Greetings to all of you!
It is hard for us to believe that we have been in Lubango for over five weeks already. There are many things happening and the time seems to fly by.
Since we last wrote, we were able complete the 100 hour inspection on the airplane with no major problems. We did have to wait an extra day to do the return to service flight following the inspection as Wednesday the 17th was a holiday here, Heros’ Day, and pretty well everything in the city shut down. Something about “when in Rome do as the Romans do”.
We are waiting for some parts that have been ordered for several “projects” on the airplane. There are some items that need to be changed after so many hours of flying and we are approaching that number.
There is also the emergency locator beacon up-grade to the new style that we are going to start on this week. The aircraft will be available for several days now as we wait for some of the infamous Angolan paperwork to arrive. Permits and inspections by the Angolan Airworthiness Authority seem to be never ending. We are also hoping to figure out a problem with the weather radar system. Fortunately the weather so far has been nothing but clear blue skies day after day after day. Once the rainy season begins, the weather radar is a very important piece of equipment.
Time at the airport get shared between working on the aircraft and working on the vehicles, mostly routine servicing so far but the roads here do take their toll. One of the trucks needs to have a new clutch and rear seal installed. Getting parts here isn’t as difficult as last time but finding the right parts takes some time. We often have to go to several different suppliers to see who might have what we need. When we changed the timing belt on one of the trucks earlier in the month we took the old belt off and took it to the supplier, laid it on the counter and tried new ones until we had a match. No part numbers were involved. Can be challenging trying to get a description of what you want translated into Portuguese and back again. When one of the counter people heard me talking with Basilio in English, he responded in English that the part wouldn’t be in until the following Monday. I told him that his English was pretty good. He responded in perfect English “I would like to apologize for any inconvenience this delay may have caused you.” I’m sure he has had many opportunities to use that line.
Last week we were invited to a BBQ for some buffalo steak. I was excited to think that they would have brought buffalo all the way over here. The light came on when Gary asked if I knew the difference between buffalo (water buffalo) and bison. Water buffalo grilled on an open fire is actually very good.
We have several papaya trees in the compound here, they are the Angolan equivalent of zucchini in Canada, many, many uses but still difficult to give away. Barb even used some to make a curried soup out of that was very tasty. Haven’t convinced her to try making a pie with one yet, we hear that green papaya make a good substitute for apple in pie. The problem is getting shortening or lard to make the crust. We also have mulberries on the compound and we have enjoyed some of those.
Today I, Barb, went to the large city church to help with a seniors program. The regular leader is away for a couple months and I went with Yannie a women from Holland, who volunteered to lead. Four ladies showed up at the hot upstairs room we met in. We had to climb some 20 stairs to to get to the room so you know these ladies were in pretty good shape. We set up chairs and tables set out things for chai and bolo (tea and cake). We started with some exercises, the stairs were our warm up. Next was a a devotion time. A young man came into take pictures, and as he spoke good Portuguese we invited him to finish the reading and then he was invited to share our tea time as well. We finished the time off by trying to do abit of crocheting. I did manage to ask the ladies their names…Victoria, Maria Rosa, Lorinda, and Teresa. They had abit of trouble with my name and finally settled on something like Barbareta. I’m looking forward to going back in two weeks. Yannie and I plan to get together and work on the program abit more.
We have enjoyed some traveling around the last couple of weekends so will try and add a couple of pictures to show some of the country side.
Prayer concerns:
Our Health. There seems to be a nasty tummy flu/infection going around which we have escaped so far. Also it will start raining soon and with rain comes mosquitoes and malaria.
Timely arrival of the parts for the airplane so Tim can complete the work he needs to do.

Kalukembe

This past week ended up being a fairly quiet week with Tim being able to work on a couple things around the house. The airplane inspection that they had planned to do got postponed until this week.
Late Wednesday afternoon Brent asked if one of us would like to ride along with the Drs. to Kalukembe and see the hospital there. They would leave early Thursday and be back Saturday afternoon. Tim encouraged me to go, as it might be the only opportunity I would get this trip. I jumped at the chance. 6:15 a.m. saw us on the way to airport and 8 of us loaded into the MAF airplane for the 45 minute trip. I was beginning to wonder at the speed we were coming into land on the dirt strip until I realized we were doing a flyover to clear the runway of goats and people. A crowd was at the strip to meet the airplane and the hospital personnel took us by road to our Angolan “bed and breakfast”. I had a nice room and comfortable bed with two bathrooms down the hall to share with the rest of the team. There were flush toilets and sinks but no running water most of the time, however large containers of water and usually buckets of hot water morning and evening. Meals were simple bread and jam and coffee or tea for breakfast. A simple soup for lunch and dinner, usually accompanied by rice, noodles and a corn meal mush, as well as either boiled chicken or goat. Condiments were jars of black olives and a very hot spicy relish. I tried it all, but ended up with abit of “Kalukembe tummy” on Friday morning so I stuck to the rice and broth soup or bread. I think I could lose weight on that diet.
After settling in we did a tour of the hospital grounds . I followed the Drs. on rounds to see some of the patients and viewed my first Angolan baby being born. Over the next two days I spent quite abit of time in the surgery watching Dr. Foster with the aide of nurses and students do amazing surgeries under primitive conditions. Here is a partial list of what I saw: bladder repair , orthopedic surgery, removal of tumors, removal of elephantitis skin liesions, dental surgery, prostate surgery, plastic surgery,. The surgery book showed almost 900 surgeries that had been done since January and a good majority had been done by the nurses at the hospital . Dr. Foster is only able to come every couple months and they leave the more difficult cases for him. We had an anethisitist with us who did mostly spinal blocks, but some injected anesthetics as well. The people are very brave and seem to trust the Dr's. I was amazed at the little children that came and how still they would lie as the Dr. performed the procedures. One of the hardest to see was a little 3 year old boy who had fallen into the fire and had severe burns on his head and face. Dr. Foster has been working on plastic surgery for him over the past year. They see many things at this hospital that we would not see in Canada because the people often do not come until things are quite severe. One young women had a ovarian cyst the size of a soccer ball another young women a benign breast tumor the size of my two fists.

I was also able to watch Dr. Bently -Taylor as he taught students and tested people for cardiac problems. He comes every six months and has arranged for some of children to have heart surgery back in Canada.
The three days were a very stretching time for me, spiritually and emotionally but I learned so much and I am so glad I went.
Our friends that we met here last time Gary and Tammi Goertzen have just returned , from Alberta. We are glad to have them here. Tammi and I are going out tommorow so she can show me where to buy some things that I need.

Tim has just returned home from the airport and they completed most of the inspection already today. Thank you for all your prayers for that. It is taking much less time than he had anticipated.

Prayer Request:

For successful repairs to our power generator

Building of strong and supportive relationships between the missionaries in Lubango

For leadership and future direction for MAF in Angola

Dinner and a Movie

This week was an historic one in Angola as elections were held for the first time since 1992 and only the second time in it’s history. There were many preparations in the days leading up to Friday’s election. Some things are universal, many improvements to roads and public services by the government are evident around the city. Last week the president came for a visit and there was an even greater flurry of activity.
There was some apprehension leading up to the election as the last time it triggered fierce fighting between rival parties that lasted for ten years. The actual day here in Lubango was one of the quietest days we have seen since we arrived. Everything was closed, even the outdoor markets, and the taxis didn’t even operate! When we went out later in the day the streets were almost empty.
We did venture out with our friend Dr. Steve Collins who has lived here for much of his life on what started out as a visit to see his home in the village of Humpata about 20 kilometers from here. After a few quick cell phone calls, we were on our way to see the house that the Holden’s are building, a very winding and rough road to a site overlooking the city. Next stop, after having taken on three additional passengers and a dog, was Steve’s home in Humpata where we got to see his small farm. He has about five acres that his guard/farmer looks after for him. He has many types of crops in small areas, wheat, corn, potatoes, several varieties of fruit trees, vegetables, carrots, onions, lettuce, broccoli and so on. It is all done by hand and watered every Monday by a series of ditches and little dams.
Next we proceeded on to Edson and Esther’s home just beyond Humpata for tea with Dr. Steve Foster and his wife Peggy and the visiting heart surgeon from Toronto and his wife. When they had left, we were invited to stay for dinner and a movie on the computer. Esther and her brothers Paul and Jonathan and Jonathan’s dog Rex were our additional passengers.
The plane was in Windhoek for most of the week to pick up Dr. Bently –Taylor, the visiting heart surgeon from Toronto. Basilio and I used that time to do some repairs on one of the Toyota trucks that we use for transportation here. We finished up in time for Basilio to use it to restock the diesel fuel supply here at the compound and to haul water to the hangar before election day.
Brent returned from Windhoek on Thursday with the Dr. and his wife, numerous boxes of medicines and supplies, some cheese for Barb (hard to find here at a reasonable price) and thirty kilos of grass seed for seeding the new airstrip at the mission farm at Tchincombe.
Monday we begin a 100 hour inspection on the airplane, so I will be busy at the airport most of the week.
Prayer Concerns: That all goes smoothly for the 100 hour inspection
Safe Return of the Goertzen family from Canada; leaving Monday arriving Thursday.

Views around and about

Saturday August 30 we headed out to a farm (following Brent) to get vegetables. They were nice and fresh and a better price than we could get in the city. After Brent left us we ventured on up the road abit to see some more of the country and later into town for our first shopping trip on our own...we are getting bolder. I even managed to bargain for a fair price on a pineapple.

The jacaranda trees we see blossoming every where. They are beautiful and they say when they bloom it is only one month until the rains come. Everyone is looking forward to that it is so dry and dusty here, it is a fine dust that covers everything. I understand the need for foot washing in Jesus time when I wear sandals in this country.

Sunday we went to church with our friend Becky. She teaches a Sunday School class of children so I went with her when they were dismissed. We met in a mud house about 10x12 with a dirt floor and only the chairs that children brought for themselves or rocks they could find to sit on. At the end of of the class Becky asked me to pray assuring the children God would understand me in English even if they didn't. Tim stayed in the church where he listened to a sermon in Imbudo translated in to Portuguese, followed by a along explanation of the process for voting in the upcoming election , also in both languages. We also took our own lawn.chairs to church as there are only a few rough narrow plank benches to sit on. I'll include a couple of the Sunday School pictures.
Prayer Concerns:
Thanksgiving for Tim's bites healing and no new ones
Continued safety in traffic
Peaceful election on Sept 5.
Opportunities to show love to local people with sensitivity