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

Limpopo flood survey

The UK organisation Oxfam had been concerned about the water levels on the lower Limpopo River.

The last few weeks have seen water rise above alert level and indications were that, if it continued, the flooding could be worse than that in 2000. Those floods were so bad they attracted world wide media attention, with one iconic image of a lady being rescued by helicopter after having given birth in a tree.

The only way to really find out how bad the flooding was, was to go and have a close look.

We flew over to Maputo to pick up representatives of various NGO’s . There was a mapping expert from World Food Programe and a climate change expert from CARE. The team leader was from Save The Children as well as a representative from Mozambique’s disaster management organisation INGC.

After a lengthy process of obtaining the necessary military clearance to allow for low level survey work, we set off.

We flew for a total of 350 miles and covered the whole of the Mozambique portion of the river from the border with South Africa to where it enters the Indian Ocean.

We flew from Maputo along the green line.

 

The upper reaches weren’t that bad but there was certainly a large amount of standing water in the lower portions.

The various aid organisations will now get together and work on a plan based on what we saw. Our helicopter is on standby in case the situation worsens but we are expecting to be asked to conduct another survey flight in a week or two’s time.

Mercy Air team

Dentists without borders - sort of

A Swiss dentist couple have flown with Mercy Air a number of times in recent years. They give up their holiday and fund their own trips in Mozambique into areas where Mercy Air already has mission contacts.

We were due to fly them into the Zambezi delta region but last minute changes in rules required to do medical work in that part of Mozambique meant that another plan had to be made. On top of that, on the day of the flight we found a problem with our Cessna 210 which would take a day to fix so we had to ‘borrow’ another smaller 4 seat aircraft.

Cessna 182

The plan was then, to fly them over Swaziland and back into South Africa and land at a very sandy strip just south of Mozambique, from where they would be picked up and driven across the border to work at a place called Mamoli.

They had a lot of equipment which was a tight fit.... but we squeezed everything in.

It might not look much but all the luggage and three people in that plane, diddn't leave much room for your packed lunch.

Our helicopter will be working in the same area during the next week, after which it will take them up to Maputo, where we will meet them and fly them further north to Chimoio together with a doctor team to do some more medical work.

Mercy Air team

Another long day in the saddle

Recently we got a call from some Dutch missionaries who work with Trans World Radio, an organisation who broadcast the Gospel to over 40 countries in Africa. One of their bases is in Mocuba, Mozambique but the missionaries themselves were in Pretoria.
They had just found that one of their local pastors, who also teaches at a bible school, had a mild stroke over the Christmas period resulting in some paralysis on the left side.

The hospital in Mocuba had not been able to bring his blood pressure under control and so the Dutch missionaries asked us to bring him back to South Africa for further medical treatment.

This, though, meant hurriedly arranging the flight permits, getting the plane ready and flying it to the nearby international airport to allow us as early start as possible the following morning.

As we didn't know what condition the patient would be in, we decided a nurse should come along also. So the next day, we were up at dawn for the four hour flight up to Mocuba.

Mocuba and the airstrip.

Mocuba's dirt and grass airstrip is in the middle of town and is used as a bit of a thoroughfare by people and animals. We had to circle the town a few times on arrival to announce our intention to land as well as to assess the strip ourselves. Even then there were many children who came, attracted by the relativley rare sight of an aircraft.

A welcoming committee that's actually not that welcome.

The patient was waiting for us when we landed and so we were on the ground for less than 10 minutes before making the journey back. The weather was not brilliant but well within our capabilities and so we could make it back to South Africa in good time.The Pastor reading his bible on the way back.

In total just over eight hours flying and 2400 km (1500 miles). Fortunately for us, other Mercy Air staff were able to take care of the hospital admissions procedure which lasted well into the evening.

Thanks

Mercy Air team

School visit

This is something that happened a few months back, but We've only just re-discovered the photos.

Each year for the last few years we have had a sort of open day - well open morning really, for a local school. This year about 60 kids descended on us and we took it in turns to explain a little about our ministry and let them get a close look at the planes.

The heli was quite a hit.
Paul trying to explain something.
'Don't press the red button.'

Thanks

Mercy Air team

Woken up by Whales (but not whilst driving up the M5 past Hereford)

Not too long after the previous two trips we once again set sail for Mozambique, but this time for a place we had never been to before - Nacala, which is actually half way back to the Equator from where we are in White River.
We had planned a 10 day trip to visit two different missions, but the one in Marromeu had problems with getting the doors made that they wanted us to fit. We did however, visit them on the way up to look at the progress on their centre and get a better idea of their need for when we hopefully visit in early December.

From there we continued up past some impressive scenery...
..to Nacala where a German couple, Martin and Simone, live. We unloaded the contents of the plane into his pick-up truck...
and collected a few other things, including the proverbial kitchen sink...
..before driving a further two hours north to Memba. To help Martin and Simone better serve the community and share the Gospel, they are building a small house and training centre in Memba and will move in as soon as the roof and electrics are completed. To assist these missionaries and support this project Mercy Air offered its services and took a load of electrical equipment up including 140 metres of very heavy (125Kg) armoured cable as well as Derek, an electrician, who had volunteered his services. Our main job was to lay the cable, install the lights and plugs and wire them all up.

Memba itself is a pretty isolated and run down coastal town which was heavily attacked during the war (which finished 17 years ago) but never seemed to fully recover.
On their land they are building a small house first in which they will live before completing the centre early next year.
Despite being right on the beach it was hot - very hot. This was most evident when it came to digging the 1/2 metre deep, 120 metre long trench to the nearest power pole.
We had to dig it up a street of old Government houses, many of which were still occupied.
Eventually it was complete and we laid the cable.
Derek then showed the local electric company how to terminate it on the breaker box.
Holger made some clamps and fixed the cable to the pole.
Unfortunately a moment of 'operator error' saw him lose his footing and fall 5m down the pole, breaking his foot in the process. After a spot of medical attention, he completed the rest of the trip on one leg and with a permanent grimace.
Derek was a real trooper though and offered his services whenever needed.
Despite the heat we finished in good time and even returned to Nacala a day early. We spent two nights there and slept in the 'beach house', above. The one night we were woken up by a strange noise that we later recognised as a whale 'blowing' a few hundred meters off shore. Earlier in the week we had seen them doing that jumpy thing they do and even managed to get a photo.

I kept humming Nantucket Sleighride by Mountain whilst taking these pictures. I'll be impressed if there are many people who know the link.

On the way back we stayed a night in Chimoio where we picked up Ron and Bernie, the guys we had taken up two weeks earlier and who had been working on the Mercy Air house there. A few phone calls though had determined that there was no Avgas to fuel the plane at any of the airports on the planned route home, and only two airports in the whole of the country had any fuel left. Fortunately the recent upgrades to the aircraft meant that it had a healthy endurance and we were able to divert to Maputo to fuel up and clear customs.

Our grateful thanks go out to all those who support Mercy Air with faithful prayers and financial giving to make such flights of support and encouragement possible.

Mercy Air team

Having a whale of a time

We have had some Swiss guys give up a lot of time to come and help us at Mercy Air by extending one of the hangers and making and installing some hangar doors. By way of a thank-you, we let them charter us at cost for a long weekend break in Durban.

We obviously went to the beach and watched a lot of people balance on surf boards.
Cathy fancied the idea..
..but seemed to forget the key bit of kit when it came to actually giving it a go.
We went to the aquarium and some a big fish...
..and some very impressive jumping Dolphins.
No trip to the sea side would be complete without a comprehensive harbour tour...
..before a rather cramped taxi ride getting us and our hired surf boards back from whence we came.
We returned to White River late afternoon on the Monday, and 07:00 the following day we were back out again taking a small team and some supplies up to Mercy Air's base in Chimoio in Mozambique. It was quite a big day flying wise (7.5 hrs), but nothing out of the ordinary worth relating in a blog, and nothing really worth taking pictures of.

Mercy Air team

Upcomming busy

Going to be dead busy in the next dew weeks.

Tomorrow (Friday) we're off to Durban with a Swiss group for the week end - coming back on Monday. 5 hrs flying.

Tuesday morning We're off up to Moz to drop a couple of guys off at a mission station in Chimoio and traveling back the same day. 7 hrs flying.

Next Friday we will be part of a building team visiting two mission locations in Moz. One is at Marromeu on the Zambezi and the other in Nacala, on the coast and well up in the north of the country. We will stay for a total of 10 days and do 14 hrs of flying. On the way back we will pick up the two guys we take up to Chimoio next Tuesday.

As always - better busy than bored.

Regards

Mercy Air team