Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Rumah Singgah MAF Tarakan

On Friday, we feel blessed to have been here in Tarakan for the dedication, celebration, and opening of MAF's hospitality house, Rumah Singgah.  MAF frequently flies medical evacuations for small villages in interior Borneo.  Often family members accompany their sick or injured loved one to the Tarakan general hospital.  It can be hard for people to find affordable accommodations close to the hospital once they arrive in Tarakan.  MAF is excited to be able to offer cheap ($1/night) housing right next to the hospital.

Would you join us and MAF in prayer as the doors of Rumah Singgah open? Pray...
  • That the remaining details of care for the house would fall into place (who will clean the house, clean bedding after families leave, etc.)
  • That new relationships would be built, opening opportunities to share the gospel
We have a Great Physician who not only heals the physically sick and hurting but desires all the more to heal people spiritually. May this home be a place of healing, used for the furthering of God's kingdom!
Rumah Singgah MAF Tarakan

The view of the hospital from balcony

MAF Kalimantan Program Manager, Steve Persenaire, beginning the dedication

Ceremonial ribbon cutting

MAF staff and their families gathered to celebrate




After the ribbon cutting, we went to the second floor to gather for a time in the Word, prayer and worship together.







Thursday, July 18, 2013

Home Life in Tarakan

A couple people have asked me to share about what I am doing during the day here in Tarakan while Jeremy spends his day at the hanger.  Are you ready for it?  I do the same things here in Indonesia as I do at home in Spokane, which I love.  Sorry that it isn't out of the ordinary, glamorous, or super exciting.  It consists of playing with and caring for Connor, cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping, walks, laundry, etc.  The beauty of the call to homemaking and motherhood is that I can do it no matter where in the world we are.  Though they are the same activities I do at home in Spokane, some look slightly different here in Tarakan...

Same: Connor loves playing and wiggling around on the floor.
Different: Connor has decided to become more mobile while we're here- lots of rolling around and experimenting with crawling to get where he wants to go.

Same: There is always laundry to be done.
Different: The clothes are hung on the clothes rack or out on the line instead of being thrown into the dryer.  Thus laundry isn't dry in a half an hour.  Sometimes it can take a day or two or more in this humid climate.  Even then it can be a little damp until it has been ironed.  (Yes, I said ironed.  At home, I normally throw things back in the dryer to take out the wrinkles.  Not here.  There is a lot of ironing after each load.  I'm so thankful that the house helper does the ironing!)

 Same: Connor runs all the errands with me.
Different: Instead of being in his car seat or a stroller, he comes along in the front pack.

Same: There are grocery stores and markets.
Different: The stores are much smaller!  Only the bottom floor of the building is the grocery store.  There isn't as much variety in what you can find in the stores.  Also, what you may have found there a couple of days ago may not still be there today.  You never know what you'll find.

Same: We eat some similar foods.
Different: If you can't find it, you make it from scratch.  There aren't a lot of dairy products here, but it is easy to make yogurt out of powdered milk for a good source of dairy and protein.

Same: I make most of my foods from scratch.
Different: There are different, more limited ingredients available as I cook from scratch. 

 Same: I'm not sure what is the same about this picture since we don't have rodents, geckos or even ant problems in our house in Spokane. We are blessed.
Different: I can't let my foods cool on the counter or on the stove top or else the geckos and/or ants will get to the food before we have a chance to enjoy it.  I actually can't leave the kitchen while I'm cooking not even for a minute or I will come back to find something in whatever I'm making.

Same: We have lunch with Jeremy almost every day.
Different: It is close enough for him to come home for lunch. In Spokane, we join him at STC. (As you can see, Connor loves it when daddy comes home in the middle of the day.)

It has been a challenging experience learning how to run a home here in Indonesia yet fun at the same time. The MAF wives have been a huge help and encouragement to me. I have been so thankful for all their help! I'm sure I'll have things better figured out just in time to head back to Spokane. :) 


Wednesday, July 10, 2013

One week down...

So just over a week ago, we were wandering around the Jakarta airport with about three more bags than we could reasonably carry, trying to figure out the terminal shuttle system in a tropical downpour, with a collective Indonesian vocabulary of about two dozen words.  Turns out there's an Indonesian word to describe people like us: "bule (pronounced: "buh'-leh")".  Basically, it just means a big, bumbling, clueless white person (probably American).  At least that's the best I can tell.  The Latin American equivalent would be "gringo" and the North American equivalent would be "[insert your name here]".  But that was a week ago.  Seems more like a month ago considering all the new sights, sounds, smells, tastes (chocolate/avocado milkshake, anyone?), and experiences we've had.  It's been great!  A picture is worth a thousand words, so I'm just going to throw in a few pictures and bring you up to speed on our myriad experiences over the past week, in no particular order.

The church we attended on Sunday had a baptism after the service.  Amazing to see the fruits of decades of missions work here on Borneo.  This is what it's all about.

We had a chance to put our tourist hats on and visit an orangutan rehab facility.  Turns out "orangutan" is an Indonesian word: Orang = person from; Utan = the jungle or forest

Connor isn't exactly sure what to think of these tropical downpours.

Connor hanging out with Abetnego, one of the MAF national staff.  Turns out Connor speaks Indonesian just as fluently as English.

Last night, Abetnego took us (Aaron, our MAF host, and myself) out star gazing on the river in this little canoe with a small outboard motor.  We couldn't see the stars so well, but we had a great view of the lightning all around us.  But I must admit, it really was very peaceful to just get out in the middle of the river, cut the engine and enjoy the peace and quiet.  The lightning show was fantastic.  The best part?  If we turned off all our flashlights, we couldn't see the 3" cockroaches scurrying around the hull of our stately vessel.

Another day of flying Borneo's pristine jungle rivers.

Weather adds yet another dimension to flying in Borneo and there was plenty of it on this day.

Adding some fuel at our first stop

The fuel truck

On to the next village with more weather to negotiate.  This leg even featured rock spires poking up through the clouds, just to keep things interesting.

This particular leg we didn't have any passengers.  Just Aaron, myself, and Aaron's spiffy helmet.  Wait... helmet?  Do I get one of those?

We hit a log on the landing here, so I got to check for water in the floats to verify their continued buoyancy.  Check.

More weather.  More rocks.

Adding more fuel.  30 gallons, to be precise.  In five gallon increments, all by hand, on top of the aircraft, over the river.  Oh yeah, and the fuel cans were covered with ants.  And yes, the river sports crocodiles.  This is Borneo.  The dock agent wanted his picture with the "bule".

After a nine hour day, we were on our way home.  One more cloud embankment to pick our way through and we were home free.  If you can't get through the clouds, no problem.  Just land on the river and spend the night in the jungle.  You can always try again tomorrow.

The MAF program here in Palangkaraya is planning on adding an amphibious Kodiak aircraft to their floating fleet.  This is specifically where we at Spokane Turbine Center come in, as we provide the initial transition training for this new aircraft.  Flight days like this highlight the advantages of an airplane like the Kodiak here in Borneo.  The Kodiak has several tools to display terrain (TAWS, terrain overlay, synthetic vision) and weather information (stormscope) which would have been particularly handy today.  It also burns fuel that is much cheaper (jet fuel) and carries more than twice the payload.  Today Aaron and I had to make three shuttle trips between two villages, which the Kodiak could have easily made in a single trip, saving time and money.  It also flies about 35 miles per hour faster and has better takeoff and landing performance on the water than the 50+ year-old aircraft MAF currently operates here.  We are excited to see how STC can partner with MAF-Palangkaraya as they transition to turbine aircraft operations.

Sadly, today was our last day in Palangkaraya.  We have had a fantastic experience here, observing the float plane program and how STC might best serve their future training needs.  Tomorrow we catch our flight to Tarakan, another city on Borneo, to spend four weeks with the MAF program there. We appreciate your prayers as we make the transition.  Three flights and two connections over a span of eight hours.  Who knows what adventures lie ahead?

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Palangkaraya

Enroute to Indonesia, somewhere over the Pacific Ocean

40 hours, four flights, three layovers, and over 8,000 miles later, we arrived in the city of Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan on the island of Borneo, exhausted, fatigued, and glad to see a fellow American there to pick us up.  Thanks, Aaron Hoffmann (MAF pilot and long-time friend from Spokane)!  As tired as we were, we have a lot to be thankful for.  For starters, all of our bags made it, which all by itself qualifies as a miracle considering the fact that there were three different airlines involved, two separate bookings, a flight delay AND a last minute gate change in Jakarta as we prepared to depart amidst scattered thunderstorms.  Another miracle? We found a Starbucks in the Taipei airport, a welcome respite after our 12.5 hour flight.  A big thanks to all of you who have been praying for us as we journeyed here and during our first few days recovering from jet lag and a complete shock to our systems on every level as we adjust to completely new surroundings.

Somewhere between Seattle and Taipei Connor wanted to try out his own seat

Taipei Starbucks!

After that long flight, Connor decided he needed some, too

About to board in Taipei, headed for Jakarta - only two flights and 15 hours to go!

The morning after we arrived, we hit the ground running.  Aaron Hoffmann, our host, took me to the hangar and I got to have a look at the pretty unique operation they have going here.

The floating MAF hangar

The ramp down from the administration building (river is very low)

PK-MCD ("Charlie Delta"), one of two MAF float planes here in Palangkaraya

PK-MCB ("Charlie Bravo" or "Charlie Brown") is dry-docked for an engine change and some repairs

Robi, one of the MAF national staff, working on Charlie Brown

We (Ken Smoll, my coworker at STC, and I) got to ride along on a last-minute, afternoon flight

Everyone lives along the river.  It's their transportation, livelihood and source of water.

At the dock in Puruk Cahu

Most of the river terminals are conveniently equipped with restroom facilities

Ready for takeoff

A little weather on the way home

Back in Palangkaraya!

I'm going to have to save the rest for upcoming posts. Stay tuned!