajo Keji for an evangelism training programme. Some were pastors and I understood that most of them were from Muslim backgrounds. Let's pray that they will be shining lights back in their home communities when they return.

My second flight was to Akobo for ECS (Episcopal Chrurch of South Sudan) and it was my first time to go there. I was intrigued to land at Akobo as it was one of the very first MAF bases in Africa back in the 1950's (I hope I have my history correct there!).

Unfortunately it was a rather frustrating stop in the end, thanks to over eager 'officials' on the ground demanding money. At least I can say I've been there, but I can't say I'm in a big hurry to go back.

Motot times two

A double rotation to Motot today for Tearfund. The flights were freight only, which consisted of 1,860kg of timber and some building equipment which will be used for building latrines and a feeding centre.

The rains have mostly finished now so the runway at Motot is dry and the weather was very pleasant, so all in all a rather nice day's work...