Life Day to Day

This is a photo of the little house we are staying in . Brent who is one of the pilots lives next door.
You can see the screened porch of his house on the right edge of the picture. The porch, houses Brents African Grey Parrot, who keeps us entertained with his many voices and sounds. His repretoire includes my voice calling Dexter (the dog we are keeping)---- Tim saying good morning ---Tim's laugh--- Brent's car alarm---Dexter whinning---greetings in Portugueses --and various whistles and other sounds and phrases...his name is Pepe and he is quite amazing.
Our house is quite comfortable and has most things we need. They have put in many new windows since we were here last and all of them open and have screens, which will be even more wonderful as we head into the hotter rainy season in about a month. For now the temperature is moderate (25-28) degrees and cools off to 15 at night, but very dry and dusty. They have also attached an annex with two guest rooms and a bathroom to the house it has a separate entrance or can be accessed through our house.
So we hope to host some visitors during our time here.
Most basic food things are available but the store often seems to run out of items or only carries them occasionally so I will have to learn to stock up. Meat is not abundant and fairly expensive.
There is a mission farm that raises cattle and the MAF group buys one occasionally and butchers it themselves...I was able to purchase some of that. Frozen chicken from Brazil is almost always available and occasionally pork chops. For those of you who didn't figure it out yet "Miolo Da Palete" is beef tongue...I haven't cooked it yet. Lots of fresh tomatoes, green pepper, carrots, potatoes, lettuce, bananas, cabbage and even local strawberries. There is a garden here but the soil is very poor and does not grow all that well.
I have a small front load washing machine and a clothes line...everything dries quickly in the warm dry air.
Everything seems to take a little longer to do here, but I am enjoying the time and the slower pace.

In closing afew prayer concerns:
-Continued good health especially Tim he has a number of mysterious bites for which we can't find a cause or a cure...very itchy
-For Barb that she finds ministry opportunties here.
-For the country of Angola as it has its first election in 16 years on Sept 4
-For Tim as he drives in wild traffic to and from the airport.
-For all the pilots and the aircraft of MAF as the transport various medical and missionary teams around Angola

Today, 28th, I was able to go along on a flight taking two Doctors and two Angolan Pastors to the mission hospital at Kuvango. It was a beautiful day and an hour and twenty minutes of flying. The airstrip at Kuvango isn't finished yet so we flew to a nearby strip where a driver picked up our passengers and took them to the hospital, a forty-five minute trip.

To drive to Kuvango would take two days!

The trees are starting to turn green, the rainy season should start soon. The sky is clear but the air is filled with dust and smoke, making everything hazy. Better go for now.

In Lubango!

We have arrived in Lubango Angola! The trip went well, made all of our connections and were met in Windhoek Namibia by Bernie Thiessen (a welcome site) and he took us to Otjari House where we spent Wed. night. He also took us back to the airport and helped us get through the check in etc. for our flight to Lubango.
All of our luggage made the trip, had to leave one box in Windhoek to be picked up later because of weight restrictions on TAAG Airlines. We were a few kilos over as it was but they were so busy that nothing was said.

We are settling into our house/home for three months. Went shopping for some groceries yesterday. Fortunately Basilio was able to drive us around and help with the shopping as speaking Portuguese was a requirement, or at least being able to read the labels. Barb was beginning to wonder when she asked him if he did the grocery shopping for their family and he said "Oh no, I'm not allowed, I don't do it right". We did manage to get enough to get by for a few days, even if some of what we bought wasn't exactly what we thought we were buying. See if you can figure out what "Miolo da Paleta" is when you are at the meat market?
Many things have changed in five years, there are alot more things available in the shops now, but the prices of things have gone up as well. Traffic is many times more difficult than before. I will have to do several more "ride-alongs" before I have the courage to venture out on my own. The city has changed traffic patterns with more one way streets but it is complicated by the fact that many intersections are closed as they are doing construction and renovations to the streets. No street signs yet, everything has to be done by memory and many of the landmarks I used last time have changed or disappeared.

Brent, one of the pilots & next door neighbor, made dinner for us on thurs., we were able to go to pizza night at Dr. Foster's last night (because Dr. Collins offered to drive us) and tonight we are going to a pot-luck weiner roast at Becky's just up the road.

We are still working on our blogging skills, hope to get the hang of adding pictures soon.
More latter,
God's Blessings,
Barb and Tim H.
Lubango, Angola

Checking the lists!

Boxes are being packed and weighed, re-packed, re-weighed, lists checked to see what is missing.
Where did you (I) put that?
All in all the process is progressing nicely. We have made a startling discovery, we have way too much stuff. It is amazing to look at a few pieces of luggage and think that is all we will have for three months. Equally amazing will be looking at the items that we took and didn't use.

Our visas arrived yesterday by Fedex, many prayers of thanks for that. We are off to Vancouver in the morning and to London on Monday.

Back to the packing

Tim H.

Final Preparations!

We are back in Kamloops after two weeks in Alberta travelling between Calgary, Red Deer, Trochu and Edmonton.



Sarah and Mike are married! Wedding details, planning, preparations and the actual wedding had occupied much of our thoughts and time for the past several months.



The day was beautiful and everything went very well. The week following was spent visiting with family that had come from away and relaxing.



Now we are into the final stages (two weeks) of planning and prepartions for our departure for another three month mission in Lubango, Angola with Mission Aviation Fellowship.



What to take? How much will it weigh? What to leave behind? What sort of things to make arrangements for while we are away? Sometimes it seems overwhelming!



Hopefully we will be able to keep family and friends informed via this blog as to how things are going and what is happening once we actually arrive in Lubango. We will advise when new info is added.

With that, I should dig in to some of the things on my ever growing list.



God's blessings,



Tim H.

Kamloops (for now)