Going down the tubes...

To say that the plumbing system where we live is a little archaic doesn't really do justice to the system. It's not that it's really old, built in the 70's, or that it was built in Africa, it's just a different system that was built by the Portuguese using a different construction paradigm than what most of us are used to. The main sewer pipes for the kitchen and bathroom exit the building into little cement boxes just below ground level that run to other small boxes, where we would use an elbow, that then run to a big tank which was connected to the city system...which hasn't worked for decades. So the other day when yucky stuff started oozing out of one of these small boxes, we figured it was time to do some repairs. Most likely one of the tubes running between the small boxes was blocked and needed to be cleared. Fortunately we have a wonderful group of guards who help us with our maintenance, they opened up two of the little boxes and eventually figured out that we would have to open the main tank. No problem, its only under a five foot high cement block wall and buried a further two feet under that. Really!? Who designs this stuff? So down comes part of the wall and they dig out the tank and we have it pumped out...do I really need to describe what that was like? They found the offending pipe, cleared the pipe, which resulted in an unintended shower...ewww! The end result was that we made the main tank a little bigger and ran some new tubes from the boxes just to make things a little more accessible in the future if need be. 

The slew of despondency.

Some of the new plumbing.

 Tammy crossing the slew of despondency.

The guys closing up the slew.

Just another day living in paradise :-)

Does that only count as one?

Part of getting back into the swing of things is going flying again. After not having flown since February I needed to go up in the Caravan and get re acquainted with my trusty steed. Hmmm, I seem to have horses on the brain considering the title of the last post. Regardless of horses and blog titles it was time to shake out the cobwebs, knock off the rust and whatever other metaphor you can think of and go flying. It was a typically hazy day for August and the horizon was completely obscured. The pilots will already know what I am whining about because with no horizon it becomes a bit of a challenge to work through some of the manoeuvres that are much, much, much easier to do when you can see outside. After completing the various tasks such as steep turns, stalls and slow flight we returned to the airport to practice different types of landings, and I don't mean crash landings either! The first landing was spectacular, in fact it was so good I did it three times in a row. Sort of like when you skip a pebble across a pond, which takes a significant amount of skill to master, which made me feel better that I was able to bounce three times on my very first landing! After that I seemed to lose that hard earned skill and didn't manage to bounce again. I asked if I could count that first landing as three, but apparently that's not allowed for some technical reason that I am not yet fully willing to accept. So now I am again qualified to start flying around Angola on my own, once I have my Angolan licence that is, which is another story, which I believe is in the previous post. That was a shameless hint to get you to read said post.

Next post, "Things are going down the tubes!" ...more shamelessness...

Back in the saddle again

I was just reading about a friend who actually spent a day in the saddle, riding over 40 some odd kms. I am definitely not talking about being in that literal saddle, but the saddle of being back in Angola. We arrived back on the 27th of July and it has been a pleasure to see and get together with all our friends and colleagues. Some even took the time to clean out the layers of dust and grime that had accumulated in our apartment over almost six months before we got back, what a blessing to arrive to a clean house! We are working on settling in to some new rhythms and new responsibilities, besides flying more, which is never a bad thing, I will be focusing my time and energy more specifically on developing some runways, importing of materials and taking care of the different properties that MAF has here in Lubango.

Last week I had the pleasure of travelling up to Luanda with Marijn Goud, a new pilot on our team, to start the process of renewing our pilots licenses. It was a great adventure. Luanda is known for terrible traffic and the need to exercise patience  when trying to accomplish anything. We were actually able to get all the documents in and then enjoy some of the sights around the city.

A view from the Fortaleza de São Miguel overlooking the Marginal in Luanda

Some of the amazing Portuguese tile work from the 1700's inside the fort.

Some of the amazing Angolan tile work from today at the entry to the fort.

After visiting the fort we headed over to the airport to check in for our flight back to Lubango, only to discover the flight had been cancelled. The runway landing lights weren't working because there was no fuel for the generators, so we got to enjoy one more day in the capital and flew home the following morning.