Mercy Air 25th Anniversary Celebration Weekend

November 2015 Mercy Air turned 25 years old and to celebrate the event we invited friends and people we'd flown in support of over those years for a bit of  a get together at the farm.

The weekend started off with a meal on the Friday evening where we honoured Ron and Barbara Wayner, the founders of Mercy Air who had flewn in from Alaska for the event.

The previous week we had flown a Swedish team to Mozambique and one of them Bengt Johansson, a well known Swedish musician, sang a few songs.

The following day different mission organisations put up stalls in the hangar to showcase their work.

Our aircraft were on display.

We put a big marquee in the garden...

..and served food and drinks and sheltered from the sun.

Etienne came and played a nice background set.

Zippy the Magic Clown pitched up and entertained the kids.

There was also a fair amount of face painting going on.

For those kids for whom clowning and face painting weren't enough there was a bouncy thing to bounce on - and a pipe to crawl through.

In the evening we had a spit roast in the marquee...

..as well as some music, this time provided by Mercy Air staff.

We had practised the previous week in the Groot's garage thus technically making us a Garage Band - who'd of thought!

Thank you

Mercy Air team

Brummies in Africa

Recently we welcomed a team from Birmingham, UK to Mercy Air.

They were here for two weeks and visited a number of local projects and got to see what Mercy Air does closer to home.
Some were able to accompany the helicopter on a rotor track and balance flight.

The highlight of the visit was a five day vision trip to ASAM in Mozambique in Mercy Air's Kodiak.

Many had been involved in fund raising for some of the projects up there and wanted to see progress as well as see what scope there was for further help.

We visited the bridge that had been built to allow kids to get to school safely.

We met some kids who were crossing the bridge and gave them a lift up to the school.

They were there for afternoon lessons and were just in time for lunch provided by the mission.

The lunch

The lunch queue

One of the main reasons for visiting the school was to put some finishing touches to a school teachers house that the group had help raised funds for.
With temperatures in the high 30's it was an effort to stand still and breathe but the roof joists had to go up...

...and the house needed to be painted...

...inside and out.

Some of the school kids came to look and help but some seemed to need more help than they gave.

Others painted their toe nails with a piece of wood dipped in the paint tray.

Some of the team were teachers and were keen to help out with lessons at the school.

Most of the lessons were in the new library that a Church in Aldridge had helped fund.

Some of the kids had never used scissors before so some time was spent drawing round shapes and cutting them out.

Some of them really got the hang of it and produced those 'people holding hands' cut outs.

Paul tried to draw a curve of pursuit.

Some of the team had been medics in the British Army and were able to help out  at the clinic.

There were also a number of visits to the craft project at the training centre.

ASAM also has an orphan project where orphans are placed in local family homes where a 'grandmother' looks after them. The mission often helps build accommodation. In one such place the family used to sleep in a thatched structure that was partially bricked up...

...but now, with the missions help, they live in a quite substantial three roomed house.

Nigel spoke at the morning meetings in his usual down to earth way keeping people entertained, informed and uplifted.

We visited the school three days in a row. On one day our minibus broke down and Nigel immediately went into 'ex fire engine mechanic' mode and practically fixed it with his bare teeth!

Before we knew it it was time to load the plane and set off again for South Africa.

One last prayer and goodbyes in the only wing shaped shade available.

Thank you

Mercy Air team