Just in case you have wondered...

...we are still alive and back on the island a bit over 4 months now. 

Our last blog was from January 2017 and ended with "What happens in 2017? Who knows... we are excited."

Well guess what happened? A Baby :-) but watch for yourself...

2016...

    …is over and I was just getting used to write those 4 numbers. Looking back, Deb and I experienced a very good year. Challenging and busy, but good. We went through a major change which actually meant no change at all… But let’s start at the beginning.

     The first quarter was full of uncertainties. We didn’t know when and where we would have to pack up and move. Both of us felt at the right place here in Timor and having to leave so soon after arriving would have been really hard for us. Another uncertainty was the wet-season which was in its full swing. The first wet-season in a mountainous area meant challenging flight conditions, challenges which I never experienced before… On the positive side we had my brother visiting us and we surely enjoyed the time together. 

Hiking to the top of Timor with my brother Jakim. (Mt. Ramelau 9797ft.)

Let's hope no one in this direction needs to get medevaced...

     Summer brought a lot of clarity and also visitors from Switzerland. My parents and Sister visited us for 3 weeks and just after they left we received the much anticipated decision from the MAF HQ. We can stay, our contract got extended and we don’t have to move in the near or mid future. The pressure release was huge. Initially we couldn’t quite grasp it. 2016 was about to become the first year of our marriage where we didn’t have to move a single time. Various factors caused this decision to happen but let's keep it simple, the Timor-Leste program operates now with 3 pilots… With a 3^rd Pilot we have the ability to work on our base, plan different outreaches and attend language classes without having to cut back on our Medical Evacuation flights. Having 3 pilots also gives us the opportunity to get a ‘real’ day off without the possibility of call outs. This provides a day of rest for our mind and we don’t have to worry about weather and other flying stuff.

    The last quarter just flew by. The MAF ladies started with the care packages. Each patient which gets medevaced by us receives a bag with all sorts of goodies, depending on his age and gender off course… The locals seem to truly appreciate that service which is an encouragement for us. (You can read more about that here) We spend most of November and December with just 2 pilots. One at a time travelled down to Cairns to receive training or attend meetings and also get a week or two of deserved vacations. Second half of November was our turn and we travelled to Cairns to visit good friends and meet new ones. At the moment the MAF Training Centre in Mareeba is overrun by Swiss folks, which is good thing of course… I even got to brush up on my instrument flying skills in the simulator, although that was almost too short to mention ;-)

  

Our Ladies assembled the care-packages

Aldo, our national Staff is handing them out to patients

Cairns and it's beautiful winter weather. (Well they call it summer)

In the Simulator, the sun was not quite shining as bright though!

2017…

      

    …We are expecting changes in Hera, that’s where Deb teaches. Deb and Kim are trying to train up Timorese, which will then take over the classes and the 2 Ladies work more in the background as supporters.

After 2 years away, we will have our first furlough in Switzerland, starting sometimes next summer, yay 😊

    I hope that once the wet season disappears, we can start flying to the districts and do outreaches. This would include sharing the good news, playing games, educate the locals about behaviour around aircraft and cleaning up the runways.  I’m also working on the Bible Box which I think is a great way of reaching people. 30 Units arrived and a dozen usb-sticks are waiting to get loaded up. Let’s see how that projects takes on shape.

By reading through that post you noticed that we get a fair amount of visitors and it’s always a bit stressful finding the right accommodation. So we decided to build another extension to our beach house so we can host friends trouble-free… Did you get the hint?

We are so thankful for everyone supporting us in various ways and we are looking forward to tackle 2017 knowing, we have a strong team behind and in front of us. Might God bless you all.

What happens in 2017? Who knows... we are excited.

  

flying for life...Part II

    This article was written by Kim Jobs, our Communications Officer here in Timor-Leste. So enjoy a proper English article...

    "On Thursday, the 28th of July, I arrived at the airport for a short visit, before farewelling my childhood friend on her flight to Darwin. My husband Jason, was rostered on to be flying, but with no bookings i was hoping that he would be able to show us around and give us the tour of the MAF facilities. My friend, a nurse from Australia, has recently started doing some work with the Royal Flying Doctors Service and so was interested to see what MAF does in Timor-Leste and how it differed from what she does in Australia.

 

   On the way to the airport, Daniel Moser, MAF Timor-Leste pilot messaged us to let us know he had a medical evacuation flight and was getting ready to leave. Jason assured him, that he was on the way there and would help him get ready to go. So we arrived at the airport, looked around and watched Daniel fly off towards the east to Baucau in VH-MTX. Ten miles out from Dili, a miscommunication about who the supervising medical staff on the flight would be, was resolved and Daniel needed to return to Dili to pick up a paramedic trained mid wife to accompany him on the flight. The patient was a young mother whose baby had died before birth, and the mother was now experiencing life threatening complications herself. Jon Moores, an Australian paramedic working with the Timor-Leste ambulance service, would also assist on the flight. So we watched Daniel take off for the second time and my friend headed over to the international terminal for her Airnorth flight to Darwin.

    In all the preparation for this flight, a phone call was received for a second medical evacuation that was needed from Oecusse, to the west of Dili. Another lady was experiencing complications in childbirth and she needed the extra care of a larger hospital. Jason readied his plane, VH-MQO, for the fifty minute flight, and I realised my short visit to the airport was going to be a little longer than I planned. Jason got ready to fly, with an ambulance staff member accompanying him, but then had to sit and wait, as the Airnorth plane from Darwin was making it’s final approach. This was the plane my friend would take home. Airnorth landed, Jason took off, flying to Oecusse in blustery conditions.

    I sat for awhile in the MAF office, doing some of my Communications jobs, listening to Jason make his radio calls as he headed west. I don’t often hear him on the radio, so it was quite a novelty for me. But before long Daniel’s voice was on the radio too. He was nearly back from Baucau with his patient.

As a MAF pilot wife for almost five years now, i know what my husband does each day. I love hearing his stories and rejoicing and grieving with him on the joys and struggles of his day. But i usually don’t see what he does first hand, I am usually at home or in town and not physically there when patients arrive. So as the plane arrived and the MAF and ambulance staff busily rushed around doing their jobs, i began to cry. The urgency of their movements showed me that all was not well with the patient they were transporting. I cried when i saw a young man, fling himself from the front seat of the plane to the nearby grass, vomiting from the turbulence in the air during the flight. This young man, dressed in a black shirt was the husband of the patient. The father of the deceased unborn child, who was now facing the possibility of losing his wife also from uncontrolled bleeding, and was at this moment so very air sick. Daniel checked he was okay, gave him a bottle of water and continued to help relocate the young woman from the plane to the ambulance. The stretcher, some possessions, oxygen and medical notes were all moved from place to place, as they readied themselves for the journey to hospital.

   As the ambulance sirens got fainter, i cried for this young woman and her family. This was her first pregnancy. Her baby had died. She is so very young and is now very ill. The fear and sadness was evident on the faces of everyone, her mother, her husband, the ambulance staff, and the MAF staff. But everyone was busy helping to do whatever they could to help save this young woman’s life. And so the tears turned from sad tears to happy ones, as i rejoiced in the privilege it is to be part of an organisation that helps in such a practical way.

    But as i watched Aldo, our Timorese MAF staff member washing down the stretcher and Daniel had the spray bottle and cloth out cleaning the plane, i realised again that this is a normal day for them. Something i realised again a few minutes later as Jason’s voice began to speak on the radio, he was getting closer to Dili. A look outside to the international terminal showed me that my friend was still sitting in the plane, they had been delayed, to wait for the MAF plane from Baucau. If they waited too much longer, they would have to wait for Jason to land too.

   Just a short while later, i heard the Airnorth plane start to move and it took off towards Darwin carrying my friend back to her family. Not long after that Jason landed his plane and the busyness started all over again. The ambulance officer this time leaped from the plane, looking very ill. She uncomfortably waited for the bathroom to become free, as someone else had beaten her there. She had unfortunately been very air sick on the return journey from Oecusse. Jason, Daniel and Aldo, helped the doctor and the family remove belongings and the stretcher from plane. No details were given about this woman’s condition, other than she too was experiencing complications with her pregnancy. Staff busily worked to load her into the waiting ambulance, so she too could be transported to hospital for more medical care. And again we heard the ambulance sirens in the distance, heading for the hospital on the other side of town.

   I tried to express all the emotions of what i was thinking and feeling to my husband when he finally had a chance to stop, and drive me home, from my ‘short visit to the airport’. But it was such an incoherent swirl of feelings and thoughts. Hopefully i am doing a better job of explaining myself in writing now than i did in that moment. My heart ached for these young women whose experience of pregnancy and child birth was surrounded with so much pain and trauma. My heart ached for their families who watched on, helpless and fearful of all that was happening around them. But i was so thankful for nurses, doctors, midwives, ambulance staff and our own MAF staff who were able to do their jobs in these situations to dramatically increase these women’s chance of survival. I know I couldn’t do what my husband does each day, but i am so glad God created him with the skills and abilities to this job!"

by Kim Jobs

    All of us like happy endings but I'm afraid that the story about the Baucau-Woman is not one of them. Baucau is the 2nd biggest city in Timor-Leste and just opened a brand new Hospital a few months back. So one would think that they could handle routine Situations like that - wrong. A paramedic explained to me, that a simple plastic tube for the blood transfusion was missing and therefore the young woman had to be airlifted to Dili for that procedure. This "missing/out of stock" plastic tube was eating away to much of her time though. She arrived at the National Hospital unconscious and very very weak. She entered ICU and remained there up to this day. Unable to swallow, breath and all the other life essential things, here husbands nightmare has become reality. A small plastic tube destroyed this man's life. Loosing a child, as sad as this sounds, is quite common here in Timor-Leste. But seeing a life destroyed by such a small detail is heartbreaking...
    This reminded me that we can only play our part and accept the outcome of the situation no matter if it is a happy end or not. Thankfully most of our flights end on a much lighter note and we see people receiving help at the right time. Cherish those moments and looking on the bright side of life helps overturning the dark shadows of sorrows and hardships lingering across this country. 

   You might find the following paragraph strange or disturbing but it is my deep conviction and that is the reason why I am sharing it. Helping people physically is just one reason why we are here. I personally value life but I also believe that there is more to life than just the physical aspect. I believe our soul survives the physical death and therefore is of a much greater value than life. Physical life can be destroyed within an instant but spiritual life carries on. We can try to change our physical life but to change our spiritual life we need help from our Creator. God reached out to us through Jesus Christ and carefully studying His story reveals the key to spiritual life. I am not on a proselytize-mission but feelt responsible to share my spiritual experience and give my personal answers to everyone who asks, that is all...

flying for life...

    ...is MAF's slogan and this pretty much sums up our purpose and vision.

"Sharing God's love through aviation and technology to see isolated people physically and spiritually transformed in Christ's name"

    And here are a few facts about MAF. MAF operates 135 aircraft in 26 countries and serves another 11 countries in a non-flying way. Every 4 minutes a MAF plane takes off or lands. There are more than 1300 staff serving and around 1500 organizations being served and the approximately 1500 destinations make clear, we are not the average airline...

    But MAF in Timor-Leste is much smaller. We have 3 pilots and one national staff operating 2 GA-8 Airvans. One of our main task (40-50%) is flying patients from the districts to the national hospital. The so-called Medevacs (Medical-Evacuation) are partially funded by the ministry of health and the rest is subsidized by MAF. The numerous NGO's and private charters form the other half...

  ...so how does my, (Daniel's) day look like? It all depends on our customers. If they request a "first light" departure I have to go out of bed well before 5am but thankfully most people like to be fast asleep at that time... I usually have to get up 2 hours before the plane's departure time, 1 hour to prepare me and another one for the airplane ;-)
It takes me around 10 minutes to get to the airport depending on the route, traffic and personal fitness.

The "official" Route

The "backyard" Route

The "unofficial" one --- caution landing aircraft!

     Once I'm at the airport I've to start 'daily' the plane which basically means making sure that the plane is fit to fly. Then comes the boring part, submitting flight-plan, printing out the forecast weather (which is an educated guess at best), calculating the weight and balance, briefing the passengers and loading their luggage.

    As soon as all of that's done I can jump in and get the start clearance from the Tower and off we go... 

Based in Dili, flying to 8 Airstrips in the Districts

The one and only
"Presidente Nicolau Lobato International Airport"

Atauro Island, 25Km north of Dili
flight time 15'

Los Palos, people use it as a road,
buffaloes and horses use it for grazing
flight time 45'

Maliana, goats and cattle common, sometimes kids play soccer
flight time 25'

Oecussi, old is gone, new is under construction
and landing on the temporary one
flight time 45'

Same, another shared Runway
flight time 25'

Suai, at the moment only for emergency use, until next months,
or the one after...
flight time 30'

Baucau, our longest and highest
used by the Indonesian army, then UN
flight time 30'

most recent reopened, 27th Nov 2015
flight time 30', by road 7 h+

     As you can see from the flight times, all of our flights are well under one hour but it takes many hours to travel there by road. Critical patients often don't have that much time left and are totally in the hands of a team planning their medical evacuation by air. It is a huge privilege to be a part of that team but it also brings some big challenges with it (But more of that will follow on a separate Blog).

   Thankfully not all of our flights are about life and death. A good amount goes toward development. Bringing water experts, teachers and other assessment teams into the Districts. Even prolonged flights with businessmen which are looking for investment possibilities around Timor-Leste are part of what we do. 


   Bellow is a short clip about me driving to the airport. I hope you don't mind the bumpy ride...

one in between

    A Blog entrance I mean... I was just finishing one about a normal day as a MAF-Pilot but got beautifully interrupted by my parents and sister. They visited us for 3½ weeks and we had a fabulous time together. 

    A famous Swiss singer, songwriter once sang, "everyone needs his island..." but he forgot to mention that every now and then everyone needs a break from his island... And since it is quite expensive to travel to Australia, we were 'forced' to hop a couple islands to the west till we arrived on one called Bali. And you can trust me, it's not as bad as people say it is. You get a lot of good food for not much money and same goes for accommodation but after a few days you get used to it... ;-) People are friendly sometimes a bit pushy but hey by the end of the day everyone needs to bring home a few bucks. The scenery outside the crammed city is wonderful but lets the pictures talk now...

Reunion, Sister came from Madagascar and parents from Switzerland

If people hear of Bali, they think of that...

...and that...

...so we did that

...and that...

...No clue why we did that, 95% of surfing consists
out of waiting and the other 5% drinking salt water

Monkeys are sacred

Not to my Dad

Markets are busy and colorful

and so are the roads

the scenery is stunning

especially around the Uluwatu Temple

more than 80% are Hindu's...

...Sunset doesn't care, it shines for everyone :-)

the Ladies in front of our Hotel, the "Surfer Bliss..." my recommendation

our driver GD, friendly and helpful if you're
ever in need of a Bali-Driver call him 082341340152

last Bali picture, Luwak-coffee most expensive coffee in the world...
google it, it's gross

    This pretty much summed up our holiday in Bali. We had a great time together and even met some of our church friends which were passing through from Papua, Indonesia.
    
    But after 6 days it was time for us to hop back to our Island which we now call home. It was great introducing our family to Timor-Leste. It's not as fancy as Bali and things are running in a different pace. As westerner patience gets tested and the quality standard is nowhere close to ours but once you get passed those differences, a whole new world opens up. Unlike Bali, It doesn't have 4000+ trip-advisor attractions, it only has 31 and that was exactly what we needed. An empty agenda and loads of Family-time...

Dili's apron, If you are looking for a gate, don't, you won't find one.

Time to relax

and dodge crocodiles (just kidding they live a few miles down and up)

Eating like the Timorese, turns out they were not just serving chicken and fish
The dogs refused to eat one particular leftover piece... :-/

BBQ Swiss style with proper beef

taking advantage of Dad, replacing a section of our roof
I know, our Suzuki Jimny is a beast...

Deb took Family to Hera, her work place...

...short prayer and a couple of songs before the school starts

Sunday excursion with PNG-Missionary couple Mike&Mangen Kaire

Monday excursion to Atauro Island, thanks to the plane a short journey

The package came with a private beach...
don't get too jealous, beach was full of sand fleas ;-)

and coconut à la discrétion

The short scenic detour on the way back to Dili 
marked the end of a great time.

     At the moment we are still waiting for a decision from management about our future. But as long as we are here all of our friends are welcome. We might not have weeks of vacation but sure enough a couple days off to spend time with you. We also can't provide high-end luxury suits but certainly find a nice eco-stay, which is trendy at the moment anyway :-)