Update 12th October 2016

Yesterday (Tuesday) Kaylene and I drove to neighbouring Swaziland with Dr. Roger & Katy Pacholka for a final meeting with Ministry of Health representative, hospital administrator and senior Doctors from the two hospitals we will be collaborating with for our new 'sight flight' program starting there in a couple of weeks.

It turned into a bit of a long day (14 hours by the time we got back home) but the outcome of the meeting is very encouraging and we also scored a bunch of maps donated by the govt surveyor office. This sort of collaboration between two non-government hospitals, eye specialist, ministry of health and government departments is apparently a new thing in Swaziland and to combine it with an 'Aviation service for health care delivery' is such a historic event that they now want a media day during our first week of op’s here.

Due to the lack of grand welcome signs, we made do with this one at the border.

13 yr old Tizoneca and his brother were both cutting the grass with slashers in the school playing field – part of a kids’ role here. They got a bit close and Tizoneca’s brother hit him in the heel with his slasher, cutting his Achilles tendon! We medevac’d him out last time. He got stitched up, cleaned up and back to Luawe. However, in between visits the wound had become infected. Joel had to bring him out again last week.

Joel getting Tizoneca and his dad strapped into the heli for the 25 minute trip to Marromeu hospital.  3 or 4 days trekking & canoeing wasn’t an option.

Thank you

Dean and Kaylene
For the Mercy Air team

Update 11th September 2016

It’s great to be back out on the Zambezi delta again after an absence of 11 months (due to political unrest in the province).

Although welcomed back by everyone, we’ve also found some disappointments. Two of the fledgling agriculture projects are in ruins and a fledgling church is stumbling along as the young couple leading it encounter problems of their own and have had no support. It’s been a long time away during this critical period of getting things established. Our future outreaches here will be more frequent and we have challenges ahead to help get these established again.

We had a fun day today celebrating Kaylene’s birthday with the YWAM team up here.

Even though it's been 11 months, the sight of the orange helicopter still bought big crowds out for the medical clinic at Ibo. 

School again. It took a while to get everyone engaging and having fun learning. 

Age is no barrier to those who want to come and learn.

Disappointing to see the once flourishing ag. project abandoned.

the same view a year ago when community cooperation created this amazing project. More time was needed to help coach these leaders to make this self sustaining.

What went wrong? Sitting round with some of the leaders of the ag. association in Luwawe.

School again. It took a while to get everyone engaging and having fun learning.

Age is no barrier to those who want to come and learn.

Disappointing to see the once flourishing ag project abandoned.

The same view a year ago when community cooperation created this anazing project. More time was needed to help coach these leaders to make this self sustaining.

What went wrong? Sitting around with some of the leaders of the ag association at Luwawe. One of the leaders absconded with the funds they had generated. Discouraged, the others gave up. Then when drought set in and they needed the pump, it wouldn't work.

I took the pump back to our base and disassembled it. a rat had crawled into the pump and eaten two of the rubber valves that make it operate. I swiped some parts out of one of our spare pumps and had it all going in a couple of hours. there are so many challenges that complicate things here!

 The YWAM team here put on a fun birthday for Kaylene.

We flew a slaughtered goat back from the bush for the party feast. Kaylene was presented with its head as an act of honour!

Thank you for partnering with us.

Dean and Kaylene
for the Mercy Air team.

Update 10th October 16

A brief update on what's happening in the Zambezi delta where we work with our YWAM partners from Marromeu and Nensa.

Tizoneca Domingos a 13 year old boy from Luawe, had his Achilles tendon cut in an accident and was consequently flown to Marromeu hospital with the helicopter during our previous outreach in September. This time around the YWAM and government hospital crew found Tizoneca back in Luawe, his wound had healed significantly but recently picked up an infection. Eliseu and Leanna cleaned his wound once again at the mobile clinic on Thursday. It's so good to be able to do recurring outreaches in the delta area again!

This time we visited some particularly small and remote places like Kuma and Palani, where mainly medical consults, child care and many malaria tests were conducted. Some of these people hadn't seen us in over a year and started dancing of sheer joy when we flew in the medical crews.

Leanna is supervising two YWAM staff members (Eliseu and Sarah) who are treating two identical wounds. Strangely these people both had open wounds and sores just above their ankles.

The education classes (here in Bumbane) were eagerly awaited and joined by young and old.

Furthermore the YWAM evangelist team is reaching out and focusing on the communities of Rampa and Malcholo during these two weeks. People from other villages nearby travel to hear the good news and join bible studies.

My thanks go to God for the opportunities he gives us with YWAM in the Delta and to all of you in whatever capacity you are working for Mercy Air at the moment.

Thank you.

Joe in Marromeu
for the Mercy Air team.