Classroom in a Box

Imagine living in a village so remote that learning to read is only a distant dream.

There are many faced with this exact problem in the delta region of the Zambezi and because of this Anne Herbert, a Mercy Air staff member with 27 years teaching experience and Caitlin Mbewe of YWAM in Marromeu, herself a physics teacher have developed the 'Classroom in a Box' project.

The airstrip right in the middle of Marromeu

The project aims to provide literary resources and training materials to to the people in the delta in their own language and last week we flew a team up to Marromeu to start the process. The first 10 weeks of the Classroom in a Box is based on a chronological childrens Bible and the curriculem covers four learning areas, Bible, Language, Numeracy and Life Skills. It starts with the basic skills needed to master the learning areas.

Anne sorting out the box contents after our arrival

Mercy Air has been working with YWAM in Marromeu for a number of years now using both fixed wing aircraft and the helicopter. The town is the last sizable place on the Zambezi before it empties into the Indian Ocean 40 miles downstream.

The Russians, or at least some of their military hardware, were here during the war, although it seems they had some difficulty in leaving.

This Antonov 32 finished its days after a crash in 1992. (The 210 in front is ours and is working just fine).

There are a number of artillery units around. This T34 tank is in the garden of some YWAM workers but at least it saves having to build a climbing frame or swing - if you can handle its gun barrel being permanently pointed at your house.
Anyway, back to business. The idea is to teach local teachers how to use the box and so Anne, Sally and Samantha bought one up and shared its contents with some teachers and spent time some time getting feedback on how they thought the methods would work.
We will send another team up with the helicopter next time it goes there and they will be able to take it into the really remote areas in the delta. Once this is established the idea is to then extend the project into other areas in Mozambique where we already have existing relations with missionaries.

You can read more about the project at:
http://www.mercyair.org/en/projects/operational-reports/218-education-project-advances.html

Mercy Air team

Chimoio Mercy Air base

We have just got back from another trip to Chimoio where we worked on the Mercy Air house.

Building a house in the African bush is a long process where just about everything is done by hand so having a team of five of us go up for a week really helped accelerate things. Paul and a Dutch pilot called Arzaja spent most of the time making about 30 windows and installing them in the frames.
Ron had already cut and milled the wood from trees on the farm but even with all the drills, saws, chisels and routers we could ask for, it still took a whole week to make and fit them.

A big diversion on the first day was the arrival of a 40' container that had started it's journey from the US in January. It made it's way down our dusty road and then backed into a quarry where we could unload it.

Out of it came many mechanical implements that had been donated in the US, including a John Deere tractor and what people in the UK would call a JCB, but here they are known as TLB's (tractor, loader, back hoe).
Then it was back to the frames.
The next day's diversion from the wacky world of wood came in the form of trying to help fix a grass cuter that will used to keep the grass on the airstrip in order (when we manage to get some to grow on it).
Then it was back to the frames.
Day three was window frames all the way, except for a brief interlude where we helped rig a ladder in the bucket of the TLB for access to get a big wall painted.
Then back to the frames.

On the Sunday we went to a local church.

One of the other things we had managed to bring up with us was a box of Bible's in the Sena language which we gave out to local pastors. Apparently they are one of the 10 rarest bibles in the world.

Not that we needed many diversions on a Sunday, but if we did it came in the form of a Puff Adder which Dwight had caught on the path near his house.
These boys are quite nasty.

The last full day was spent getting most of the windows installed. Some last minute adjustments...
Then all but one of the windows fitted.
And this is just one side of the house.

Of course the who week didn't just revolve (or hinge) around windows. Tim worked hard on a number of things plumbing related including the solar hot water system...

 and the loo.
 
Which Ron was first to load test..


His wife Christiana helped Barbara and Swenky with the painting..

Whilst Swenky also lent a hand with fitting the windows.

On the day we left we visited the school that ASAM has run for many years now. Some of the children walk up to 10km through the bush to get there.
We were quite impressed by Mr. Incredible who, with his mates, had made some wheel spokes out of bamboo. We'd love to see the rest of the bike when they finish it.
We also visited the clinic..



This is the total contents of the dispensary which is in dire need of a re-stock.

Then it was on to the airport for our four hour flight back to South Africa, a journey that would take two days by road.

Thank you

Mercy Air team

Youth With a Mission, Marromeu

We recently flew another team up to Marromeu on the Zambezi in Mozambique to help YWAM with the building of a training centre.

YWAM have been based in Marromeu for many years and Mercy Air has been regularly flying teams up to help them with various aspects of their work. About a year ago they started building a training centre about an hours drive out of Marromeu and three of the team, Paul, Azalja and Tim, went up to help complete some work on one of the buildings. While they were there Cathy and Christina stayed in Marromeu and helped with other things - more later.

There is still much work to do so the boys set about attacking certain projects. As we arrived on site there was a short sharp downpour which highlighted exactly the many places where the roof was leaking. As we were there during one of their hottest weeks they had had in ages, each morning we had to get up before dawn to allow us an hour on the roof before the sun came up.

The lights and plugs had been wired in but never tested. We took along a generator but when we connected it up - nothing happened. Tim then spent the next day and a half working out what was wrong and putting it right to make this:

Become this:

Tim proving the fruits of his labour.

The next job was to put the kitchen doors on the cupboards. Initially this seemed quite easy but there were many doors and almost all of them needed fairly major alterations. We tried to repair a table saw:

but the windings of the motor were burnt out so in the end we had to resort to hammer and chisels.

Another day and a half's activity saw the kitchen looking a lot more user friendly.

There were various other jobs we completed before returning to Marromeu to join the girls who had also been busy. Cathy had made 18 curtains for the training centre:

Whilst Christina had worked with Caitlin on some educational material for the local schools.

Shephen and Caitlin's house in Marromeu had also had a recent electrical upgrade - that hadn't actually been tested with a generator. When we did connect one up, behold, we saw that there was no light and we said, 'this is not good'. That saw the beginning of an evening of activity with torches strapped to our heads:

to make this look a little more professional:

Lastly there were a number of issues with our hosts vehicle which Tim and Azalja tackled (Tim being a motor mechanic by trade in Germany).

The night before we left it rained and the strip at Marromeu is always busy, so we had to a little careful with our departure.

After an incredibly hot week it was good to get up to altitude and relax on the way back.

Thank you.

Mercy Air team

Farmington, Arizona. Tractorville, Mpumalanga.

We might live and operate out of a farm but we don't actually farm the land. We do however lease the land to our neighbour who is a farmer so it does get utilised. We do also have an old tractor which we use for cutting the grass on the runway, and hauling trailer loads of foliage around.

Every now and then it manifests its age and throws a bit of a wobbly, with its most recent bout of illness being to internally disassemble its own clutch. This rendered it unusable and very immobile as we could hardly even tow it to where we needed to fix it.

Fortunately we have a German auto mechanic working with us for six months along with a Dutch pilot/mechanic who is with us for three months. Together they attacked it with all manner of tools and we're hoping that by early next week it will be feeling a lot better.

Mercy Air staff

Chimoio developments

Ron and Barbera have recently returned to Chimoio to continue with the work of developing a remote Mercy Air base on ASAM's property.

The Mercy Air house is coming along.

The airstrip being leveled and readied for grass planting.

The training centre is also progressing.

Mercy Air team

Mid-life crisis

It would seem obvious that aircraft parts have a life limit whether it be a date (like a sell by date for food), a set number of flight hours or cycles (how many times an engine has been started and stopped or the landing gear retracted).

Turns out that various parts of planes also have a 'mid life', and although not a crisis as such, they are still required to be checked and have any necessary maintenance done. This is the case at present for the propellers on two of our aircraft.

There is something rather forlorn and abandoned looking about a plane without a prop, but it will only be for a short while. The props have been taken to Jo'burg to be checked and will be back in about a week and a half.

Mercy Air team