Open Doors to Yida

Today's flight was to Yei to collect a team for Open Doors and take them up to Yida in the north of the country, with a stop in Rumbek for fuel.

It's always good to fly for Open Doors and to support the work that they do, but today's flight was also special in that I had the opportunity to fly with an old friend. Before starting work with MAF, I worked as a flying instructor in South Africa and one of today's passengers was one of my fellow instructors at that time. He continued to instruct for a few years after I left to fly for MAF but then he stopped flying and went back to work for Open Doors in South Africa.

It was great get the chance to fly together today and to have a chat as we made our way up to Yida.

A damp runway in Motot

Yesterday's flight to Motot for Tearfund was delayed for a few hours in the morning due to rain showers and a wet runway.

After pre-flighting my aircraft we heard from our contacts in Motot that it had begun raining. They reported that the airstrip was wet and we should delay our flight until the weather cleared and they could re-assess the airstrip condition. I came back home and got on with some other administration tasks while we waited for an update.

Mid morning we heard that the weather had cleared and the airstrip was drying well. I returned to the airport and was able to complete the flight without any trouble. The rainy season is definitely here now...

Hot and dry in Renk

Today's flight was the weekly run up to Renk for Medair. Two pax and half a ton of freight on the way out and one passenger on the way back down.

On the ground in Renk it was 40 deg. C and the surrounding countryside is looking very dry indeed. Evidently the rains have not yet reached that far north.

Loki Shuttle

Yesterday I flew the shuttle to Lokichogio via Torit and Kapoeta. Although we've only really had one rain in Juba so far, Kapoeta has had more than that and the airstrip is a little worse for wear now. As I arrived in Loki there was a big rain shower passing just to the north of the airfield, but only light rain in Loki itself as the storm passed.

It was a fairly empty shuttle with only two passengers for Carter Centre, two for MSF and one for ZOA South Sudan.

A medevac and a little more of Western Equatoria

I had two rotations to Kajo Keji today, starting with a medical flight to collect a man who had received 2 gunshot wounds and needed to come to Juba for treatment. Medevacs are always a little more complicated than normal flights, with large crowds and plenty of people who want to be involved and try to help. Fortunately we have a good working relationship with the people who were involved in this flight and, although there was a large crowd, things went fairly smoothly and we were able to complete the flight without much too much trouble.

The second rotation was to collect 5 men from Kajo and take them to Mvolo and Maridi in the west, where they will be doing surveys for potential boreholes. The men work with an organisation called East African Ministries (www.eamafrica.org) and they told me that their organisation drills and manages boreholes for remote communities as part of their ministry.

A long day, but rewarding to be playing a small part in such exciting ministries.