New Ground Power Unit
When we landed in Mt Hagen, we were greeted by our old friends and neighbours, Paul (pictured, front), the Fuels Coordinator, and Nawi (pictured, back), the Ground Ops Trainer, who were ready and waiting to plug the new Ground Power Unit (GPU) into our aircraft and help with the loading. What awesome team work, helping out when things get busy at the MAF PNG HQ!
Pilots’ Meeting
Around the start of November each year we have our annual 3-day Pilots’ Meeting, when all the MAF PNG pilots get together to update some of their training knowledge and refresh themselves about safety before the busy Christmas flying begins...
KETCHUP - CATCH UP!
Last week we held a 4-day gathering for all of the MAF PNG, in-country expat families. “The KETCHUP” was a chance for all expats to gather, get some spiritual input and share in some overdue fellowship. As our expat colleagues are based in 4 different locations, it is often a long time between visits, so this was a wonderful opportunity to meet the new families and have time to support and encourage each other.
Click to see more pics and find out a bit of what we got up to.
Chicken for Dinner?
Ryan transported 60kg of frozen chickens to Telefomin last week to help celebrate the Graduation of the High School students.
Unfortunately, the boxes the chickens came in broke when Ryan picked them up, so he borrowed some eskis (cool boxes) so that he didn’t end up with chicken juice all over the aircraft!
Giant Sweet Potato
Our small, local market is just a 5 minute walk from our house, so I stop in most days, on my way home after walking Ryan to the airport. When I popped in the other day, I found this ENORMOUS sweet potato for sale, for a mere K5 (about GBP1.25 or CAD1.6). I asked the lady and her son who were selling it to pose for a picture because I have never seen one so big before!
The Newspaper Pilot
Ryan was featured on Wantok newspaper's Facebook page last week!
This is a great partnership we have with Wantok. Each week our pilots take 100 papers to rural places to keep these communities engaged in what's happening in PNG. Regularly, MAF articles get translated and printed in the paper too!
Ryan flew these newspapers to Mougulu, in the North Fly district of Western Province whilst he was dropping off building materials for some new dormitories for their High School.
Sunset in the Min Valley!
Our home, Telefomin, is nestled in the middle of the Min valley. We’ve had a lot of rain lately, but when it clears up we can have some beautiful sunsets, this is the first one since we’ve returned!
Silly RayRay!
So we’ve had a bit of rain in Tele lately and our garden is a bit muddy… After deciding it was a good idea to roll around on the “lawn” he had to go straight in the outdoor sink for a bath! Normally Ray spends the majority of his day lying on pillows on the sofa, he doesn’t usually favour mud.
Friendship Across the Ocean
Whilst we have been away, my sisters and mothers who attend the Saturday morning Ladies’ group at our local church in Telefomin, have been praying for God to protect us and bring us home. When I was able to re-join them last week I was told by many of them how they had prayed for us and how they were so glad we had brought the MAF plane home to Telefomin. We had a lovely time of singing worship songs and sharing together, as-well-as lots of hugs! It’s so great to be back with the ladies who literally welcomed me with open arms!
We are home in Telefomin!
More than 8 months after we left, and more than twice as long as we expected to be away for, finally we have returned to our little cabin in the mountains!
We were greeted as we landed on Thursday afternoon, with flower petals thrown over us and flower necklaces draped over us. It was such a welcome reception, we felt so blessed…
Sunday up the Mountain
After a week in Mt Hagen which included a very loud party at 4am on Saturday morning, and a rock-fight in the neighbouring field on Wednesday evening (which was ended when the police shot tear-gas into the crowd), our Sunday afternoon at Rondan Ridge Lodge, overlooking Mt Hagen, was not only a welcome respite, but very relaxing.
We enjoyed a lovely lunch with our friends the Glass and Coker families, followed by a board game and a little walk amongst the animals. Ray even got to enjoy the Lodge with us (he is pictured in Shiv’s lap).
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!
We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend with two other Canadian families, one with MAF and the other who works for a local tourism company.
Ray enjoyed the leftovers!
Ryan’s First Day Solo Ops!
Friday was Ryan’s first day flying solo ops out of Mt Hagen! No more training pilots checking up on him, at least for now…
On Wednesday he will have training in how to do Airstrip surveys, then, if all is as we expect, we should be able to return home to Telefomin on Thursday!
Mushrooms!!!
Simple pleasures can be a huge blessing!
Our friend, Glenys who is a pilot based in Goroka, kindly arranged to send some locally grown Oyster Mushrooms on the MAF plane to some of us in Mt Hagen (My friend, Mandy is pictured with me). This is only the third time I have seen fresh mushrooms in my 6.5 years in PNG! Usually we just use tinned ones, so this is a lovely treat.
Flying for Life!
On Ryan’s first operational flying day on Monday he was able to do a Medical Evacuation (Medevac) Flight to get a teenage boy with an infected foot from Fuma to Rumginae Hospital. He was also in the right place at the right time to do another Medevac on Tuesday to help a woman having birthing difficulties to get from Suabi to Daru.
Almost 8 months after we left PNG to go on Home Assignment, Ryan is really grateful to get back in the cockpit and be useful for the people of PNG!
Sunday Afternoon Games!
I (Shiv) had a very fun and relaxing Sunday afternoon playing our new board game, “Palace”, with my dear friend, Sharlene. However, she beat me in both games! ;-D
We’re only in Mt Hagen for the next 10 days, so I’m making the most of spending time with friends here!
Meeting my old Guard, James!
When I (Shiv) lived on Kum Road in my single days, James was our compound day guard who would also keep the garden tidy and even wash my car on occasion. His smiling face greeted me when the work bus returned to our compound at the end of the day.
When Ryan & I got engaged his wife very sweetly made me a Hagen-style bilum (string Bag) saying “I (heart) PNG” and she made Ryan a Hagen-style wool hat. These gifts are very traditionally part of PNG wedding ceremonies, know as the “Bride Price”, so we were honoured and blessed to receive them.
Since we moved out of Mt Hagen, James left one security company and went to work for another one, so we haven’t seen him much. It was lovely to see his smiling face again!
Ryan’s First Day of Operational Flying!
Today Ryan is off to the Western Province with training pilot, Mathias for 2 overnights. They will be taking someone from the Rural Airstrip Agency (RAA) to do minor repairs on lawn mowers, deliver fuel for those mowers and pay the locals who work for them at various bush airstrips which they support.
As a part of this routine operational flying, Mathias will be checking Ryan into some of the airstrips in the North Fly part of Western Province, and conducting Ryan’s Line Check. Once Ryan passes his Line Check he will then be clear to fly solo on the C208 Caravan again. After that he will only need one more day of training on the ground next week then we can go home to Telefomin!
We’ve both been in the office this week!
In between his pilot studies, Ryan has been answering Shiv’s questions about the pilot sections of the manual she is writing.
“It’s been very useful having Ryan around to help me with the pilot technical bits.”
Ryan Passed his Base Check!
I (Ryan) did quite a lot of flying on Monday. The picture was taken from v2track, our aircraft tracking software, which showed everywhere I flew in P2-MAK in the morning, only half the day! This is not a normal route for MAF PNG aircraft, it’s all over the place because I had to do lots of drills to prove I can fly safely and deal with any situation which might arise during normal operations. Flying in PNG is some of the most challenging flying in the world, so ensuring all our pilots are safe and know all their procedures is extremely important and prioritized by Operations.
Click on the picture, left, to watch a video of our friend, Nurse Rhema, one of the local health care workers who MAF supports and we fly out of Telefomin.