Fond farewells

Up, up and away, a MAF flight out of Dodoma ... This past week we've had further fabulous folk to say farewell, thank you and goodbye to..... four families in fact, starting with our pilot Jarkko and his Finnish family, driving 8 hours north to the new Operational Base in Arusha, then our wonderful Wycliffe Bible Translator/SIL neighbours off on furlough to the States.

Some of the treats makes goodbye sweeter...possibly!?

Here are the terrific Thomsons, leaving imminently for 6 months in Uganda to work on more avionic upgrades on the 208 Caravans before returning to their homeland in Australia:

Before everyone leaves Dodoma we had another farewell, this time for the marvellous Meders from Switzerland; although they aren't leaving Africa just yet they are transitioning with a six month project down south in Mbeya

We're all praising the Lord for the successful completion of LOTS of hard work and nail-biting moments with H-OPE! Here it is, with Mat Thomson's terrific team, about to take it on its final test flight early Friday morning

Meanwhile there are still one or two planes to finish upgrades on and essential checks to be carried out ... and more important decisions to pray through/make..... properties and other assets to be sold, new staff to be recruited for the Arusha office and international admin to sort, to name a few tasks for the week ahead

Last weeks staff/prayer meeting, Jez and team sorting out some practical details first.

By tomorrow we shall be the only MAF couple on the compound, with patient Pierre awaiting his visa for Uganda.. two other lovely MAF families remain a wee-while longer, thankfully, within walking distance ... plus half a dozen locally employed staff working in the hanger, quite a scale down from earlier days eh! We might have to write the next blog in Kiswahili, English is definitely in the minority language around here!

Salamu
J&C xx

Midsummer!

Glad midsommar till alla Scandinavian folk! I’m not sure that any other people group celebrate mid summer quite as well.... we certainly appreciated the land of the midnight sun this time last year with many, many long and bright evenings – here its dark pretty much 7pm til 7am all the year round where evenings may feel very long but then so is the summer: year round :o)

Last night we celebrated/sent off our festive Finnish friends, not out of Africa but up north to Arusha where Jarkko with newly license will join Kerstein as pilots to serve MAF’s new operational base.

Meanwhile last week we were sending off out of Africa several marvellous MAF families, to various nations – South Sudan, The Netherlands, Uganda.... we thought that taking them out of the office for their exit interviews might just be less painful with these sorts of views:

We did indeed enjoy a long weekend at the beach, a day or two to unwind, reflect and appreciate the sea (hadn't realised how much we had missed the waves)...

Moonlight...

Breakfast...

before a swim to discover a deserted island!

We shared our beautiful surroundings with two (loud) wedding parties!

With one set of interviews over, there were more to come, back in Dodoma; we had the wonderful opportunity to avoid 8 hours bus ride, flying on one of MAF’s tiny 206 aircraft: i sat in the co-pilots seat, Jez was the only passenger!

Our last blog showed our “power team” here in Dodoma who have this week to finish their fabulous work of upgrading the avionics on our 208 Caravan to look something like this, taken on a similar model, belonging to Flightlink - one of the country's national carriers, available for commercial flights for those able to afford a ticket:

We had the opportunity to pray for/see this beautiful nation from a different perspective:

Early morning mist (and smog) over Dar es Salaam

Outskirts of Dodoma:

Nearly home... here are some local landmarks seen from the air:

Main road:

Roundabout into town:

Touchdown, with one of the 3 local mosques opposite us

Outside the MAF hanger.... shows H-OPE, the 208 our "power team" are finishing/sending out to Liberia

An early morning flight, a quick stroll across the runway, straight from the plane and into the office for a full day..... writing contracts, arranging interviews (exit and recruitment) and organising leaving do's! They were right, colleagues here told us it was getting cooler: only 25 degrees at touchdown by 8.30am in the morning!
Happy midsummer!

See you next week - God bless this next one!
Love from us slightly-less-pasty-faces
J&C xx

the day after the week before....

This has been a choppy ol' week - lots to do, very many ends to tie up now that we are officially closed.... several waves still to ride! Monday morning in the hanger was so quiet, with dozens of staff now retrenched yet a plane still flying. Our pilots continue to take the medical/evangelical safari's: this one flown yesterday by Martin (who will shortly be moving with his family to Uganda) and Jarrko (who's moving with is family up to the new Tanzanian operational base in Arusha)

The Gospel can be shared anywhere....

Essential work needs to continue for another couple of weeks by a skilled, but skeleton crew: 50-hour checks, reassembly and overhaul of one plane, servicing a few visiting aircraft and a mammoth electronics upgrade on H-OPE, our Cessna caravan en route to serve the precious folk in Liberia. Here are our "power team" on the plane they continue to work so very hard on to meet imminent deadlines:

We are a happy international team as you can see: British, Australian, Swedish and Tanzanian!

and here's some of the wiring:

.

Meanwhile back on the domestic front here are a few shots of some wonderful Mama's helping at home, so that I can help Jez with 'stuff'-a-plenty! Above is Mama Varien preparing a coconut

This is what she sat on - not what I would call comfortable!

And here's our lovely Mama Ruth on wash day in our garden:

Every item hung out to dry needs ironing to rid the fabric of horrid mango fly which likes to bury itself in the fabric, then burrow under skin on items worn!

Also in her garden is our neighbour Pirita, wife to our Finnish pilot Jarrko, mentioned earlier - we've all been eagerly awaiting (and praying) for his pilots' license to be issued...thank you if you've joined us; Pirita will be the new office manager up in the new base in Aursha. A new pet?... or just a "local visitor"...

This coming Thursday we are travelling east to Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital situated on the coast, where operations also closed May 31st. We shall be doing exit interviews and reviews for staff continuing on with MAF in other countries. We might even spend the weekend on a beach: Dodoma is a known as a semi-arid desert and having lived for so many years within easy reach of the sea we have SO missed the water/sea/ocean/lakes...a bathtub even! I shall be celebrating hearing the about the Good News from a visiting Swedish MAF "missionary pilot" 45 summers ago and thought this was appropriate:

So then, see you in a fortnight!
God bless you
much love
J&C xx

Can this really be the face of one of our wonderful now EX-staff members?! Gladness looks the picture of gladness doesn’t she – she came to work with us straight after college as our guesthouse manager and she, along with 62 other locally employed staff look up to Heaven for God to open doors for them that they might feed family, friends, neighbours, pay off debts and provide them with dignity and a role to sustain them in the long terms. Do pray with us for them ....

Last week was a busy one... retrenchment isn’t an easy but we’re thankful for all the help and support and Divine intervention. This next week is one of tying up MANY loose ends and preparing for the relocation/launch of the new operating Base up in Arusha.
Our recent visit there was successful, interviewing for new staff, sorting out living accommodation and office ‘refurbishment’


Jez in the new MAF Arusha office, before its refurb.



Outside the building


No prizes for guessing where we are now! ..... some beautiful grounds, shared with Scripture Mission who distribute Kiswahili Christian literature


View from the main road, past a small quarry up to the new office.

Women sit each day and smash rocks from the quarry, from large pieces like this one:


To small pieces:


Piles of smashed rocks and housing in the new neighbourhood:


The journey back from Arusha was ...er... bumpy, several hours jolting along on these sorts of roads – free back massages eh! This is the main road north/south:



The above shows a quick road-side lunch break

Hi-ho, after the visit of a representative of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) today here in Dodoma, its back to (other) work we go ... Jez has several visitors, Bishops included. Hope your days are as colourful days as ours!

Salamu
Jez and Carina xx