Coming In On A Charter: The Flight

When I left off in my last post, my teammates the Farises and I had just gotten onto the MAF plane for our flight from Nairobi to Malualkon, South Sudan on April 4. The route for our flight was the following, which is the route our charters usually take to go in:

A. Nairobi to B. Lokichoggio, Kenya: 2 1/2 hours flying time
B. Lokichoggio, Kenya to C. Rumbek, South Sudan: 2 1/4 hours flying time
C. Rumbek to D. Malualkon, South Sudan: 1 hour flying time
The stops in Loki and in Rumbek are for re-fueling.

View Larger Map
To continue on with the timeline from the previous post:
9:30 - Passengers load onto to the MAF plane, which is a Cessna 208 Caravan with a single turboprop engine. Our pilot is Jane, who as far as we know is the only Kenyan and only woman pilot currently flying with MAF.

Daniel and Liam are sitting in the back of the plane behind the freight.

There are three passenger seats in front of the freight, just behind the pilot and co-pilot's seats (on our flight we only have a pilot). I'm sitting behind the pilot and Natalie and Liam are behind the co-pilot's seat.

My view of the control panel. The screen with green and brown in the upper middle of the panel is a map showing the position of the plane. It's fun to follow along our route.





9:50 - Take off from Wilson Airport to fly north up to Lokichoggio (Loki). I got some nice views of Nairobi (Wilson is located right in the city).

View of Nairobi city centre

Recent housing complexes

Slums

12:20 - Arrive in Loki.

View over the pilot's should as we were heading towards the runway in Loki, which you can see in the distance in the middle of the photo.

Loki airport official buildings (police and immigration)

Our plane being refueled

The official reason for stopping in Loki may be refueling, but for me (and I'm sure most women passangers), what Loki means is: toilets!
(There's no toilet on the Caravan.)
 

And the women's washroom in Loki is actually very decent for rural Africa. It's spacious and clean, the toilet usually flushes, there's toilet paper and soap and running water for handwashing.

13:00 - Leave Loki to fly to Rumbek.

13:40 - Cross into South Sudan. The route map below shows the plane right on the border. 

 

15:20 - Arrive in Rumbek, South Sudan for refueling. It's about 40 degrees C (approx. 105 F.)

Rumbek airport

We passengers go to the immigration office at the airport to pay a registration fee and have our passports stamped.

16:00  - Leave Rumbek for our last leg, a short flight to Malualkon. The Caravan plane cabin is not pressurized so it's quite warm in the plane.

Getting close to Malualkon - notice the plane's shadow, bottom left

Good view of typical Dinka compound in foreground

Coming in to the runway at Malualkon

It's always great to see our truck waiting at the end of the runway

Teammate James who came to pick us up, greeting pilot Jane

Unloading

Lots of interest on the part of onlookers

17:40 - Leave airstrip 

We can't fit all the freight on the truck at one time. We take one load plus all us passengers and pilot Jane, who will spend the night at our compound. The next morning, James will drive her back to the plane and pick up the rest of the freight.

18:05 - Arrive at our compound in Parot. We made it!

So sorry, no pictures of this. Guess my mind was a little fuzzy.  And I didn't even think of taking pictures of the final step: unloading the truck.

 

Thanks for coming along on this journey!

Coming In On A Charter: Pre-flight Preparations Part 2

After the preparations described in my previous post, here's a chronology of pre-flight preparations on the day of the flight, which in this case was Thursday, April 4.

6:30 - Arrive at MAF compound at Wilson Airport (dropped off by our guest house van). Charter is scheduled to depart around 8:30.

6:30-7:30 - Freight moved from MAF storeroom via MAF truck to Wilson Passenger Terminal; passengers and carry-ons weighed and then taken to Passenger Terminal in MAF van.

Liam being weighed

Arrival at Wilson Passenger Terminal

7:30 - All freight put through x-ray machine at entrance to Passenger Terminal. The picture below is from a previous charter and shows my teammate Vince helping with this process of getting all the boxes, suitcases and other items on and off the conveyor belt. After this the freight is all piled on large carts which will then be used to take it out and load it onto the plane.

Some of our freight waiting to be loaded onto the plane

7:40-9:00 - Passengers wait. Freight waits on side of tarmac. Plane is delayed due to a missing page in the customs declaration as well as a minor technical glitch.








 9:00-9:30 - Freight loaded onto plane. Larger items are arranged strategically & securely in the cabin of the plane. Smaller items are loaded into the storage "pods" located in the belly of the plane. Each pod holds a different maximum weight, so the weight marked on each item of freight is helpful for the MAF staff so they don't overload the pods.

Pods underneath the cabin.

Freight secured in the cabin

9:30 - Passengers walk out to plane and then embark

Just before boarding the plane

To be continued... :-)

Coming In On A Charter: Pre-flight Preparations Part 1

I was out of South Sudan on R&R last month, hence the lack of posts. I came back in last week with my teammates the Farises on a MAF (Missionary Aviation Fellowship) charter flight from Nairobi. My team charters a small MAF plane a few times a year to bring in people and freight, and I thought I'd give you an idea of what this involves, in this post and the next two posts.

Pre-flight Preparations, Prior to Flight Date

1.     A few months in advance: Reserve charter with MAF Kenya. Based on the weight of the passengers, the pilot, fuel, seats, etc., MAF gives us a number of kilos of freight we can bring in (on this last flight it was 790 kilos = 1,742 lbs.).

2.     A few days in advance: Gather items to bring into South Sudan, whether purchased in North America or in Nairobi (we do a lot of shopping in Nairobi, for things that we can't get in SS or that are much more expensive there; for example, many food items, large plastic barrels for storing water, plastic pails and basins, brooms, toilet paper, foam mattresses, paint, medicines, water filters, building materials, kerosene for cooking, etc., etc.).

A few of my boxes last week

3.     Repack most items into boxes or suitcases. Label each box with owner's name, summary of contents, organization, number and destination. Weigh on scales at guest house and calculate preliminary weight of everything we want to take in.  The photo on the right shows some of the things I packed last week: raisins; cans of tuna, chicken & veggies; spices & condiments, insecticide, rye crackers, rolling pin, peanut butter, honey.

4.     Prepare customs list. This includes all boxes, suitcases and loose items leaving Kenya, listed by number, with a short description and $ value of the contents of each.

Loading up the car at guest house to head to MAF (had to make two trips)

5.     Two days before flight: Transport everything except carry-on items to the MAF building at Wilson Airport for weighing and labeling. Calculate total weight. Decide if we need to remove things or can add more things (usually it's the former!).

Teammate Daniel unloading things at MAF

Daniel put the things on the scale

 I wrote the labels and kept a list of the weight 

of each item

A labeled box top. Our destination: MALU = Malualkon, a small airstrip about 8 km from our village

More of our freight

Labeled freight piled at MAF

 

6.     Email customs list to customs agents, then go to their office to pay fee. (Fortunately the office of the agent we use is located just down the street from MAF.)

Compound Clean Up

Visitor David H. with lush vegetation in background, late Sept.

By the end of the rainy season (October), our compound was quite overgrown with vegetation of all kinds. We liked this because it was so green and lush and gave us some privacy from our neighbours.








 

 However, during the following months, all this vegetation turned brown and dry, a real fire trap. The tall grass and undergrowth are an ideal hiding place for snakes, of which we've seen (and killed) several during the past months. And by our neighbours's standards our compound was looking really messy. Plus thieves have had an easy time prowling around at night without being seen.




So, we hired some women from our local church to come and uproot the grasses and undergrowth and put them into piles that we could burn.

The women appreciate the work not only for the money it provides but because they can take any grasses or sticks they would like. They use these for many things, particularly for making grass huts or thatching the roofs of mud huts.







During the past weeks we have spent quite a few enjoyable evenings burning the piles of grass, twigs, leaves, etc. It's been a fun team activity.

 

The change in our compound has been very dramatic. Completely new views have opened up.

Before: storage shack barely visible on middle right

After: clear view all around the shack

This is the "after" view of the second picture in this post. My teammates the Ward kids call this area "the forest" and enjoy playing under and around the trees. Before it was so overgrown they couldn't get near them. The building that's now visible just a little above the centre of the photo is our new guest house.

 This is a view from the centre of our compound looking towards the south west. Before, we couldn't see the huts that are now visible in the middle of the picture. Now, we can not only see better but hear better. I noticed last night how well I could hear this neighbour and some of her friends sitting outside talking and laughing.

"A" Names Abound

Virtually all Dinka women's names start with the letter "a." There are very few exceptions. And there are many names that are very common. The Dinka don't try to be original with their children's names. They're all named for a relative or perhaps a close friend, so often there are several people with the same name in one family.

For example, one of our neighbours has eight or nine wives (yes, polygamy is very common here)--or it may be ten by now, as he just married another one! The first girl of each of his wives is named Alek, which I think is the name of this man's grandmother. Since the girls all have the same paternal name, they are often distinguished by using the name of their mother as their second name. So the girls are known as Alek Atap, Alek Ajuong, Alek Atong, etc.

These are the wonderful ladies of the Parot Church Health Group that I have been teaching, minus one lady who was absent. (In case you're wondering, the photo was taken just before Christmas and they're holding pitchers that I gave them for pouring water to wash hands, or any other use.) These women's names are:  Front row: Akec, Agau, Aluel   Back row: Awek, Acol, Anon  Missing: Aluel

And for the record, my Dinka name is Agop. :-)

Brackenhurst Beauty

I spent Christmas and New Year's in Kenya at the Brackenhurst Conference Centre. What a beautiful place! Coming from the dry season brown of my area of South Sudan, it was such a treat for the eyes and soul. And weather was cool and refreshing.

I'd like to share some of Brackenhurst's lush colours with you, thinking particularly of those who live in places that have already had lots of snow so far this winter.

 

The flower beds and shrubs at Brackenhurst are magnificent. Such a variety of colours, shapes and sizes, all a wonderful testimony to our amazingly creative Creator.







 I really liked these funky fuzzy purple flowers, and the striking simplicity of the calla lilies, pure white against the green.

 

 

Brackenhurst New Year's Conference 2012-13 Group Photo

From Dec. 28-Jan. 1, I attended the Brackenhurst New Year's Conference, an annual event that has been taking place for decades. There were 150 participants of at least 10 nationalities, fellow Christians serving in various countries in this part of Africa. I met some wonderful people, and the Bible teaching by the Kenyan pastor who was the speaker was fantastic, a real feast for the soul. My body was well fed, too--the Brackenhurst buffets are SO good! 

Happy New Year!!