First steps...

...In the next couple of blogs we will take you on our journey. Starting on where we live, what life looks like and what we do.


    So let's get started, Deb and I arrived at Dili International by mid September 2015 and we were warmly welcomed by the MAF-Staff. The team consisted of 2 pilots and 2 aircrafts. One pilot is also the program-manager and the other one a mechanic.
    Our future house was still occupied when we arrived but we were able to stay with another MAF-Family for the first week. Being new to this 3rd World country easily exceeded the amount we could possibly absorb. We heard, saw and smelled things we couldn't put in any box. There are  lots of things we couldn't connect with any prior experience, it feels like walking on the moon but without a space suite ;-)

    The house we got to live in is located right at the beach of Beto Tasi, a "suburb" of Dili. Beto Tasi is a quiet neighborhood with only one dirt road leading in but it becomes a maze after the first junction....

Finding our house was not always accomplished by the 1st attempt.

Our little pink one room 6/7meter house, from above not bad...

...but from the inside, it was desperately asking for paint

...so we painted

Our kitchen when we moved in...

...couple of days off...

...a bit more useful

After that we built a small extension.

2 timorese workers helped me...

...up to the point when I started to pay them in advance...

...building the roof, windows and door was then up to me ;-)

Then I found a little painter...

Then my brother arrived for Christmas and new year and I got another one, a painter I mean.

old rusty security bars got a new look...

...and also the outside, from pink to white.

et voilà, thanks to the help of my brother all done now.

All done, well not quite. Here are some future projects.

The Landlady asked me to cut the trees, not because they are blue now,
no because they were growing to big and endangered our roof

Our garden is waiting to be cultivated. At the moment it only
bears pineapple and papaya...

Our water tower needs some attention too. Too many mosquito larvaes and dirt
blocking our filter...

    As you can see we won't get bored anytime soon. We truly like it here but not everything that shines is gold. Yes we live close to the beach and it can be wonderful if the current is flowing in the right direction, otherwise we get all the sewage from Dili then it becomes slightly less wonderful. Yes the people are friendly, but you will always be the rich "Malae" which gets ripped off in a very friendly way all the times. If you are involved in a traffic accident, the question is not who is responsible but rather who is the one with the money and that is and always will be us. Therefore I came to the conclusion; no matter where you are and what you do, every coin has a flip side. Deb and I feel that we are in the right place at the right time and that's all that matters...

    In this sense, Deb and I are exited to take you with us on our journey through Timor Leste - Where people don't possess much but have a lot of time.

2015...

...lies in the past and we are looking back to a very adventurous and challenging 12months. We lived in 4 different countries and moved more than 10 times. Therefore I think it's worth taking a walk down memory lane...

     It all started in autumn 2014 when Deb and I got married. After a Honeymoon trip across Sardinia, France and Belgium we ended up in the northern part of England. For the next 6 months we would reside in a castle and attend a winter Bible School. Capernwray Hall left a huge impact in our lives, we received a vast amount of spiritual knowledge which changed our lifestyle and the way we see things. It also gave us the opportunity to explore places like Edinburgh, Wales and London.

Capernwray Hall, an amazing time

A few days in a wonderful city

10 Day outreach together with a loving church

 

Spending Christmas with our best friends and family in London

    Spring finally pushed the winter away and similarly were we pushed away from Capernwray Hall into a new season, a future full of challenges and adventures waiting to be explored. Therefore we packed our car and headed south to Switzerland and spent April and May with packing our belongings together, sorting out all the required paperwork and of course vaccinations. lot's of vaccinations...

     Then just 3 weeks before departure we got a surprise email informing us, that we won't be able to go to Arnhem Land due to visa troubles. Our alternatives were South Sudan or Papua New Guinea. Final decision was made and we were told to go to Timor-Leste. Where is that again?

    It was also the time to say goodbye. Goodbye to our families, friends, church and Switzerland. For the next two years we wouldn't see any of them unless they visit us.

wonderful but to short

     The 26th May approached with big steps and before we even realized we sat in an Airbus which brought us via Doha and Hong Kong to Cairns, Australia. We arrived 4:30 in the morning and my aviation medical exam was at 9:00. I couldn't get bothered pointing out the directions of the E's which all looked like O's, but I really had no choice :-/

    Our plan was to stay for 3 months in Australia and go through 4 blocks of trainings. 2 were about flying and 2 field training. During this time we stayed in 12 different places and lived out of our suitcases. Most of our training was done in Cairns and Mareeba which is located in the north-eastern part of Australia. While on a 2 week training in Melbourne we managed to get 5 days off and made a road trip on the great ocean road.  

They have summer in the winter and it's called the land down under

Cairns, one of the places we stayed.

The great ocean road

Were very lucky to get that close to a wild Kuala :-)

Training, training and training

     And it was time to say goodbye again. We met many new people and became especially good friends with another Swiss couple which went through the same trainings as we did. But we were excited to finally move to a place where we could settle down for a while and get our first place together as a married couple.
     The beginning was steep. Various events set us under time pressure but the team managed to push us through district- and flight orientation just on time. Daniel loved being back in the cockpit although flying medevacs is a category of it's own. Live and death are often separated by a very thin wall and mistakes can easily lead to a turn to the worse. Deb was busy with homeschooling our neighbors kids and taking care of the the household. She has now a new opportunity to work once a week in a day care facility for people with special needs.

 

They have summer all year round

A medevac from Suai

Little fellas checking out the "machine"

Wet-season makes everything green

In front of our house, wonderful

     What about the future? We don't know. The only sure thing is that there's nothing like a sure thing. The Government bought a brand new Twin Otter last October and is now operating it, heavily subsidized and with a Canadian crew, around Timor-Leste. Other rumors are going around about another new plane... So far MAF is the only organization which can fly medevac and will keep working with the Ministry of Health to bring critical patients from the districts to the Hospital in Dili. 

   To predict MAF's future here in Timor-Leste is challenging but we are happy to serve here as long as we are needed. Deb and I are glad, that our contract for the Timor-Leste program got extended until next September. This gives us time to rest and gather our strength for whatever may come...

Our GA-8 landing in Oecussi, the Twin Otter is waiting to depart

The last edition of "Flying for Life" with an
interesting article abou Timor-Lest

Arrived on the Island

      As you can guess from the title, we are now well into week 4 since we got washed ashore on these southeastern Asian island. The Australian Authorities finally recognized Daniels American license and he was able to finish the last Test which consisted out of an oral exam and a 3 hours flight test. Shortly after he passed we stood with our boarding passes and too much luggage at the Cairns Airport. We arrived in Dili just 3 days after our belongings from Switzerland arrived. They were missent to Indonesia and we have still no clue how they arrived all of a sudden. Must have been a miracle :-)

Bye bye Mareeba

     Our start was quite challenging, Deb arrived with a flu and here asthma was interupting here sleep. Dan got thrown right into action and joined a couple flights as an observer. On the first weekend we had our District Orientation with Mike and Mange. They are missionaries from Papua New Guinea and have been living in Liquica for the past 5 years. People leave really remote and primitive outside the city.They might have power and a satellite dish but their income is limited to a few dollars a day. 

Village house

Street Restaurant, limited to 75Kg per Person ;-)

One man salt factory, 1 basket of salt = 5 Dollar

Us with Mike and Mange, in front of a rice field

     Once back from the district orientation we were able to move into our beach house which just became vacant a couple days ago. It is a one room cabin located in Beto-Tasi, Dili right next to a so-called Beach-Resort. The street to our house leads literally across the airport area and a cemetery.
     Deb started here job as a home school teacher in the same week. She is homeschooling 2 kids just 3 houses down the beach. speaking of a perfect location...
     Flying wise we were quite under pressure. Dan was waiting for his license to arrive so he could start flying and at the same time the Program Manager had a well deserved vacation coming up. The license got issued in record time (within 5 days, normally it takes 4-6 weeks, another miracle?) and Dan spent his second week as ICUS (in command under supervision) and Michael was able to check him out on 6 out of 8 airstrips. From week 3 He was flying by himself and had 2 Medevacs in the first 2 days.

Loading the Patient in Suai

 

our beach house in Beto-Tasi, Dili

from the outside...

The interior desperately needed some paint (and other things ;-)

Our Beach, visitors welcome

click here

Almost Ready to move on...

  unbelievable how fast time flies by when you're busy. We arrived in Australia 3 months ago and finished most of the trainings and courses. First off, Dan was suppose to finish his license conversion within 3 weeks. Now 3 months later, we had to realize that the Australian Government is more laid back than we anticipated but we are awaiting the approval letter anytime soon.

Back to School

    Therefore after the 3 weeks Daniel was only able to finish the 2 written exams but didn't fly at all     : /

   By the end of June we traded the mild Mareeba "winter" for a cold chilly Melbourne breeze. We had 10 days of so called transitioning training and got educated in how to handle different cultures and ourselves. Highlight was the four days trip on "the great Ocean Road" after the training.

What we took away from this course ;-)

The Great Ocean Road / The remains of the 12 apostles

cheeky little parrots

    Back in the far north we started Orientation training in Cairns. During those 2 weeks we learned more about the structure of MAF and how they operate and manage the different programs. After orientation we had a 1 hour drive back to Mareeba where Dan started his standardisation flight training. Standardisation means adapting the company's standard operating procedures like which power setting and airspeed we choose for certain operations, how to take-off from a short runway and land into a narrow airstrip. 

    Deb was busy too, during orientation training we met another Swiss family which lives for the next few years in Mareeba. They have 3 kids and Deb helped out with looking after the youngest while Lilian was homeschooling the 2 older ones. Tom is working as a flight instructor at the MAF Training Center and it was great having another Swiss fella going through the same training as Dan. 

on the "road"

aiming for the right speed and attitude

Last day of Standardisation, I know cliché but I love it... :-)

Deb and Yann

   Now we are waiting for Dan's License approval from the Australian authorities before he can conduct his final check-ride and then we are off to Dili, Timor-Leste. Meanwhile Deb continues to help out Lilian with the kids and Dan is going thorough a maintenance training so he'll be able to change oil, tires etc... Good thing is that we won't get bored anytime soon :-)

Flying for life magazine click here