... gloriously exciting!

There is something gloriously exciting about anticipating ones next Chad assignment, sitting in the back of the relative comfort of seat 34J, the the drone of the Air France Airbus 330's General Electric turbines is almost soporiphic, as behemoth marches rapidly across the black Libyan star strewn skies. It creates a certain reflective mood that encourages one to trawl through countless memories of this staggeringly beautiful nation. Images that bring a smile, yet it is a land so harsh, so so generous and yet so unforgiving. My 15 assignments over the last 10 years have meant I have lived here for over a year in this little known part of sub-Saharan Africa. 

The Tibesti Mountains that stretch up to over 11000ft.

Perhaps one region that has the greatest memories is that of the Tibestis, home to the Teda people, protectors of some of the oldest early history rock art in Africa. This ancient people traded with Romans, fought with the Touaregs and many other 'visitors' they call them the Mountains of Hunger, much of it is seemingly uncrossable and it takes days to traverse by foot yet only a couple of hours in our small MAF aircraft. They are a unique stark silent volcanic range of stone that soar into the clear blue skies of the north, they beckon you benignly into their bosom but when the rare rains come they are anything but safe as their steep, rough cascading slopes a thousand shades of black and brown, carved by generations of storms and rock falls that have created a land devoid of flat, that given half a chance will throw up turbulence into your path that will rattle your very soul. Entry is invited only after you have plodded your aerial Caravan*across the gloriously golden desert, a gigantic ocean of stationary swells, punctuated by the rare oasis, a port of calm refreshment. Thinking about the delightful aristocratic snooty look of your average Chadian camel brings out ones biggest grin. 

Here there is a real contrast between the silver and gold sands but at times it is just gold stretching unto gold.

Possibly Harrow educated?

An earlier blog tells more but surprisingly beautiful

Where else can you travel hundreds and hundreds of miles to find a work of art that involved 30 tons of paint, seen by perhaps a 100 art lovers a year (near Bardai) or be invited to haul up cool refreshing water from a hole in the desert floor, munch on warm crispy breakfast flat bread freshly pealed off the wall of a wood smoke caked oil drum oven. Sit under a palm in the cooling air of the setting sun, eavesdropping on translated conversations that tell of tales of desert smugglers, talk of the sometimes failure or rescue from certain dehydration and death of their cargoes. There is something beautiful about being greeted by the Elders and sitting quietly with the men sipping sweet sweet tea under a tree visiting a bereaved family, not really understanding what is going on but knowing it is the right place to be.

The Airbus bounces through some turbulent air...  driving through a sandy river bed the harsh gritty sand suddenly turns to micro-fine dust, we are enveloped in a storm of 'talcum powder' and our truck sends a dust cloud that rises in a plume, that surely must bring darkness to the earth. Such choking laughter as we exit this fog, looking like millers, feeling that we are adventurers who have traveled the world, and lived life to the full.

The author enjoying the worlds largest open air museum?

Touching the sandstone carvings hundreds of years of age, tell of the days of plentiful water, elephants, leopards, cattle. All have gone save the lone gazelles, hardy goats and countless date palms that sip from the underground waters on the wadis that keep them sustained. Sadly the palms suffer much neglect as people have moved on, perhaps new wealth from Tibesti gold will discourage many more to further forget their heritage. 

I remember driving through this minefield last year, keep the red stones on your left or is it right? But the burnt out car gives a clear clue to the correct answer.

The village had once had maybe 1500 people in it 20 years ago but a forgotten war drove them away and they never really came back. The greeting from an old soldier worn an aged by years of drought was wonderful, I doubt he was really any older than myself, when I asked I explained I had once completed 4 months as an RAF officer cadet, this seemed to make an old soldier to and a bond of friendship was made. He gave us this granular slightly sticky mix, marginal in looks but ambrosia - ground up dates and grain the taste danced on the tongue, the stewardess collected my tray, I will never remember the flavour of the bland cheese she served but those dates are surely a real smiling memory.

Two of my passengers overlooking a wadi.

MAF fly in Chad and bring help, hope and healing to all who ask. 

* the aircraft I fly is the Cessna 208 Grand Caravan, a name designed to evoke images of the Camel trade routes of Marco Polo. 

The BVLGARI of the air? Jet A-1 the way to go

As a 'part time' mission bush pilot who is not based in one particular country but has the privilege of helping out on several programs, when they are short of crew. I usually travel between assignments  el cheapo!' But I have to confess that I have received several times from BA and Emirates the  occasional up grade or the chance to use my air miles to move up and get a good nights sleep on a bed and Emirates are the bees knees at providing a very comfortable bivouac and they also give you a great overnight bag containing various men smells by BVGARI which are excellent.

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, quite like catching the scent of a turbine engine's exhaust fumes drifting on the the early morning air, of what is to become a glorious summers day. So I can but recommend, if you ever get a chance to stand downwind of a turboprop as it starts it's engine, seize the day, stand fast, stop, listen, sniff as you are in for a real treat, especially if it is a PT-6.  The sound of the engine spooling up as bursts into life and struggles to get the prop spinning, the engine notes move through the octaves, from a reverberating low growl to a high pitched whine followed by that delicious fragrance, oh so sweet, with perhaps caramel overtones.

Author with the magic liquor and his mount in the background in Pala, Chad

Jet A-1 is wonderful stuff, the fuel of choice for civilian commercial jets and also for an increasing number of Mission Aviation Fellowship's (MAF) fleet of over 130 aircraft. Whilst av-gas, a form of 100LL petrol is used in the piston powered Cessna 206 and Gippsland Airvan's and the last few 185 floatplanes, some of the the 206s are being phased out to either be replaced by piston Airvans or by our increasing fleet of turbine powered aircraft. This is made up of the incredibly kapable  Kodiak, consistent Caravan and somewhat surprisingly the small 4 seat diesel engined 182. We also fly the Twin Otter, King Air & PC-12.

Jet A-1 is much cheaper than the petrol equivalent, more readily available and safer. It is clear to straw coloured liquid, that unburnt smells pretty disgusting, makes your hands smell and tastes little better, no don't suck Jet fuel out with your mouth if you wish to syphon off the tanks of your 747. Though the fuel burns well in your hurricane lamp. It has a flash point of 38C, freezes at -47C and if you burn it out in the open the flames are about 300C but is essentially quality paraffin or kerosene.

In fact according to St .Wikapedia, the fount of all generally reliable info, this is for all you chemists out there, suggests the combustion reaction can be approximated as follows, with the molecular formula C12H26 (dodecane):
2 C12H26(l) + 37 O2(g) → 24 CO2(g) + 26 H2O(g); ∆H˚ = -7513 kJ

If you burn 5* Jet A-1 (RP-1) with liquid oxygen you can put your friendly Saturn V rocket into orbit! But my Jet A-1 does nicely in my 675shp PT-6 and drive sit along at abut 150kts and gets me in an rout of some tricky places with some amazing people making a real difference... bringing help hope and healing to many very remote communities around the world.

Leaving fuel in Bol for the very frugal diesel 182

However I use natural oxygen to power my Cessna 208 and the higher the better (usually around 9-12000ft) and it powers my chariot reliably. We burn about 300lb's an hour so you have 1000 litres in the 5 barrels in the photo above. Which will keep going for about 6hrs or 900 miles!

These donkeys would need to bring me about 8 jerry cans an hour! Actually I was dropping off fuel for the 182 in Bol, western Chad by the shores of Lake Chad.

                                           

 This 1979 Cessna 182 had it's old petrol/av-gas engine removed and a new diesel engine put in it's place, this SMA diesel burns paraffin and consumes a very frugal 35 litres of cheap Jet A-1. Cessna now do a brand new aircraft with the SMA installed at the factory, lovely machine but it is not cheap!

                                                  

Perhaps one of the most select pieces of art work in the world.

Surely, this is one art gallery only the hardiest of travellers, will ever see...

If you had 5 months to spare, 30 tonnes of paint and enjoyed being creative when the temperatures rise into the 50's, degrees C that is! What would you paint?  In 1989 Jean Verame used the huge natural 'amphitheatre' of magnificent rocks around Ehi Kourne a few miles outside of Bardai, some miles north of the Tibesti Mountains in northern Chad, due south of Libya.  Using a spray gun, the blessing of the Chadian President and some helpers one would imagine, he turned a selection of khaki sandstone rocks into a kaleidoscope of colours from a gorgeous deep blue, spectacular purple, coral pink, to a crisp carbon black and snowy white.  http://www.jeanverame.com/anglais/video.php

The spectacular blue is now only visible beneath some of the small stones that make up several of the more individual pieces of patterned stone work but the huge rocks and boulders the core of the image remain.  Shades of ghostly whites and pink for all to see, despite 34 years of searing sun, freezing winter nights and the driving blasts of the Harmattan sands.  These strangely beautiful set of rocks may have lost their virginal crispness but they have gained the weathered beauty, the patina of age, their mystique is perhaps barely noticed by locals and yet is admired by a handful of tourists that journey each year through this remote region through one of the world's incredible art galleries. I wonder how long though Jean's art will last?

'Down the road' south of Bardai are some rock carvings, scratched into the soft sandstone,  a leagacy of times past, showing animals that are no longer seen in this neck of the woods, elephants, leopards and cattle. Despite billions of gallons of water hiding below the desert surface, this is now a world where only date palms, and the hardiest of animals survive Addax, Dorcas and Rhim gazelles to name a few. These carvings are found all over the Sahara in the soft sandstone, an eternal parchment telling tales of times past, of changed climates of perhaps happier times. All are unsigned, many are hundreds, some thousands  of years old. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibesti_Mountains

I wonder what kind of legacy we will leave behind? Perhaps it will be a thing of beauty that will still be talked about 25 years on, or maybe like William Wilberforce, I saw a play about his life recently, it will be more enduring. 

I am on day 18 of a 42 day project reading Rick Warren's 'What on Earth am I here for ? (Zondervan 2013). It is thought provoking and one is reminded - What will I leave behind? What is my legacy? Ummm now that is food for thought.

'Dad I want a job like yours where I don't have to work for a living.'

Some years ago my son looked up with his usual grin and said in all seriousness, 'When I'm older Dad I want a job like yours, you know, where I don't have to work for a living!'

I guess one is apt to groan at the work word but equally if for whatever reason there is no work the groan then penetrates the very heart but I guess the term paid employment & no choice perhaps have something to do with our general dislike of the word.

I think I can safely say I have the best work/job/employment in the world, after all they give me a working aircraft  and a tank of fuel and say go do something useful - actually those are my words.  Apart from when I have to fulfil the occasional paperwork requirement from a ground based office somewhere or other - now that is work, I have loved doing/living it for the last 21 years. 

Generally I have a paper free office, though the old joke about aircraft can only fly when the weight of the paperwork equals the weight of the aircraft still exists. My offices have been able to look after between 3-12 passengers, cruise at between 100-150kts and at various times been able to operate on land and sea and all with one engine.  

There have been times when I have groaned at the occasional 0400 wake-up call from the alarm in Chad, the prospect of fitting what looks like a 1000kg of freight into a space built for only a smidgen over 500, the fitful nights sleep in the tropical heat whilst camped out in the back of my 208, the shiver of cold water trickling down my back on the cool rainy season pre-flight in Uganda and my helplessness sometimes in the face of hopelessness.

The mobility of my office is second to none!

But when the truth is told, this is work as it was meant to be, a delight.  Ah you see there is nothing quite like an early morning departure, the smells and sounds of the African dawn still lingering in ones memory as the airfield boundary slips away behind you; a bumpy approach in a stiff cross-wind, ones dancing on the rudder pedals caressing 4 tonnes of slippery Alumium and people into a shortish rough dirt strip on a wet day in Karamoja; or the delight at seeing missionary youngster (MK) throwing his arms around his mum's neck when he's returned home from boarding school. Umm.... memories, so many.

Sometimes 3hrs into a long flight the desire for leg stretch become almost over whelming; equally 4hrs on, on a day full of very unhappy weather with another 7hrs more to be added to it, you think being somewhere else might be nice. But as the days events roll on, you realise where else do you get a chance to give a gift of a blessing to your passengers, put a reasuring hand on a medi-vac patient before departure or spend an hour, a day, a night, with some amazing people, doing some incredible stuff in some unbelievably remote places?
Perhaps it is only when your work takes you to to some sad sad places, you realise how privileged you are, doing something you want to do, are called to do, can do, then do do and do with a passion.

I was amazed to see there are over 50 jobs going around the world in Mission Aviation Fellowship. I cannot believe we have so many gaps for numerous managers of all types, about 5 accountants - there cannot possibly be a shortage of accountants can there, suspect we would consume all the engineers (aircraft) we could find, and as for christian avionics engineers they are almost almost as rare as a few grains of Astatine!

My bonus is I get to then talk about my work to pilots, rotarians, school children, non MAF people, MAF supporters, actually any one who asks me and anyone who will listen!

Contact bryan.pill@maf.org.

Also on Face Book and just about on twitter!

 ...the life of a bush pilot the last great truly civilised job in the world!

Lake Bol by diesel 182

So to give you an idea of what it is like in operation last month I had a chance to fly to Bol on Lake Chad with Andrew to pick up an amazing lady who works as a mid-wife in this area.

This last few weeks we have had the opportunity in the UK to show off the latest gift from MAF's loyal and generous supporters, a diesel powered 4-seat Cessna 182, MAF's newest and smallest tool to be added to our toolbox. Hard to believe we have around 135 aircraft operating in over 30 countries all involved in bringing help, hope and healing to whoever needs it. In fact this is our 6th diesel powered Cessna182, the others being stationed in Madagascar, Chad, Angola (2) and DRC. This airframe is the same age as the Chad aircraft having been built in 1979 so it's hardly new, yet it has a beautiful paint job, is really well equipped but best of all has a diesel engine built by SMA - Societe de Motorisations Aeronautiques.

Petrol when sold for piston aircraft is called av-gas, for our piston engined aircraft we use a particular brew called 100LL (low lead), made to a specific fomula, it is expensive and difficult to find in some of the remote places we fly.  However Jet fuel, called Jet A-1, kerosene/paraffin to lesser mortals, the same stuff our turbine Caravan burns, as does your favorite wide bodied jet, is very much cheaper, more plentiful and hence easy to find in most countries of the world, is the stuff burnt in diesel engines. 

So Jet fuel-paraffin is cheap compared with Av-gas, more environmentally friendly and a safer fuel. This machine 227hp machine burns about 2/3rd of the fuel of the avgas powered version so fully fuelled it can carry a bladder busting 9.5hrs of fuel travelling at 110kts (110nm an hour) you can go a fair old distance in this machine and because aircraft, subject to pilot, go in straight lines that makes for a lot more economy, than your average Toyota or Land Rover bouncing on a circutous routes at 30mph on the nearest track below you!

So this will be jaunting around the UK in June and July before heading for Juba in South Sudan.

Despatches from the desert at 12°6′N 15°2′E

...the door swings gently on it's worn hinge, touched by a morning zephyr, the hard earned heat flees from our mud brick hut into the cool dawn air, the fragrance of wood smoke wends its way into our sleeping bags, the scent of morning, a new day's dawn is upon us. African sunrises are glorious and the 

smokey dusk fires are a sure and certain clue that 'cooking is a foot'*, a cooking of the most delicious kind; fresh bread. Each morning our b'fast revolves around us men sitting cross-legged on a mat enjoying each others company, a bowl of hot sugared milk (with coffee) and a stack of freshly made crispy brown 'Tandori style' flat circular sour dough bread 'loaves' and this morning an invite had been extended to come, watch, smell taste and enjoy.

It was an honour to be invited into the outside kitchen to see the experts transform a soggy paste into a work of art. The women chattered laughing together whilst children looked on, no doubt apprentices in waiting. A hand full of fermented dough is taken out of a pot prepared a few hours earlier and with remarkable dexterity it is needed and spun into a dinner plate sized disc, which is then stuck to the wall of a very hot preheated fuel drum that is buried in the kitchen sand, embers from a fierce fire of date palms and scavenged wood glow happily in the bottom of the barrel, and when the drum lid is put in  place another fire is is kept alight on the lid as per the photo. Then experience kicks in as no oven timers can be seen, 7 minutes later with only one short look, the bread is ready - voila`. With care one is able keep all ones fingers to avoid the flashing knife scraping off some of the embers and sadly some of the crunchy bread and snitch a few pre-b'fast morsels and child hood memories flood back as one is reminded of how good fresh kitchen gleanings taste. 

Whilst looking at some goats nibbling at nothing in a wadi, a chance conversation, which I did not understand, with a passer-by resulted in a warm and friendly invitation to come and see his garden. It truly was a oasis in a dry and parched land, beautiful full of lettuce and other salad like vegetation. What I loved about Hassan was his total enthusiasm for what he was doing, which was linguistically incomprehensible yet totally understandable.

The secret apart from his passion for growing and hard work was the well. The desert waters were sitting, resting, waiting little more than 10 feet down and once the 'nodding donkey' brought them to the surface,  they took on a new life as the bucket of clear crisp cool water, gurgled it's way merrily down the channels to the various metre square garden beds, bringing refreshment and growth wherever they went.

Water and bread are the two physical things that will keep you alive in the desert. Interesting what the book written by John had to say on the subject, in John 7:37 Jesus says "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.' and then in John 6:35 he said 'I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.'

There is a quote by Bear Grylls on the back of THE MANUAL (Bible notes for Men, available from Amazon) that says 'powerful personal and relevant - it has helped me alot to live my faith day by day.' that applies to the Manual as well as to John's writings.

* a vague allusion to Sherlock Holmes

A new day dawns, time for a pre-flight

The light from the milky way was glorious, one could almost read by the brightness of the stellar lights, the air was cooling rapidly and starting to get chilly,  as I pulled the sheet around my neck.  Lying in my mosquito tent (to protect from scorpions and other things) looking upwards through the gauze counting the uncountable.  The gentle whisper & rustle of the desert winds through the date palms was a soothing lullaby...

Twilight was upon me as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, stretched, remembered where I was and sat up. The cool of the brand new day is truly wonderful in Africa.  I fumble with the zip on the canopy, check carefully that my flying boots were empty of any little visitors, in the dull morning light. Shave and freshen up, already the dawn's golden sun is lighting up the skyline. I took a short walk,  then saw if there was a cup of tea ready, as I could hear chatter, coughs and woodsmoke wafted across the little dirt courtyard, I was ready for the day. Well almost...

Already the morning air is warming up fast, it's a turbulent trip weaving around rocky outcrops on the moonscape before a wild ride over the yellow desert sands, as we head out to the aircraft which I had abandoned into the hands of some soldiers camped up for the night in the Sahara.

WATCH

The pre-flight is essential  when you have a days flying ahead of you, even more so when the days work is going to take you over mountains, surely some of the roughest terrain in the world. You need to know the aircraft is at it's best, that all is well and it is ready for the day ahead.  So electrics, fuel oil, integrity of the aircraft structure are all checked at and all the bits of aircraft that should move - do, and those that shouldn't - don't.

Before I head out to the airstrip though I do need to do my own personal pre-flight yup teeth cleaned, hair combed well what is left of it and visit to the restroom/loo/hole in the ground. Then despite at times the temptation to skip it and press on, I take a short time out to collect my thoughts together. This I do in conjunction with 'The Manual', a compact book that I have found really useful and enjoyable (available from CVM or Amazon), it has a short undated thought for the day, a simple prayer and it's just part of my pre-flight. 

I also keep a 'moleskin' journal that I jot down any thoughts that might be worth returning to at a later date, along with the Manual, I have a nifty little Gideon's New Testament. Essential tools for any man* to have in his flight bag, along with my charts and other other useful stuff.

So trust you enjoyed todays blog, travel well.

* or woman, you may want to find a different set of thoughts for the day

Father Christmas explains why he flies with MAF in the off season

You may well have read this blog earlier in the year, it seems only 66 of you did so I felt it was worthy of a release at a more seasonal time.

Greasing a sled onto a steeply pitched roof top with 35kts of cross wind, at night, in driving snow would make even Biggles blanche but it  is all part of one evenings work for this man commonly called Father Christmas, St Nick or Santa Claus by his friends and followers. But what about the 'day job'? I had often wondered what it was that  he did during the other 364 days of the year. Some would say he spent his time  repairing and making new toys, others until they saw these remarkable photo's suggested that he spent time at his local Greenlandic Health spa, not so, whilst he looks pretty trim and sprightly for a man of his years, he assured me that it was the cut of his shirt and the sky blue that has always made him look thin. 

Well what about the day job? Here is the answer...

It was over a year ago that I met what I consider must surely be the world's most experienced pilot ever, this bush pilot extrordinaire then it was in an undisclosed part of Africa. So it was to my amazement that I have for the 2nd time met my child hood hero, only this time in an environment even more bizarre, one of  Harmittan's, dust storms, heat, rainy seasons that even Noah would have enjoyed and scorching sun that will boil an egg before you can say 'Bob's your Uncle! Well this world is all part of FC's day time employment. 

'So you work for MAF,' I asked, 'Sure do, Mission Aviation Fellowship, greatest flying job in the world,' his voice roared back at me, eyes grinned with a sparkle from under bushy eyebrows, his weather beaten bronzed skin, all seemed at odds with his some what full snowy white beard! "Well we fly these small aircraft, there are about 135 of them, based in over 30 different countries, each able to bring help hope and healing to some of the remotest communities  in the world, we partner with lots of organsations and it is great getting to know some remarkable people and supporting them in their work. Sometimes it feels like Christmas Eve every day." he laughed loud and long as if this comment touched a memory. 

The Final despatch from 12°6′N 15°2′E.

Well my next assignment is back to Uganda at the week-end. So I thought I would get my Final Despatch from 12°6′N 15°2′E, aka N'djamena in Chad, down onto paper. 

Here in Guernsey we are having our runway re-surfaced and I guess they may being doing a few other things to the tune of £80+million and in Alderney there is debate about whether to keep their grass runway operational - my answer is; when there are minimal sea links the answer this is a no brainer, keep it open!

In MAF we have some interesting rwy surfaces! Actually before landing we run through a little mnemonic. 

WIND LASSO

Wind direction, strength. Is it gusty, what about the x-wind, tailwind.

Length - but can you use it all? Any new ant hills, heavy rain, unexpected pond on left side, can all
               shorten it and make it seem some what shorter thn the last time you came!

Altitude - If it is hotter than 'normal' it's as if the airstrip is now higher than it was and therefore you 
               need more rwy. So a cold morning arrival can mean the airstrip seems to have shrunk 
               somewhat when it comes to a noon departure at 45C!

Surface - dry season nice.  Wet season, soggy, slippery and unusable! Watch out black cotton soil can 

              catch out the unwarry, as it has a crust that you can break through. Is the sand carved up by
              big aircraft bad news!

Slope - are you landing up hill, down hill or with gentle side slope?

Obstacles - In the tropic things grow ever so fast, holes appear - caused by wart hogs, ants, termites. 

              There may be some animals crossing, thinking of crossing and those who are not thinking 

              about crossing but will anyway!

Rather nice Congo airstrip

Don't assume, check it out. Not a bad attitude to life really.

Here sand is the surface of choice and the golden vista can make even finding the airstrip tricky and after a few heavy lift transports have been in and out the surface resembles a soft beach and great care must be taken ideally to find the firm stuff and not to come to a halt on the soft sand as hauling it the out, is really hard work. Here I am pulling the aircraft, off the strip onto a harder rocky surface for overnight parking. 

In the south the rains have been very good and grass is appearing all over the place. After rain the top cm can be very slick and can involve quite alot of dancing on the rudder pedals to hold the aircraft in a straight line when landing. Even areas that are rarely green this have a verdant tinge and rivers start to flow and over flow making drivable tracks and roads unpassable, cutting off communities. 

The rains keeps the frangipani, donkies and crimson breasted bee-eaters happy though!

Sand causes some wear and tear on the paint work and here the Caravan is getting a check out. Note the oil cooler on the left. The rains keep the aircraft clean!

A few reports from 12°6′N 15°2′E. Mentioned in dispatches No 2

Here are a few more notes from my knee board from my last flying assignment in Chad. It was my 9th assignment there but my first time during the rainy season and this year it seemed to be a really wet one.

Incredible, after several hundred miles of desert I spot some 8000ft below me fresh water,  no plant life visible. Amazing!

I land in Faya Largeau, a desert out post, an oasis of greens and golden roads, it has an old and very large tarmac runway built by the military once upon a time, laid forever on the on desert lands. The French military occupy an amazing fort that looks like a Beau Geste film set, with the possibility of Gary Cooper about to enter screen right at any moment!  The deserts sands are so so beautiful, so soft and the aureolus grains tumble through the fingers like water. The date palms know where the life giving water  is and it is they that have helped establish this rocky green Island in the desert ocean where the crystal clear liquid freely breaks through to the surface providing a safe haven for all and sundry from the crippling effects of the fierce sun but the sandy tide is eager to swamp and engulf the town. Probably half the buildings are already submerged under tons of sand and many a 30ft palm has only the top 15ft showing! The old prison, guillotine block stands as a reminder of days past, I reluctantly use this old photo of myself in 2007 below (all the rest are from a few months ago) but the arch  makes the point rather well ...

In another oasis we find some amazing carvings on the sandstone showing Ostriches, cattle, elephants and a Cheetah. Just below FC's hand. None of which can be found probably within over 400 miles of here. The desert has claimed much territory for it's own. As an aside there  is a story about the bearded bod, so you best see slightly earlier blogg.

Gateau de Semoule, Salmon riz legumes and Tajine d'agneau, the french military rations are tres bon. Cooking a Le Bistro meal under the milky way in Simon and Anju's small rough court-yard was alot of fun. These are two amazing young Swiss folk who are running a langauge centre just down the road from Le bistro! A mere 6 nights & 7 days drive from the capital or about 1700km, though only 5 hours by Caravan, when I say Caravan I mean 208 rather than Camel!

Their job description must be very varied as we 
brought up a simple but rather clever life saving 
device that passes an electric current through a snake
or scorpion bite. Here Simon is treating a delightful 
localman who was stung by a scorpion that he had 
thought was a mouse! These guys are incredibly 
tough by  our standards and so to say this sting 
hurts is an understatement. The treatment made a 
dramatic  difference and it was the fourth person in 
the one week they had had the device that 
they had treated. The sting often reduces people to 
unconscious and in Faya will often kill their victims.

Flew some folk down to Moundu and overnighted at the TEAM Guest House. Went into a shop in that was quite well stocked, to look for supper,  though if you count the number of actual different items available it is food for thought.
It reminded me of a previous trip in Chad when I had an unexpected night stop and I was able to buy a 1.5 litre bottle of water and a pack of sour cream pringles for my evening meal, a balanced diet!

David Ott 

Here is one of our smaller pilots Jim Le Huray with David, his wife a medical Dr and small girls and their home school teacher and a nurse. They have work for Cooperation Service International have been in Ati 4 years. They are typical of the sort of people we fly, enthusiastic warm hearted and eager to make a difference to the people they work alongside. Rather like this quote David made “MAF has been a huge blessing to us, it’s been a life line to our work out here. Especially during the rains when they are the only way to get food and medicine and to get us in and out of our home and for work, we are thankful for the partnership. We have worked with about 6 different pilots over this period and just want to thank-you as they have been a huge blessing to our work both professionally and personally”

Whilst waiting for the weather to clear in N'djamena I had a chance to do a spot of weeding! I have pounded grain, dug ditches, shot bows and arrows, seldom can one call 'Flying for Life' with MAF dull! 

It was hot, the ground was thirsty despite the rain, the people grinned. Mother seemed happy to have 5 mins break as I snapped the weeds and we laughed together. For me it was fun and a photo, for them it was a lively hood and a full stomach.