Greetings!
I'm trying out a new site for the blog:
jsmundy.aimsites.org
Please let me know what you think! AIM is providing blog space now, so we're giving it a go.
22 September 2008
The new look
Check out the new blog! http://jsmundy.aimsites.org/
AIM has started making blog space available so I'm trying it out. Please let me know which you like better!.
Cheers!
J
AIM has started making blog space available so I'm trying it out. Please let me know which you like better!.
Cheers!
J
12 September 2008
Animals and Runways
This week has been a big one for animals on runways. Wednesday I took the nurses to Olturot for a mobile clinic. It took me three attempts to land because the locals were driving their herd of camels down the runway. Not across, but along. Sigh. I had a long talk with the village elders after that. The gist of it was "When you hear the airplane coming, please clear the runway. I'll go around once in case some one hasn't realized, but if the people are still driving their animals along the runway, and I have to go around a second time, I'm not coming back." They thought that was pretty reasonable and said they'd see to it. We'll see. I went back there the next day to pick up an injured man and bring him to Gatab. No animals near the runway. Maybe they listened.
Then yesterday morning there was another clinic at Nolpilipili. As I was landing I saw a boy driving a few donkeys across the runway. No hurry, not chasing after animals, just going here to there. I buzzed the kid and his donkeys and brought the nurses back to Gatab. I've been telling them for months in Nolpilipili to keep the animals off the runway. "We'll do it. We'll fix the fence..." etc., etc. I'm curious to see what the reaction is. I'm a little surprised I haven't heard already.
The reason for all this is summed up by an incident another flight organization had recently. The pilot was on the ground, repositioning the airplane. Due to the runway conditions the pilot had to keep a bit of speed up. The pilot saw goats running up on the side of the airplane, the side toward which the pilot was turning the plane. Then the pilot saw two herd boys running after their goats. Straight toward the propeller. The only option to splattering the two herd boys with the prop was to put the airplane into a ditch. Herd boys safe, people on plane safe. Plane damaged to the tune of $100,000 to $250,000.
Here at Gatab a go-around from a landing isn't always an option. Nor is it always possible to abort a take-off, and never after a certain point. Thus the reason I'm building a fence around the runway here (having it built, I should say), as mentioned in previous blogs. Anyway...I'm curious about the reaction in the villages to the last couple flights.
Then yesterday morning there was another clinic at Nolpilipili. As I was landing I saw a boy driving a few donkeys across the runway. No hurry, not chasing after animals, just going here to there. I buzzed the kid and his donkeys and brought the nurses back to Gatab. I've been telling them for months in Nolpilipili to keep the animals off the runway. "We'll do it. We'll fix the fence..." etc., etc. I'm curious to see what the reaction is. I'm a little surprised I haven't heard already.
The reason for all this is summed up by an incident another flight organization had recently. The pilot was on the ground, repositioning the airplane. Due to the runway conditions the pilot had to keep a bit of speed up. The pilot saw goats running up on the side of the airplane, the side toward which the pilot was turning the plane. Then the pilot saw two herd boys running after their goats. Straight toward the propeller. The only option to splattering the two herd boys with the prop was to put the airplane into a ditch. Herd boys safe, people on plane safe. Plane damaged to the tune of $100,000 to $250,000.
Here at Gatab a go-around from a landing isn't always an option. Nor is it always possible to abort a take-off, and never after a certain point. Thus the reason I'm building a fence around the runway here (having it built, I should say), as mentioned in previous blogs. Anyway...I'm curious about the reaction in the villages to the last couple flights.
03 September 2008
What price man?
I flew down to Loiyangalani a few days ago and spent the night. There'd been a cattle raid at Moite, a lace about 75-90 km north of Loiyangalani on the shore of Lake Turkana, by the Gabra (one of the tribes in north Kenya). One of the Turkana men had been shot, in both legs and through one testicle. The raid was Saturday night.
Monday about noon the merchant who'd been hired to go get the injured man got back to Loiyangalani (it's the closest airtrip). I took him to Wamba hospital, and have since heard he's doing well. Tough man...shot twice and survived 2 days with just minimal treatment.
So...what price a man? About 20,000 kenya shillings to get him from Moite to Loiyangalani, and another 23,000 for me to fly him to Wamba. That translates to a total of 43,000 shillings, or about $750.
The man's father told Jim Teasdale, who arranged both the merchant and the flight, "I'm not wasting 20 goats (selling them) on someone who's probably going to die anyway."
Another part of the mind-set. A man's status in the tribe is allabout how many animals he owns. The drunkard who no one likes, who never finished primary school, but who owns 500 cattle is listened to before the MP (member of Parliament) who went to Harvard and graduated with honors, but only owns a paltry 100 cattle. Along with status, animals are wealth. But beause of the tie in between status and wealth, the owners are VERY reluctant to ever sell the animals.
Not a mind-set I deal well with, but it does explain oher things, like why it's so difficult to keep animals off the airstrip at Gatab. I don't own any animals, so my status is rather low, comparatively. And they value the lives of the animals more than that of the herdboys, or me and my passengers on the airplane.
I know that sounds rather cynical, or bitter, but it is true. The question that remains, is how, as a Christian, does one respond?
The easy part of the answer is to keep working on keeping the animals off...finish the fence, enforce the no animals policy, etc. I have a duty to yself and my passengers, and the herdboys with their animals, to keep them safe while I operate the airplane. I'll leave the harder part of the question to your imagination. I'm still working on it, for one thing.
Monday about noon the merchant who'd been hired to go get the injured man got back to Loiyangalani (it's the closest airtrip). I took him to Wamba hospital, and have since heard he's doing well. Tough man...shot twice and survived 2 days with just minimal treatment.
So...what price a man? About 20,000 kenya shillings to get him from Moite to Loiyangalani, and another 23,000 for me to fly him to Wamba. That translates to a total of 43,000 shillings, or about $750.
The man's father told Jim Teasdale, who arranged both the merchant and the flight, "I'm not wasting 20 goats (selling them) on someone who's probably going to die anyway."
Another part of the mind-set. A man's status in the tribe is allabout how many animals he owns. The drunkard who no one likes, who never finished primary school, but who owns 500 cattle is listened to before the MP (member of Parliament) who went to Harvard and graduated with honors, but only owns a paltry 100 cattle. Along with status, animals are wealth. But beause of the tie in between status and wealth, the owners are VERY reluctant to ever sell the animals.
Not a mind-set I deal well with, but it does explain oher things, like why it's so difficult to keep animals off the airstrip at Gatab. I don't own any animals, so my status is rather low, comparatively. And they value the lives of the animals more than that of the herdboys, or me and my passengers on the airplane.
I know that sounds rather cynical, or bitter, but it is true. The question that remains, is how, as a Christian, does one respond?
The easy part of the answer is to keep working on keeping the animals off...finish the fence, enforce the no animals policy, etc. I have a duty to yself and my passengers, and the herdboys with their animals, to keep them safe while I operate the airplane. I'll leave the harder part of the question to your imagination. I'm still working on it, for one thing.
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