Flights all day!

Saturday started early for Jason (an MAF pilot) and I as we started our trip to the airport.  We had to leave the house by 6:40am.  

There are kids who always clean the car with a dirty rag when we're on our way to the airport.  Jason gave this guy a little bit of money for his work. 

In this picture, we on our way to Cap-Haitian! The first flight of the day. We departed around 8:00 and arrived there about 8:45. We were carrying one passenger and picking up two other passengers. 

Here we are leaving Cap-Haitian! It's beautiful from the sky, although if you look closely a lot of the houses are destroyed by the water or are just run down in general.  

Leaving Cap, we flew by the Citadel.  It was built in the 1800's to protect the city from invaders.  

Our next flight was to La Gonave! Its a small island off the coast of Haiti. 

Me in La Gonave! It's a dirt strip. 

Leaving La Gonave! The water is so beautiful :) 

Our final flight of the day was to Pignon.  It was supposed to depart at 1:00 but our passenger came early so we left about 12:15. 

On final into Pignon! Its a 4,000 ft grass strip. 

When we got to Pignon, Fred(the one on the left) invited us over to his house for sandwiches.  Jason met him when him and his wife lived in the village for three months learning the language.  Fred was picking up our passenger! 

Jason and Fred got to talking about solar panels.  Apparently, Fred's solar panels haven't been putting out the amount of amps that they should.  So Jason climbed up onto the roof with him and had a look. They were up there for at least an hour checking out all the wiring for the solar panels. 

Riding back to the airport! 

When we returned to the airport, some people were sleeping under the airplane. Haha!

I met a Lynchburgian while in Pignon! Imagine that! It is a small world. He comes down to Haiti regularly to help out with Fred's ministry.  

We have a late return to Port au Prince.  It's been a full day, but fun! I'm thankful that God kept us safe on all our flights and for all of the awesome memories! 

I'm Eleven days in!

“And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always,  pray without ceasing,  give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you”. 1 Thessalonians 5:14-18

So I’m on my eleventh day here in Haiti out of 37 days total.  I’m surprised actually that I’ve already been here for that long.  I have been looking forward to this trip for over a year now and I’m so glad that its finally here.  About two years ago I felt as if God was pulling me towards going to A&P school after I finished my senior year.  With that plan in mind I realized that it gave me a free semester and I wanted to be productive with it.  I started thinking about my plans (really God’s plans) of being a missionary pilot and my experiences overseas.  I’ve been overseas a few times but never for more than two weeks at a time.  I saw this free semester as an opportunity to travel overseas for a longer period of time and try to experience more of what missionary life is like.  I’m very thankful that everything worked out and I was able to come to Haiti with MAF.  It has been a great experience so far and I’m so grateful for everything that I’m learning here.  I can really see myself living overseas for the rest of my life, the only thing is I can’t see myself alone.  The hardest thing about being here in Haiti is not being able to be with Luke.  I can’t wait for the day when we will travel the world together!

Yesterday started the inspection on the Caravan! They have two people coming in from MAF Headquarters to help out with the inspection because the mechanics here have never done it before.  It’s a relatively new aircraft for MAF Haiti so they are still learning more about it.  I’ve gotten to help out some.  For the past two days they have been pulling the airplane apart, basically taking a lot of things off so that they can inspect all the different parts and do maintenance on anything that needs replaced or repaired.

I’m excited about next week because I get to help out with the scheduling! I will be training all day Monday and Tuesday and then on Wednesday its all up to me!  Christine is the one who does scheduling right now but she and her husband are moving to a different house.  She’ll be gone for about a week so that she can pack up and move-in!

P.S. Good news! I received a package from Luke today :)  It was a camera battery charger that I had forgot in the States! I haven’t been able to take any pictures yet, just mental memories, so I can’t wait to take some and post them!

Another Adventure! This time in Haiti!

I've been in Haiti almost one full week and it has definitely been an adventure.  I've had the opportunity to ride along on flights out to some different villages and helped out a little bit with an inspection of their Cessna 206. 

This week I have been staying with Michael and Karen Boyles and their six year old daughter Kaydence.   

 We carpool to the airport in the morning with two other pilots, John and David.  The crazy thing is that it takes us about 35 minutes to get to the airport but its probably only about 8 miles of driving.  It takes so long to get anywhere because the roads in Haiti are in really bad condition.  Most of them are dirt and rock and they have pot holes and ditches everywhere.  Since we are now in hurricane season, most of the ditches are filled with water and we go wading through them in the SUV!

When I got to Haiti I was expecting to eat beans and rice as my main meal.  But the first two days I was here I had Domino’s pizza and Burger King! Haha.  Domino’s is the only American fast food you can get in Haiti and it costs about $20 a pizza! The Burger King food came from Jamaica.  John and Michael flew a team there in the Caravan and brought everyone back BK whoppers from the airport food court.  It was funny to me that I ate my first Burger King whopper in Haiti. I’ve never even gotten one in America before…of course I’m a fan of McDonalds!

Yesterday was the craziest day.  It’s started raining hard at the airport around 2:00 and everyone left around 2:30 to try and get home before the roads got too bad.  We went home a different way than we usually come because there are a couple of bridges (that are really deep ditches) that we would have to cross and it was likely that it was going to be impossible to do that without getting stuck.  Traffic was surprisingly not too bad on the route that we took and things went pretty smoothly.  I got to see lots of kids playing in the rain and some bathing in it.  People sweeping their trash into the streams of water that were flowing swiftly down the roads.  And more people than I expected just walking somewhere.  (It was pouring rain!) We did have to drive through one really rough part and I was praying the whole time.  It took us about 20 seconds to get through but it was a river and it had kind of a deep dip to it that none of were expecting! John was driving and he powered out of it and we made it home safely J

Today was jam packed with adventure.  Well almost…this morning I was working on wedding stuff.  Three months exactly til Luke and I get married! Earlier this afternoon I was able to ride along on a medevac flight.   We flew out to La Gonave which is an island off of Haiti’s mainland.  It’s about a 15 minute flight in the caravan.  We were transporting a woman who was in a lot of pain.  I’m honestly not sure what was wrong with her but she looked very ill. I think it would be hard to fly medevac’s all the time because it really is hard to see someone who is suffering.  At the same time, what an awesome opportunity to serve someone in dire need.  They told me a story of a guy they were transporting a couple weeks ago on a medevac.  He was passed out and laying down in the back of the plane.  When he woke up he was confused and didn’t know where he was and so he tried to strangle the pilot with his seatbelt! Thankfully the pilot took care of the situation and they arrived safely. 

So now to the really exciting news! I got to fly the Caravan today!! So awesome.  We took a team down to Jacmel and dropped them off.  Then they let me fly right seat on the way back! 

Last night we had devotions with all the staff here and a verse came to mind that I want to live out everyday of my life and everyday that I’m here.  1 Corinthians 10:31 “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do,  do it all for the glory of God”.