Pilot's Logbook: 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.