Where did the month go?

Wow it's been busy the last few weeks. Over Thanksgiving weekend we went to AIM's Annual conference, held at Kijabe. It was really good. The food was excellent, the company great, the speaker was very very good...all in all a great weekend. Then back to work and flying. Two trips to Kurungu and Samburu, with a side trip to Gatab thrown in. Then to Marsabit and an unexpected night stop in Kalacha. I'm just back from a trip to Entebbe and Kakira in Uganda. Not, mind you, that I'm complaining. I came here to fly. The list is my excuse for why I didn't post any blogs for the last month!

The trips to Kurungu and Samburu were good. It was good to see the Middletons again, and the stay in Samburu was nice. The Samburu Serena is a very nice place. Gotta get Susan over there. Hmmm.

The second trip to Kurungu, Walt got me up in the morning (I was already awake, just being lazy). "Jay how are you on fuel?" Huh? Where's the coffee... Some men from a village just north of Kurungu had walked in and woke Walt up at about 2am to come and get a fellow who'd been shot in the leg. I ended up flying the guy up to Gatab for Dr Focking to look at. The wound turned out to be fairly minor...the bullet was nearly spent when he was hit (in the knee) or his knee would have been shattered. As it was he could walk and stand on it.

Last week I went to Marsabit to pick some folks up and bring them to Nairobi. First though we stopped at Balesa (about 90 miles north of Marsabit). David had a water project there to check on. The whole family went, leaving me to guard the airplane, and swelter in the sun. It was HOT there! "You have to be back by 2 or we may not have enough daylight to get to Nairobi." It was about a 3 hour flight from Balesa to Nairobi, plus I had to stop and refuel. They finally got back to the plane about 3:15....the truck they were in had broken down on the way back. No way to get to Nairobi before dark (Kenyan rules don't allow night flight by single engine aircraft). So, down to Kalacha, where there's a guest house. There's also a pool (an irrigation tank that got taken over as a pool). The guest house is spartan...a foam rubber mattress with a sheet over it, a camp chair and a coffee table pretty well complete the accomodation. I think it might be the balance for two visits to the Samburu Serena. Dinner that night was 2 day old chapaties and fried goat.

Then it's off again, this time to Uganda, Entebbe to clear customs, and then to Kakira. The Kakira airport is interesting, it's owned by a sugar plantation and is very very nice. I dropped the Duckworths off there to visit a school they are sponsoring, and returned to Entebbe to spend the night. At Entebbe I did battle with the bureaucracy. It's much easier to fly internationally than within Uganda. Go figure. I also ended up linking up with one of the MAF Uganda guys. He had some parts to go back to Nairobi that had been on loan to them from MAF Kenya. Tim Carpenter from AIM Air had met me there (Entebbe) in the morning to give me the paperwork tour, so I was armed for my afternoon battle with the bureaucracy. Then, today, it was back to Wilson.

We leave on the 22nd to go up to Gatab for Christmas. I'm looking forward to it, as are Susan and the kids. It'll be good to get out of Nairobi. The Gatab missionaries apparently have a few flights lined up already, and who knows what will pop up.

So...where'd the month go, anyway?