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

Chimoio dental and medical

Mercy Air were in Moz again last week.

The plan was to take two separate teams (Rodger, a doctor, Rob, a paramedic and two Swiss dentists, Roland and Anna-Marie) to two different places and bring them all back at the end of the week - this almost worked perfectly.

The dentists were to run a dental outreach from the ASAM centre in Chimoio and the doctors would do a first aid course in Marromeu on the Zambezi.

The paramedic's flight from Jo'burg was canceled due to fog so the first aid course couldn't happen but we took Rob, a retired USAF pilot, instead, and met the dentists in Maputo. We then dropped the Dentists in Chimoio and continued on to Marromeu with the doctor the following day.

The trip from the airport started in typical African style. Five in the front and two and all our luggage in the back - for an hours drive.

We have worked with Roger and the YWAM guys in Marromeu for many years but they needed to renew relationships with the local health authorities and so most of the time was spent touring hospitals and having meetings. Whilst Roger did this, turns out Rob was quite the computer geek and so he set about 'fixing' some of the local missionaries computers.

Rob dissects the bowels of a laptop.

Then we flew back to Chimoio via the new ASAM airstrip. It isn't quite finished so we couldn't land, but when it is complete it will make trips to the ASAM/Mercy Air base far more convenient and cheaper.

The new ASAM strip, 1.2 km long and 30m wide.

One of the novelties of staying with Dwight and Lynn is their choice of pets. This is their five month old Klipspringer that we suggested they call Jerry.

Jerry the Klipspringer.

The following days were again spent visiting projects and having - or waiting to have meetings.

We visited the dentists who were hard at work in the local clinic. We think before they'd even had a chance to unpack their suitcases, Roland and Anna-Marie got down to business.

Roland and Anna-Marie saw an average of 30 people a day.

Dental care in the community is non-existent, so imagine what a blessing it was to have this top-notch service pitch up on the doorstep! And...they had the needed material to do fillings - white fillings at that!
They brought portable equipment for doing their work all the way from Switzerland. ASAM provided a small generator (red machine in foreground below), and thus started a very busy week for them of pulling, cleaning, drilling and filling teeth!

Above photo's Lynn Lagore).

While the dentists kept busy at the task of dental health, Dwight and Lynn Lagore introduced Rob and Dr. Roger Pacholka (In His Name Ministries) to the different mission projects.

We visited a school set up by ASAM where they also have a feeding programe for the pupils.

Some of the kids walk up to 10 km through the bush to get to school.

Left to right. Paul, Rob and Roger (Photo Lynn Lagore).

Dr. Roger Pacholka is a medical doctor who, with his wife Katy, have been involved in health work in Mozambique and Swaziland for over 10 years, but they are interested in contributing even further. So part of the week was dedicated to showing him the health needs and facilities in the area. We set up a meeting with the District Director of Health in Manica to discuss plans that hold good potential, then off we went to said meeting. It's over an hour's drive one way, but it's a scenic drive, so that helps.

But when we got to Manica, we were informed that there had been an emergency and the director would be out for the entire day. We tentatively rescheduled a meeting for the next day.

On the way home, we decided to stop and pay the Vanduzi Hospital a visit and to meet the new director there.

He took us on a quick tour.

The lab

The little house where expectant moms from remote areas

can come wait for the birth of their baby.

Inside the expectant mother's house.

'Health o meter'. We found this quite amusing and wondered whether big numbers or small numbers were a better indication of health.

The next day, we went to Manica again in hopes that we could meet with the district director.

Rob and Paul killed time by playing cell phone games...

We arrived in Manica to learn that the director had been delayed in a meeting. So, we had a wait on our hands. We decided to tour of the town's deserted Catholic church that stands proud on top of a hill.

Once we'd circled the outside, it was time to check the inside. Judging from the wall posters and bulletin boards full of simple English sentences, it seems the place is being used as a schoolroom of sorts.

Unique view of a beautiful part of the country.

We braved the rickety old staircase that led up to the bell tower. (Photo Lynn Lagore).

While we were interested in the church, neighborhood kids were interested in us.
I guess we did stand out a bit.

A visit to the above church, an hour or so in a cafe and several cokes, coffees and sandwiches later, we were finally able to see the director. He was still in meetings but was able to excuse himself for enough time to pop out and talk with us on the street, and we were very grateful for that. And so, our trip was a success.

And that, pretty much wraps our health and patient focused week!

The team on the day of departure.

Paul

TWR Mocuba

We have often flown across the vast empty spaces of southern Mozambique and wondered how the people in the isolated villages below can have contact with the outside world. What do they know of our little white aircraft, or of the message that its occupants are bringing to the people further north.

Someone else obviously wondered this many years ago and the result was Trans World Radio an organisation who broadcast the Gospel to over 40 countries in Africa alone.

They had a group of seven donors from Canada who wanted to visit the studios in Mocuba, N Mozambique. As this is quite a remote inland location, taking three full days to drive from South Africa, we arranged to fly them there in two of our aircraft. It was still a six hour journey including stops for fuel, customs and immigration, but the weather was perfect and we got there in good time.

The 310 landing at Mocuba

We had flown here a month ago to pick up a stroke patient (http://mercyair-sa.blogspot.com/2011/01/another-long-day-in-saddle.html) so we knew what to expect with regard to the condition of the dirt strip. As usual the local children got all excited and greeted us on our arrival.

Mercy Air team