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.
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.
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