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.