Getting the Grass Cut
We are responsible for cutting our own grass and looking after the garden in the MAF transit house next door.
This lovely team came from Ankem Church, just down the road from us, and worked for 3 hours to tidy all the fiddly bits using bush knives. And they didn’t even do it for money!
It’s hot work!
Whilst you, in the northern hemisphere, are all pulling on your gloves and woolly hats, here in the tropics the weather hasn’t changed much!
In Telefomin it often gets up to around 28 degrees C in the middle of the day, but we’re almost a mile high in the mountains. Our local friends call Telefomin “cold place”. Ryan daily flies to airstrips lower in altitude, the lower he gets, the hotter it gets, and sadly he rarely gets the pleasure of landing by the ocean and enjoying a nice sea breeze.
In the picture you can see him chugging back water, with a very sweaty back. This is the same for him all-year-round in PNG!
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Day of Prayer
As a Christian organisation, every 6 months MAF holds a day of prayer, when we stop flying and all of our work, to ask God to guide everything we do.
Back at the start of Nov, we had both our full-time and part-time MAF team in Telefomin, come round our house to pray and share lunch.
Advanced Airstrip Training
There are only 2 training pilots currently in PNG and, thanks to COVID, it is really hard to get any others in country. As such, we didn’t think Ryan would be able to get his Advanced Airstrip Training (AAT) done this year. However, Ryan’s boss, Brad (pictured), the Flight Operations Manager, decided that getting Ryan through this training and able to fly into a few more airstrips was high priority.
Brad kindly left his family in Goroka and came to Telefomin for 2 nights to train Ryan towards the end of Nov. So now Ryan is able to fly to more locations and help more remote & isolated people. Thanks Brad!
Shiv’s Birthday Celebration
My birthday’s on Tuesday this year, so we celebrated a little early as Ryan is flying on Tuesday and we don’t have any expat neighbours for me to have a birthday tea party with.
As I expected, no post from overseas arrived in time, although I know some is coming! However, my Parents-in-Law sent my birthday card with us from Canada and I have some wonderful friends in PNG who sent me cards and gifts.
So, even though this was an unusually quiet birthday with no friends around, I feel throughly spoilt and extremely blessed, thanks mostly to my wonderful husband!
Sweet Treats you just can’t buy!
I love cooking and making delicious things in the kitchen, and with limited selection from the grocery stores, which are a flight away, it’s a good thing too!
Whilst we were out of PNG, we hid my Kombucha SCOBY in the back of a dark cupboard and I was relived to discover it survived! Whilst in Hagen some friends offered us blueberry & cinnamon Kombucha, which was delicious. I found frozen blueberries in the chiller in one of the stores in Hagen (a rare and valuable find!), so I thought I’d try it. The result is a resounding success and will be repeated often, so long as I have blueberries in my freezer!
Unexpected Guests
Last month, we had Fiona, our Finance Manager, plan to pay us a visit in Telefomin for 2 nights. As we had 2 members of our Maintenance Team staying in the MAF transit house, I arranged for Fiona to stay in one of my absent neighbours’ houses. We like to provide a meal to our MAF visitors, and as Fiona is Gluten intolerant, I made Pumpkin Soup & Gluten Free bread. Then, mid-afternoon, Ryan called me over the radio (the mobile reception was out!) to tell me that the Wewak pilots (Brad & Andy, pictured) were stuck on the ground in Eliptamin waiting for the weather to clear up. Their flying programme had them coming to Telefomin next and as they had been on the ground for so long, it was likely they would run out of daylight and not be able to make it home to Wewak…
Re-living our Dating Days
When we were living in Mt Hagen and dating back in 2016, we used to go to the “Kofi Kave” for lunch time dates occasionally. There aren’t many options to go out when you’re dating in Mt Hagen, so we had to make the most of every opportunity. They have a lovely fish pond and a small aviary so it felt like a like a little piece of paradise just a short walk from the hustle-and-bustle of the airport.
There are NO dating options outside our house in Telefomin, so when we were staying in Hagen back in October, we thought we would pop back to the Kofi Kave for a date-lunch!
Maintenance Blessing
A couple of hard working men from our MAF Maintenance Department came to Tele for 2 weeks in October. They did lots of important jobs, like putting liners in our neighbour’s water tanks, putting a concrete cover over a septic tank, fixing rotten stairs, fixing roof leaks. There was a lot of priority work to be done as they were unable to come out earlier in the year due to COVID.
In amongst all the priorities, I asked them if they could please fix my path, from my back door to my outdoor laundry area, but only if they had time and enough cement left. (All the cement had to be flown in!) Thankfully, they found some time and I now have a smooth path which does not have weeds growing or puddles on it when it rains. It’s a minor thing, but it will make doing laundry just a little easier for me!
Thank you Graham & Wesley, and the Maintenance Team!
New Street Lights in Mt Hagen
When we were in Mt Hagen last week, we drove home from the airport to town one evening to discover the brand new, solar street lights which line the road to the airport, were actually working!
The newly completed road leading to the Highway, which they are still working on, is so smooth to drive on, it’s such a treat compared to the pot-hole filled side roads. Let’s hope it lasts!
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!
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.