Changing windsocks

We have been keeping busy here in Lesotho. It is also the beginning of windy season, and because of the extreme wind and climate our windsocks don't seem to last that long. We have a bunch of new ones coming but someone gave us a couple windsocks to use at our wind sensitive strips until we could get a permanent replacement. So here are some pics of me replacing the windsocks. There may not be any pictures after today. My camera that I bought last September has a big piece of dust in the lens, that the local Sony repair place couldn't fix. So I will have to send it to the states and hope to get it fixed there.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!! Well at least it feels a little like Christmas as it is the middle of winter here in Lesotho. Dr. Sarah, whom you may remember as the same doctor who flew with us to America is leaving Lesotho and moving back to Dallas. Before she left we had a big Christmas in July party after church today. It was a lot of fun, and the kids had a blast. Evi even enjoyed singing a Christmas favorite. "Santa Clause is coming to get you"

Evi's first flight

Today Evi took her long awaited first flight with daddy. We always promised her that after she turned three I would take her with me. Well, we were in America when she finally turned three and she has anxiously been awaiting her first chance to fly with me since we came back. She had a blast copying my radio calls, singing and looking out the window. She also had a chance to take over the controls and be my little helper pilot. She had a blast turning the airplane back and forth. Who knows, we may have a future MAF pilot in the works! She is already asking when she can go again.

Baby update...

No this is not a big announcement that we are expecting another bundle of joy. Rather I wanted to update everyone on the twins that I flew out of the mountains on Wednesday. Today I found out that both twins are still alive and doing much better. This is great news as we didn't even think that the girl would survive the airplane trip to Maseru. For now they are staying at the hospital in Maseru and will probably be returning to Nkau after they are released. Praise God that all are doing better and that they would continue to grow.I also wanted to enclose a picture of the latest "shop" in front of my house. You never know what they are trying to sell as I am coming home from work. They have sold a variety of things such as, fruit, phones, newspapers, carwash fluid, condoms, powercords and a wide variety of other objects. This photo is taken right out my front gate.

McDonalds & Prosthetists

Yesterday we had what the missionary community here in Lesotho call a "Bloem day". This occurs about once a month or so and is about a hour and a half drive from Lesotho. Bloemfontein is a larger South Africa city and people travel to Bloem for most purchases other than food. We had a busy day planned and Evi's highlight was the fact that for dinner on the way home we would stop at McDonalds and she could get a Happy Meal. We also were able to find a great prosthetist in Bloem who will be able to repair Evi's foot as needed and make her new one next year, this is a huge answer to prayer. We also took the kids to their pediatrician for their checkups and to visit all of the doctors taking care of Evi after her accident. They were all thrilled to see us back in Africa and were so excited to see Evi walking and playing.
Today we are back in Lesotho but it is the King's birthday so it is a public holiday. SO I will be busy doing some projects around the house and working on our car.

Here are just some random photos of the kids over the weekend after their bath.

My Day

Although today is not typical of all my days, it does show a little bit of what a day can be like for me.
At 6:30 AM Melvin (another pilot) and I got to work so that we could have a 7:00 AM departure to take the program manager and his visiting family to Methelanang to visit one of the missionaries in the mountains (Merrell). I promptly returned to Maseru to take the doctor team of four to a village called Kuebunyani. While en route we got a code one call (the highest priority life or death medical emergency) for Nkau. I hurriedly dropped the doctor team off and was at Nkau about 10 minutes later. I never know what to expect when I get a code one.
I saw about twenty people approach the aircraft bringing with them a lady on the stretcher and two newborns only a couple of hours old. The first baby was breech, and had one leg out and one leg inside. Dr Jen was able to deliver the baby and he was ok, considering he is 2 1/2 months early. They then realized that there was another baby who was breech as well. She did not fare as well, but was still alive as I showed up. Dr. Jen brought the baby over to the pilot seat and continued to do all she could the keep the baby breathing and the heart beating. We waited about 30 minutes for a nurse to run to the clinic and grab a shot of adrenaline. I spent this time praying and trying to secure the mother to the floor of the aircraft, she was bleeding and not able to sit up. The stretcher was to big so we left her on a small mattress and put that on the aircraft floor. I then used two straps to secure her to the floor. The shot gave the baby a fighting chance to make it back to Maseru where she could go to the hospital. The entire flight I was praying and looking back at the nurse who was taking care of the precious little girl. We were giving the baby oxygen and I hurried as fast as I could to Maseru. After the 40 minute flight, the baby was still alive but not doing well. We landed in Maseru where the mother and babies were loaded into the ambulance and taken to the hospital. I still haven't heard if the girl made it or not and so I'm still praying.
Fifteen minutes later, I was loaded up with over 400 pounds of medicine and 330 pounds of coal and took off to Nkau. After unloading this cargo, I got another Code 1 call for a lady from Kuebunyani. I landed about 15 minutes later and loaded up the patient with a doctor. She was also on a stretcher and I had to strap her to the floor as well. I then took off for Methelanang in order to pick up two of the eight people at Methelanang with my program manager. But after only 6 miles, the other aircraft said that it was two windy to land there. I returned to Kuebunyani in order to pick up two more doctors who needed to go to Maseru.
After returning to Maseru, I loaded up with more wood and coal and headed for the village of Tebelong to pick up another missionary who was heading to Maseru. We then headed back to Kuebunyai to pick up the three remaining doctors and passengers to Maseru. I landed at 4:27 just in time to head home and take a well deserved break. I flew a total of 5.5 tach hours and made 12 landings. Now I am ready for bed.

What were they thinking?

These are some pictures that I got via e-mail the other day of my dad and my nephew. Sometimes you have to sit back and ask "What were they thinking?"

FLY FLY FLY

That seems to be the extent of my week with a little bit of paperwork thrown in for fun. On Monday I started the week by completing our month end paperwork, this is an all day process and you spend most of the day correcting errors here and there. For June we flew over 150 hours in Lesotho with only four airplanes and three pilots for the whole month. I was able to fly a little over 50 hours for the month. Our days our busy with two or three airplanes flying every day. So on days that we fly, we average between 3.5 to 5 hours of flying with anywhere from 8 to 15 landings in a day. This can make for a very tired pilot by the end of the day. In between landings we are fueling, unloading, loading, preparing passengers and numerous other tasks that have to be completed, usually getting back to the airport just in time to go home.

This is a picture of the clouds last week over Lesotho. Unfortunately I couldn't find any holes to get down to the airstrip, so we ended up going back to Maseru. It was incredible view flying over the snow and the clouds.

In Maseru there were no clouds but they started right at the mountains and continued as far as the eyes could see.

This is a picture of Fran landing just a few hours after the last pictures were taken.

Happy Birthday Caleb

Caleb's first birthday was on Friday. We had a lot of fun with the other MAF families and their kids. Caleb enjoyed his first cake and mom enjoyed making it, staying up until 11 PM the night before making sure it was perfect.
The rest of the weekend was busy as well. On Saturday we had a 4th of July celebration with other Americans and Leslie spent the rest of the time doing most of her cooking for July.