Exhaustion

Well, maybe the title is a little overly dramatic, but the last month and a bit has been pretty hectic. Since our other pilot Brent is still waiting to get his residency visa I, Gary, have been doing all the flying. Which is great, but I must admit I am a little tired trying to keep up with all the other daily things that need to be done as well. Since the last time we chatted I have been to Windhoek in Namibia, twice. Kalukembe, six times, Mukwando, three times, Luanda, twice, Ngiva, Cuvelai, Xangongo, Menongue and Chinhama. Now I realize that most of these places don't really mean a whole lot, but it means I have been away a lot and Tammy has had to hold down the fort on her own quite a bit.Speaking of Tammy, lots of you are aware that she has been fighting malaria off and on for the last year or so. It turns out, after we got some tests in Namibia, that she has never had malaria! Not once, ever?! Go figure. Most likely she had a virus of some sort that was misdiagnosed and then mistreated here in Lubango. Fortunately she is feeling much better now and is back in action. 

Most of the flying has been moving medical teams around as well as doing flights for USAID as they do a survey of the flooded areas of southern Angola. A significant part of southern Angola is under water for the second year in a row. This part of the country is known for its' lack of water, so to have flooding two years in a row is devastating. The real disaster is that there will again be no crops to harvest this year. The disaster is coming when last years food add runs out in the next few months. Please pray as we look to help this region of the

country.

I am always amazed as I get to accompany medical teams and see them share the love of Christ as they bring health care to some of the six million people in Angola who have no access to any medical care of any sort. It is heart breaking to see people suffering from simple injuries that turn life threatening, all because there is no health care. We are privileged to be connected with a group of doctors here in Angola and Canada that are giving of their time, energy and money to make a difference for the people of Angola.

Again we cannot thank all of you enough for your prayers and support. You have literally brought sight to the blind, strength to the weak and the ability to walk to the lame, and above all that the gospel.

A view from our house

Sunset in Lubango from our house

Sunrise over southern Angola. 

A Tale of Two Cities

I realize with a title like that I should have a Dickensonian beginning, but alas the only thing similar between this blog and that piece of classic literature is the fact that we both claim to use the english language as our means communication.
The last few weeks have seen me winging around the country, but unable to take any pictures to complement those stories for this particular post. So unfortunately you will have to use your imaginations to add life to the experiences I am going to attempt to describe for you. The first experience takes place in Luanda, the capital of Angola, where I must go every six months to complete my aviation physical. Actually at this point we are probably all grateful that there are no pictures! I thought I would give you an idea of the length of time involved to complete this. There is only one clinic in Angola that can do aviation medicals and every pilot, mechanic and stewardess must have one of these done either once every six months or once a year. Plus they only do these medicals on Tuesdays and Thursdays and you need to be at the clinic by no later then 7:00am. This means I need to fly up to Luanda the day before so that we can leave our base in Luanda by no later than 5:30am so that we arrive at the clinic on time. It's not that the distance is long,it's just that the traffic is horrendous. Anyways, for some strange reason the traffic was light and we arrived early.

1. 5:00am depart from compound
2. 6:00am arrive clinic
3. 6:30am complete paper work and pay $600.00USD for medical
4. 7:00am lab work- 5 minutes
5. 8:40am ECG, Blood pressure and weight- 10 minutes
6. 9:00am Hearing test- 10 minutes
7. 10:00am Dentist- 10 minutes...need cleaning
8. 10:25am X-ray- 5 minutes
9. 12:30pm Eye exam- 10 minutes
10. 1:00pm Final chat and approval by Doctor
11. 1:15pm Call for our administrator to pick me up
12. 3:00pm Admin. arrives. Traffic is horrible
13. 5:00pm Arrive back at compound

Everyone at the clinic is nice, things just take a while to get done. The next day I am up at 4:00am so that we can make the 5:00am checkin for the 7:30am flight back to Lubango. Mission accomplished for the next six months.

I have decided that this post is long enough, so I will share about the second experience in a different city at a later date. Until then, keep your stick on the ice.