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| School children running to greet the plane and collect food in Dabia village |
I’ve been back in Tanzania for more than a month already and
this first month back was challenging in the case of each of the four outreach
trips I did. The short rainy season, which usually finishes at the end of the
year, has kept on going into 2016. This has created some unpredictable and
difficult weather to fly in, as well as causing issues for farmers who are
waiting for a chance to plant their next crop.
The following week was the North Maasai evangelism outreach,
and there the mountain winds were all over the place and mostly from the wrong
direction, which made landing and take offs from the already challenging
mountain strips even more challenging. Thankfully all went well there and we
were able to complete all the trips.
The third week back was the Kilimatinde Medical &
Evangelism outreach which takes place around Dodoma in central Tanzania. On
Tuesday I flew the 1.5 hour flight down from Arusha, I did a Certificate of
Airworthiness test flight for another plane, and minutes after we landed the
heavens opened! There was a torrential downpour for more than an hour and once
we managed to establish communication with the nearby villages, we found out
that the storm had caused major damage on the airstrips which would not be
usable the next day. It did not rain the following day and we remained hopeful
that the airstrips would have dried up enough to be usable. We received a positive report on the
Thursday morning so I set out to start preparing the plane. Just as I was
getting ready to go however, we received another report from the medical team
that the rain two days earlier had indeed caused major damage on their airstrip
which they would not be able to repair on time. That meant the Thursday and
Friday outreach had to be cancelled as well! Frustrating, but all that was left
for me to do was to fly back to Arusha. At least I was able to drop off a bag
of food for the school children of the village with the only usable airstrip. It
was a good thing I did not take a medical team out, since the runway was very
soft at the take-off end and there was a another big storm approaching.
The forth week back was the busy Haydom medical outreach and
things started off pretty normal. The fourth day was a complete washout,
however, with low clouds and rain all day making it impossible to take the two
teams out or to go and collect the team that normally stays a night at one of
the busy mountain villages. By noon we had to send a car to go and collect them
and they arrived back at the hospital 12 hours later! The final day of the
outreach also had to be cancelled due to heavy rain and all that was left was
for me to return to Arusha again.
On the way home I stopped for some fuel, and whilst I wasn’t
paying close attention, the attendant put diesel instead of petrol into my car!
So, I spent the next 4 hours waiting for the fuel tank to be drained, with a
live chicken in the back of the car that I had bought in one of the villages.
When I finally got home that evening, I was greeted with the smell of burnt
plastic as I stepped into the house. As I opened the study door, I discovered
that everything was covered in black ash! Thankfully, the fire only burnt the
bottom edges of the curtains, melted a plastic paper tray and scorched the top
of the wooden desk. It was a big mess that took weeks to clean, but we are
thankful that all the wood, paper and books in the room did not catch fire
which could have caused major damage.
After that I did one more outreach day to South Maasai, where
again one of the two airstrips was still unserviceable from the failed trip
last month. Then I had some time to catch up on some office work and finish
small jobs at home (including operation fire clean-up) before Amelia and Johann
returned. The rain storms still continue, including one almost directly over
our house last night. We are praying for enough breaks in the weather to
continue flying as many clinics as possible.
