Flying Boats, Floating Boats, Weddings, Anniversaries, and a Bunch of Cool Critters

In our last newsletter, we shared that we made a trip to South Africa.  Dave was able to coincide his required flight physical and some dental work with a helicopter training class we attended as part of doing disaster response in Mozambique.  Here are few more cool photos I didn’t have room for in our newsletter. There is more than one way to fly a boat!

Rescue Boat as a sling load under the helicopter

Dave helping fit the same boat into a Kodiak

Jill calling in the helicopter to our position

Getting out of the helicopter while hovering on a hillside

The location of the training was near The Kruger Park so we decided to do a little safari over the weekend.  We had never stayed in the park overnight, which is the only way you can do a night drive or a bush walk (you are required to stay in your car except for in designated locations) so we decided to reserve a bungalow for the night.  We had a nice day driving the park, but unfortunately, in the evening it began to rain and our night drive was cancelled.  Our morning bush walk was also cancelled but because we were already in the park, we were able to start driving around just as it was getting light and see some animals you don’t normally get to see.  This is the first time we visited the park and seen all of the “Big Five” (elephant, cape buffalo, rhino, lion, and leopard) in one visit.  We also saw quite a few birds species we had never seen before (which if you read our blog, you know is super fun for us!).  We saw more hyenas than we had ever seen before, including two moms that were nursing young ones in the middle of the road.  We saw a pack of them around a kill, fresh with drool after feeding.

Nursing hyena

After-dinner smile

Bushbuck and baboon

Carmine Bee-eater

Croc showing off his teeth

Elephant family on a walk

Grey heron on a hippo with bonus yellow-billed stork and crocodile

Kori Bustard

Lion just visible in the opening of the brush

Saddle-billed stork

Before we saw the leopard, we saw the kill it had pulled up into a tree.  Afterwards we saw the massive cat chilling in the brush.

Hiding in the brush

The kill in the tree above

In April I went to Haiti to help with a security training.  I have to say that Haitian food is some of the best!  They should totally have Haitian restaurants all over the place.  Here are a few more pics from that trip that didn't make the newsletter:

This tap tap (public transport) wins the artistic award

Getting a flight on the MAF plane

A view of the mountains and Port-au-Prince 

 

Our colleagues, Maninho and Celsa got married in May.  Dave helped with some of the setup before hand and I got to be the photographer.  Our colleagues, Dave and Gerd were the padrinhos (sort of like godparents that have a mentor role) and played a large part in the wedding.  The first ceremony was the civil service where government representatives conduct a service that makes the marriage official in Mozambique.  The second ceremony was the religious ceremony conducted by a pastor.  It was a beautiful day out at Nairuco celebrating our friends.

In June we celebrated our 23^rd anniversary.  We went to Ilha de Moçambique (Mozambique Island) with some colleagues whose anniversary is they day before ours (they are ahead of us by quite a few years so we aspire to be like them!).  We enjoyed walking around the island, the beautiful beach scenery, island architecture, sunsets, and the fresh seafood (delicious tuna steak). 

The home-made sails are a beautiful patchwork

As I mentioned in our newsletter, the MozMed flying doctor project has resumed.  Dave has enjoyed playing with the kids while the doctors conduct their clinics.  The kids love looking at their reflection in the prop hub.  It is interesting to think that most of them don’t have mirrors and don’t get to see themselves very often.  He takes video clips on the ipad and they love watching the older videos and pointing out the people they know. 

Our house remodel continues and Dave has been doing a lot of electrical and plumbing work.  We are hoping to get moved back into soon. Dave designed a cool concrete counter-top embedded with rocks for our bathroom.

Working on sanding and polishing the counter-top

New roof, carport, and addition that has been added to the house

Dave always has a project going to fix something and he spent quite a bit of time working on our washing machine.  It has a bad bearing but apparently this model was not meant to be taken apart.  Dave rigged a pulley system to be able to get it apart and see what could be done. 

Jet is growing quick and getting smarter.  He can sit, shake, and will lay down (but is delayed enough that I’m not 100% sure he gets it completely).  Poor guy got a wound on his head and with some advice from a vet I bought some meds at a pharmacy and it is looking much better.  The fur-less bump on his head looks a little funny, but he doesn’t seem bothered by it at all.

Jet has mastered "sad eyes" to get more pets (pre-bump)

As usual, we enjoy seeing critters on the property.  One night after we had locked up, we heard something larger than normal running on the tin roof.  Going outside to investigate, we discovered two young genets running around. 

 

 

A breach in the fence

Bonus Kruger Bird Pics!!

Crested Barbet

Green Woodhoopoe

Ground Hornbill (blurry but one of my favorite species and a rare sighting)

Red-billed Hornbill

Red-billed Oxpecker on a warthog

Yellow-billed Hornbill

Bread, Balls, Bricks, Bugs, Birds, and More!

 

Happy New Year!  We wish God's blessings in 2022!

Crowd of people waiting at Baixo Pinda

 We thought we would take some time to share a few pictures of just daily life as the seasons change here in Mozambique. 

We had a pretty low key Christmas, but were excited to celebrate with our colleagues, especially our new family that just arrived in mid-December.  We thank God their visas were issued and they were finally able to come after such a long delay. It has been especially hot, so homemade ice cream was our Christmas treat!

The Sunday after Christmas, we enjoyed a special church service that even included some Christmas music we were familiar with, only in Portuguese.  Afterwards, we had a potluck style lunch and we gave out little glider airplanes to the kids in the church.  It was fun to watch them flying them around while we sat and visited over lunch.  

Special Christmas music

 

 

Helping kids put their airplanes together

 Recently, Dave drove one of our guards, Armando, to the village of Meconta, to visit his brother and other family.  They walked from house to house in the village stopping to visit various families.  Armando’s brother showed him a mud oven he made to cook bread he sells. 

On one of Dave’s flights, he was hanging out with the kids while the medical team was doing clinics.  He took a video of a boy making a soccer ball.  They are often made with plastic sacks and string they make from sacks, nets, etc. 

We are still living in our “temporary” house on the property while our house gets renovated.  The workers made the bricks for the house right here on the property.  Fortunately the new roof was up before the rains came. 

One morning when I was going for a run, I spotted an injured animal near our house.  Upon closer inspection I discovered it was a genet.  It only lived about 30 minutes from the time we found it, but it was interesting to get to see one up close.

We have been so thankful for the bore hole that was dug.  Several times we have run out of water on the property and have been able to fill the tank with this new well.  A couple of days ago, Dave found that the pump controller case was broken and asked our night guard what happened.  Apparently Bosco, our Rhodesian Ridgeback guard dog, was chasing a genet and ran into it.  It was good to know we still have some genets around and that Bosco wasn’t harmed in the incident, but now more maintenance is required so it doesn't get ruined in the rain.  Recently, after some heavy rains, we had some leaks in our temporary house.  Dave went up on the roof to find the problem and discovered some genet scat/nests caused the water to back up.   

Dave got the opportunity to change the oil in our truck using the new pit in the shop for the first time.  He discovered that mosquitoes like to hang out down their too!

We’ve been enjoying pineapple season (my favorite time of year), but prior to that, the trees were loaded with mangoes and papayas.  We are sometimes able to get masuko, a gourd like veggie that makes really good zucchini bread, or masuko bread in this case.  For MAF’s worldwide “pumpkin” contest, I painted a couple of them (about the size of a grapefruit).

Mangoes and papaya ( top right)

 

Masuko "pumpkins"

Some friends have stored their truck and trailer on the MAF property and were doing some maintenance on it in preparation for a trip.  After getting stung by a bee, they discovered a large hive in the trailer.  They were able to find a local bee expert who relocated the bees to another area… a win for the bees and the trailer maintenance!

We have finally seen some big rains and it is interesting to see what comes out after the long dry season.

Velvet mite

Dung beetle

It has been fun to interact with Robin, the tortoise.  It has been so hot, that when I took out fresh water, she put her whole head in the pan.  

 

Tortoise toenails make me smile

Tortoise tracks, in case you were wondering

 And our blog wouldn’t be complete without some bird pictures.  Living in a different house with different types of trees, means we sometimes see different birds out the window. 

Magpie Mannikin

Magpie Mannikin

Village Weaver in an almond tree

Green-backed Camaroptera getting a snack

A view of the "green back"