NFD and Western

The start of the week was busy. I flew up north to pick up some short-term missionaries who'd been serving at Gatab hospital. On the way I stopped at Olturot to pick up a patient, dropped him at Gatab, then took 3 ladies and 2 babies to Loiyangalani where I picked up a -really- sick man(he could barely get to the plane) and took him to Gatab for testing.

Once that was all done, I refueled (many thanks to John Woodworth from Master's Mission for his help bringing fuel and the pump down), loaded up nearly 400kg of doctor, nurses and their bags to take to Siana Springs, a safari lodge so they could tour a little before returning to the US.

The fun part was these folks go to my Mom's church, Blacksburg Christian Fellowship. Make sure you got to their show and tell, Mom!


The next day was an easy flight, I took some folks to Kisumu to visit the Compassion International project there. The family I took over supports one of the children through C.I. and they were taking the opportunity while in Kenya to go and visit. It was an excellent day. One of the best parts of being a missionary pilot is that you get invited along alot of the time. It was really great to see how excited the child was, and his parents and the people running the project to have a sponsor come and visit. We support 2 children through Compassion, Uwitonze Dalia in Rwanda, and Newton Agani here in Kenya. We're starting to make plans to visit him, and I now have a good contact in the Kenya C.I. office to help with the paperwork. C.I. is (understandably) fairly careful how they handle these visits. Anyway, I'm looking forward to flying my family out to see Newton.

Oh, and a picture or two: These are from last week's jaunt to Merti.
The first one is loading up the trucks to go to Merti town from the airstrip.

The second is one of the towns people entering the clinic,

and the third is buttoning up the pod, getting ready to return to Nairobi.

Flying to Merti

Last week was interesting...my first medical short term mission team. We (2 airplanes, I flew the 206 and M. DeLorenzo flew a Caravan) picked them up at Lewa Downs, a fancy safari park just north of Mt Kenya to fly them to Merti, a Borana town in north-east Kenya. They had too much stuff. Rather than leave the medications behind, they left 2 people behind (who weren't closely involved in the clinic, one was a long time AIM missionary who'd helped coordinate the trip) and I went back early early the next morning to pick the 2 up and fly them out to Merti.

Departure out of Lewa was scary. Lewa Downs sits in a bit of a bowl. Strong winds out of the southeast rose over a ridge from Mt Kenya and created strong downdrafts as the wind flowed into the bowl. I took off, all normal, got to 100 feet, and could climb no more. I droned on at best climb speed, full power for about 5 miles until suddenly the airplane started to climb. I'd flown out the north side of the downdraft. Whew.

That was Tuesday. Wednesday the team did the general health clinic all day. Handing out vitamins, a de-worming treatment for everyone, and looking at whatever malady the people of Merti showed up with. Mike (the other pilot) and I helped a little with crowd control. The clinic, though, had things very well organized. There was no crowd, they had lots of local help from the (tiny) local church to keep things orderly. Things worked very well.

Merti, by the way, is 90% muslim. The Christian presence is very small, but is growing despite active persecution. Christians can't get jobs in Merti, for instance. The point of the clinic was to provide a tangible example of Christian love, even to those who persecute them. About 90% of the people in the clinic were muslim. The team will be following up through Galge, the local pastor with more aid to the town. Galge's story was amazing. I wish I could tell it as he told it, but suffice to say that he was a muslim who converted to Christianity and is back ministering to the people of his home town. Beleta is another man who's story was just amazing. A muslim chaplain in the Kenyan military he is now a Christian. Also a Borana, he's planted 4 churches for the Borana in Nairobi's slums.

People like Galge and Beleta are humbling. I had the privilege of flying Beleta's family out to Merti from Isiolo (near Lewa Downs) on Thursday so they could attend a wedding.

Thursday...I flew the first 5 missionaries out to Lewa Downs, picked up Beleta's family on the way back, then picked up 3 more short-termers and another 400 lbs of baggage and flew them all back to Wilson/Nairobi. I have a great job.

Med-Evac

I had my first med-evac the other day. Friday I flew from Nairobi to Marsabit, about a 2 hour flight, to pick up a man who'd been shot the previous day. Another man had been shot dead in the same incident. The flight went smoothly. It took a bit of hunting to find the runway at Marsabit, since the official GPS coordinates show the runway to be 3 miles west of where it really is. Once I sorted that out, it was easy.

Big BIG crowd at the airplane. It was the event of the day, maybe the week. Two other AIM missionaries were there, too, a bit surprised that I was there. They hadn't heard that there was a man wounded, they'd only heard about the man who'd been killed. They were very helpful controlling the crowd around the airplane. Everyone has to touch the plane, and move the elevator and ailerons.

The flight home was easy, if a bit bumpy. I felt bad for the passengers (the wounded man and his father, a woman and her sick child) because of the rough ride. It beat the alternative of a two day trip by 4wd, however.