Flying off of Rivers - Part Deux

So, after we picked up our patient, we flew her and a nurse to the city of Banjar Masing, located on the south coast of Borneo. But to get there, you gotta dodge the clouds!

Below is the landscape in this southern area; flat with meandering rivers. It is also much more settled, and actually reminds me somewhat of Central Java with all the rice fields in neat rows, cut into what once was all jungle.

Our elderly passenger is helped off the plane with the nurse.

A cool old boat that was at the dock we stopped at.

There is always something or someone interesting going by on these rivers. As soon as I got out of the plane and stood on the float, a couple fishermen floated by.

Getting his net ready to cast. Unfortunately my pic's of him casting were not that focused. It is amazing how hard it is not to get washed out pictures in the hours before & after mid-day. The sun is so high in the sky, either you under expose & can't see anyone's face, or you white out the scenery.

This guy here had good luck and was proud to show me what he caught near the shore. This fishes' head looks like it's on backwards.

Back at home at the floating base! This plane just recently turned 50 yrs old, and is the oldest plane flown by MAF around the world. Nonetheless, these Cessna 185's still do a great job here. In fact, a lot of what you see is probably not the original airplane, as so many parts & pieces get replaced over the years.

Next year this base is hoping to receive a Quest Kodiak on amphibious floats (Amphibious Floats: Floats on a plane that also have wheels so they can land on dry land as well as water...Just don't land on water with the wheels...youtube can provide visual evidence of what happens when folks have tried to do so). I think the guys here are excited to see their base transition into flying a Kodiak , as it can carry a lot more, fly faster & fly further.

Okay, believe it or not, I have even more on Palangkaraya yet to come! More rivers & boats, and less airplanes.

Palangkaraya - Flying off of Rivers

One morning I had the privilege of tagging along with Pilot Sean Cannon on a medivac flight. We went up to a village north of Palangkaraya, picked up an elderly lady, and then flew her to the city of Banjar Masing on the southern coast of Borneo. But let's get to it, as there are many pictures to peruse!!

Here, quite a group of locals greeted the plane at the dock. Although a bit of a somber occasion (as someone was in need of medical attention), it didn't take much more than Sean, myself, an airplane, & a camera to give excuse for lightening the mood so-to-speak. Some of the women here were pretty funny and, shall we say, down right extroverted! Sean was nice enough to lend me his camera and I was able to shoot pictures of what was going on.

Since I was just along for the ride, and had Sean's camera, the hunters became the hunted as I turned the tables and took many pictures of the picture takers! Below are a select few...

Posing with the plane...

Posing with the Pilot...Even if he doesn't know it!

The coolest 5 year old on the dock...

Our patient was an elderly woman, and here they carry her onto the dock to load her into the airplane. I must say I was worried for a few moments as I thought there was a real chance she was going to get dropped in the water, thankfully she was not.  I can't say building codes in Canada would approve of the dock ramp. I think they would have gone for a slightly bigger board.

But hey, one thing you have to learn when living far from Canada, things that were dangerous back home aren't really dangerous here. Danger is relative, it is merely a state of mind. Hand rails and anti-slip tape on a dock ramp? No need, the board works fine. Safety shoes in a construction environment...What are those? I think "safety flip flops" would sell well here. Helmets on a motorcycle? Just for adults, kids can go helmet-less. Idaho doesn't even enforce that one. They have more 'freedom' south of the Canadian boarder to smash their heads however they want to.

Joking aside, people do pretty well here with what they have. I mean, MAF's ministry here would most likely not be needed here if this little village could afford a nice safe dock with proper height hand rails & anti-slip tape. If they had that, they probably would have access to a road worthy ambulance type vehicle that could drive they elderly woman on a half decent road to another bigger town with a small hospital. Of course, there is no ambulance, decent road, or small hospital near by. We are pretty blessed to be on the business end of blessing these people in this way. It still blows my mind to think of all the people and efforts needed for there to be a plane ready to fly in a location such as here. It really is by the provision of God that we are here at all, and we are so blessed that He would use us in this way.

People look on as she is loaded in the plane. This is a moment when you could really read the underlying seriousness of us being there. I'm sure a lot of the folks here are related to the elderly woman, and might not ever see here again alive.

Okay, I have too many pic's so I'm going to make a Part Deux free of charge. Well, not totally free, your internet & electricity costs money...Unless you're at work, in which case you better get back to working...& don't forget to sign your facebook out too.

Yes, I'm going on about nothing, but me thinks the Indonesian Karaoke I currently hear loud & clear in the back ground serenading my evening is affecting my good judgement. We have this quaint little restaurant karaoke type place up the hill from our house, and the sounds just bounce perfectly around our home to make it feel a whole lot closer than it really is...6pm to11pm.  The Karaoke was gone for the month of Ramadan (Holy month of fasting for Muslims) but now it is back with a vengeance! But hey, it's not really a big deal. Further more, Amy and I can now also recognize (by melody) some of "what's popular" in the Indonesian pop music scene:)

Palangkaraya (From the Phone No.6)

Last month I was able to travel to Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan with two other MAF guys. In Palangkaraya MAF has a 'float' base, in that their two Cessna 185 airplanes fly off the river. Not only that, their hangar floats too!

MAF Palangkaraya is Tarakan's sister base, as we are part of the same Kalimantan program. They have quite a neat set up here. Both the office & floating hangar are the product of some serious efforts from people in the previous years, and make MAF's ability to operate here much easier!

Below is the plane affectionately known as "Charlie Brown" (as the last two letters in it's registration are CB). It is float-less as one of it's floats was damaged fairly bad by a big ol' log that was hidden just below the water line in the river. Actually, it was the plane shown above "Charlie Delta" that hit the log, but they switched the floats from one plane to the other because Charlie Brown was getting an engine change. As yes, complicated like day time television!

In fact one of the main reasons we came to Palangkaraya was to get a lesson on fiberglass repair. A Rep from the company that makes the aircraft floats came to Palangkaraya just to help repair the float (that is, in the proper way...as airplanes are a bit more involved that fixing an old canoe).

Below is evidence how hard we were working! Tim made sure we kept on task, he's a bit old school.

It is amazing that they don't damage floats more often here with the amount of debris that goes floating by the hangar everyday!

I am totally new to this area of Borneo, and here rivers are a big part of life. If you look on a map of Southern Borneo, you see numerous rivers meandering throughout vast areas of flat land. From the hangar, it is neat to just watch what might happens to go floating by!

 Below, Sir Isaac Rogers buzzes the hangar as he leaves for a day of flying.

 More to come on Palangkaraya!

Buduk Kubul Part 3

Here are a bunch more pic's of our time in Buduk Kubul...

Group photo!

Above Simon tries out the gongs. About 30 seconds later some guys decided it was time to take them down...go figure.

Simon starring down a water buffalo. Notice the wires going from one house to another, this village uses a communal generator in the evenings for power.

Below Luke plays some soccer with some local kids. After just 24 hrs, Luke new the names of 6 different kids, and was really sad to leave on the plane. It was so cool to see him jump right in and just soak up where he was, and make friends so quickly!

Croc's aren't exactly the best for soccer :)

Charlotte given' er!

"Puppeesh!!"

You don't have to walk far out of town to start getting into the rice fields. Above is a water buffalo soaking up a little mud, and maybe hoping his immediate future does not involve providing delicious meat for the festival.

Above, is the pastor of the local church, and also MAF's rep in Buduk Kubul. He helps get passengers & bags weighed and checked, and also gives daily runway & weather reports to the pilots over the HF radio.

Helena & her new basket walking with Momma.

 Above, some young guys from the village helped carry our bags from the village to the airstrip.

Another nice view of the valley. I was really struck by the lack of garbage here. Often, garbage is an ever-present & unpleasant reality in developing countries. But out here, garbage has a long way to travel to get here. When we left, we were careful to take out whatever we brought in (just like good tree lovin' West Coast Canadians ought to...).

 Here comes our ride home!

 We flew in on a Cessna 206, and it was neat to be able to compare flying out in a Kodiak. Everyone had their own seat, and all our baggage and gifts fit on no problem! On the way in, it was more like sardines in a can and the pilot told everyone to lean forward to get off the ground (just joking). This is the kind of situation you really see the benefits of the Kodiak - being able to land in a spot like Buduk Kubul, yet do a lot more work in one trip!

 Charlotte running to Mom, and Helena is making sure her new basket makes it on the plane.

This is Charlotte's favourite way to fly, and we don't mind a bit!

Buduk Kubul Part 2

This post is a continuation from our last post: Our families experience staying overnight in the small interior village of Buduk Kubul! But I must mention first, this post is a week late as a result of the internet not co-operating with me, and I lost my entire first version of this post into the never never land of internet 1's and 0's. So, without further delay, here is edition 2...

As soon as we arrived to the home we were staying in, these guys below showed up with a still alive Porky Pig strapped to the back of their bike. Food for the feast!

Not more than an hour later, we went over to the village meeting house where Porky Pig was already being prepped for eating. Poor Luke, as soon as he saw the pig, he thought about a nice delicious side of ham, and kept saying, "YUM! It's been so long since I've had ham, I love ham!!"

No, "ham" is not pictured below, but rather 2 plus inches of delicious fat, which just happens to be the prize part of a pig in these parts. Although not my personal favourite (as I used to drive my Mom crazy by pulling every little piece of fat off of any meat I was served), it was so neat to be invited into their homes and places of meeting, and share in the festivities. We met nothing but kind people during our short time here.

Below is one of many "pre-meal" spreads we were fed. It is important in a situation like this to not stuff your face the first opportunity you get, because the next meal 20min.'s later will come and you'll be in hurtin'. We were treated like honoured guests, and it is humbling to have people who don't have that much give so generously.

Below, Luke is peering out the window at a pretty heavy afternoon down pour. It is neat to think of all these items that have been brought in by air to this location over the years...maybe even this window!

Below, cooking over an open fire...how cozy and quaint! Actually, it is the way they role here. Most cooking in Indonesia is done via liquid propane gas, "LPG" (that's what we use in Tarakan, you pay to get bottles filled which are kind of like big BBQ propane bottles). Unless of course you are too poor to afford LPG, or just can't get your hands on it. We knew families in Central Java in language school (which is a much more central location in Indonesia with roads and large populations) who cooked over a open fire on a dirt floor. Here in the interior of Borneo, even if they could afford it , they can't get it. So, this is how they do all their cooking!

Amy and the kids hanging out with the women as they prep some more of Porky Pig's insides :) I must add, a lot of the food served to us was quite tasty.

Above is some of the rice paddies in the valley surrounding the village. Below, Wilburt and Mersi chit chat in the meeting house.

Below, Amy and the girls chatting with some women in their traditional attire. Because we landed late and missed some of the earlier festivities, these ladies got dressed up later in the evening and redid their full presentation for us. Unfortunately, I personally missed it as it was in the wee hours of the morning and I had taken Helena to bed.

More to come!