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