Welcome Back
Shiv started some new role, one is supporting her old department. She went to Mt Hagen for a week to handover the manual she has been unable to complete, and to receiving briefings on her new responsibilities.
She’s really pleased to be able to support David Pank, the Ground Operations Manager, by supporting the 10 operational bases where MAF flies in PNG.
Helping our Neighbours
There are a few small commercial airlines who fly into Telefomin regularly. One of them had a stone unfortunately damage their Twin Otter recently. As they know we are based here full-time, they contacted our boss to ask if we had any accommodation. The transit house, which Shiv looks after, played host to 2 pilots and 4 Engineers, the latter who stayed for the whole weekend to fix the aircraft. Thankfully they were successful and the Twin Otter flew out on Monday, much to their relief.
We are here to serve the remote communities, but it’s nice to be able to help our aviation neighbours too!
Telefomin’s version of Uber…
This is Andrew, he drives one of the handful of motorbikes which putter around Telefomin these days. When we first moved here 3 years ago, there weren’t any motorbikes at all! We joke that they are Telefomin’s version of Uber as we often see passengers on the back.
PNG “Brother”
This is our “brother”, Lukas. His Mum is Mama Cathy, the lady who helps clean our house. Lukas pops round quite regularly to help out with some big jobs like cleaning out the drainage ditches in the garden and washing the outside of our house, he’s a real blessing to us!
Lukas loves to say hi to Ray the dog when he comes over. They all laugh when Shiv says Ray is like her baby, but Lukas takes his role of Ray’s Uncle, very seriously.
Telefomin Flowers
PNG ladies love their gardens. The vegetables bring life to their families and the flowers bring joy to their hearts.
I have been blessed many times with beautiful bouquets of local flowers, like these which were waiting for us when we returned home back in October.
Shiv in the Newspaper
Towards the end of last year I was interviewed for a PNG Newspaper, The National. Click on the title to go to the article.
Washing the Balus
Even when he’s on the ground and not flying, Ryan is busy.
Although Mondays are his “office” day, he doesn’t usually spend more than a few hours sitting at his desk doing paperwork and emails. His aircraft (Balus) has to have its engine washed once a week to keep it in good working order. This takes about an hour or so, with the help of our trusty Traffic Officer, Steven, pictured.
Today he also climbed up the tree next to our water tanks to chop its top off again.
Christmas Weekend Highlights
Click to see a few highlights from our Christmas weekend which we spent in our home in Telefomin with some very dear MAF PNG friends.
Last flying before Christmas…
On their last flying day before Christmas, Ryan and his fellow pilot Mathias, stopped to pose for us in front of their airplanes!
Welcome to 2021!
Wishing you a very happy new year. May 2021 be filled with laughter, good memories and lots of time with the people you love!
It is unlikely we will be able to leave PNG this year, but we look forward to hopefully visiting many of you next year.
God bless,
Ryan, Shiv & Ray the dog!
Crocodile for dinner?
A lovely friend of ours, Helen in Wewak, on the north coast of PNG, recently sent us an eski (cool box) full of tropical fruit, including Kulau (Young Pineapples, great for drinking), pineapples and avocados. She also included a surprise, some Crocodile Tail fillets.
Helen assured me you cook them just like chicken…
Rainbow over Telefomin
On one of my (Ryan’s) last flying days before Christmas, I was on a turn-around, having just dropped off a load of passengers in Telefomin and about to take another load out again, when I spotted this rainbow hanging over our home!
Merry Christmas from PNG!
Ryan, Shiv & Ray would like to wish you all, wherever you are in the world, peace, joy and God’s presence this Christmas time. May 2021 be filled with love and hope for you and all those you care for!
Telefomin Base Christmas Party
We celebrated Christmas as a Telefomin Team with most of the families together. We shared lunch topped off with a big treat of ice cream! As none of our local colleagues have fridges or freezers this was a big novelty. Our Base Manager, Lucy, brought a big box from Mt Hagen and we stored it in the freezer of our empty transit house before cracking it open for the celebration.
Christmas Pineapple
This is the Pineapple which we just plucked from our own garden!
Ryan planted it around 2 years ago, and it decided to ripen, just in time for Christmas, although by the time you are reading this it will have already been eaten! ;-)
Wewak Aircraft Visiting
Although we have our own aircraft in Telefomin, our colleagues based in Wewak, on the north coast of PNG, fly passengers and cargo down to us on a weekly basis.
Here they are taking off with a full load of passengers, heading north, back home to the ocean breeze.
Ryan is just about to load his passengers to head south-west to Kiunga to drop off passengers and bring fuel back to Telefomin.
Telefomin Family
We are very blessed, living in Telefomin!
This is some of our local family who help us maintain the gardens and look after the MAF houses.
We don’t have time to maintain the MAF gardens and clean the empty houses, so these lovely people come and help us regularly, and bless us with their time, skills and friendship.
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!
Christmas Newsletter - Out Now!
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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.