Update from Orville
O Donesky
Short Version:
Six weeks of studying Spanish and much prayer allowed me a grade 2 of 4 on my conversational Spanish test at the DGAC. The major answer to prayer is that they agreed to drop my restriction of needing to fly with a translator allowing us to use the full (limited) capacity of the airplanes for useful work. I am not fluent, but have received a good foundation on which to build, and can communicate on a simple level. Nececito mucho mas vocabulario y mucha practica.
During my time in Arequipa, I was able to visit several of the favorite tourist places of southern Peru including Colca Canyon reported to be the second deepest in the world, Lake Titicaca with its famous floating islands, and to climb the Misti Volcano at a height of 19,110 feet.
Long Version:
After spending weeks away from my family studying Spanish in southern Peru, I was almost home, on final approach into Pucallpa, the final stretch of my study tour. The day had gone well, I had visited with the DGAC Language test lady and she had rated me a 100% improvement (not perfect, improvement) on my language skills from 1 to 2 on a scale of 4. I would have loved to be higher, but that is ok. I only spent 6 weeks going from no understanding of the Spanish language to being able to converse in simple Spanish. And they took the restriction of needing to fly with a translator off my Peruvian Pilot’s license. That is what mattered the most to me. That upped my available payload in our airplanes from 2 to 3 people. It had been a great day. – Many of you had been Praying for me and God had blessed. Now I was looking forward to seeing my family and of spending long overdue time together. One problem, we were on the VOR 02 approach into Pucallpa, at minimum altitude, 1,000 meter visibility with fog. The engines spooled up for a second missed approach. Less than a mile away from my family, 800 feet above the runway, but no visual contact and no landing, and back to Lima we went.
No one was happy, it was a full flight and we all wanted to be in Pucallpa. The flight had already been delayed an hour, as we landed in Lima we were instructed to collect all our checked luggage and report to the LAN ticket counter 40 & 41 for arrangements. I walked fast, I prayed that my checked bag would come out quickly. It was in the first 20 bags off the flight, I quickly made my way to counter 40/41 only to find 1/3 of the people already in line, I looked over the two line separated by a rope and carefully selected the left line. Over time the rest of our flight joined us in line. It really was a full flight, but I felt good about my strategy, I have trained a lot, I’m pretty good at this, but I had one more lesson to learn. First one then another LAN representative joined in to help serve people off of our flight. But each agent kept opening service windows to the right and I was in the left line, there were no more LAN windows to our left and to make matters worse in front of me in the left line were several non-Peruvian families that tied up our ticket agent for way more than their share of time looking for justice for the inconvenience caused them. As the right line accelerated I was amazed, see, we had two agents on our side, there were 4 serving the right line, then 6 then 7 agents all helping on the right line. I prayed for patience, as my blood pressure rose, where was the supervisor? Who was the person that set up two lines in the first place? Doesn’t LAN know anything about crowd control, and setting up lines? They deal with it every day. What is the problem here?
After 6 hours of sleep in the Lima Airport Ramada (5 notches above the hostels I have spent many nights in, in the jungle) and a breakfast that rivaled any breakfast buffet I had ever eaten at. I reflected on my education of the last night, see, I have spent much time in prayer over my language study. I am dyslexic and STRUGLED though phonics, spelling, and reading in English! I was scared to death about spending 6 weeks away from my family, with strangers, replicating the hours of English phonics, in the Spanish language. But I had seen God bless, words that I could not pronounce have become automatic. I have prayed “Lord if you want me to share with the people of Peru I need to be able to talk with them.” And He had blessed. My time in Arequipa had been a delight. I lived with the director of the language school, and had two of his three children as my teachers. They have adopted me (I am not sure as what because I could be their Dad) but we are all part of God’s Family. So what did I see last night? (It is based in the following passage) “Do unto other as you would have them do unto you.” God showed me a picture of me that I don’t like, and He wants to change it. I constantly pray to be able to love people for Him, I left my job and home, sold my tractor, moved to Pucallpa, all at His leading to care for people. But when I perceived an unfairness against me, watch out. I am going to make it right. Lord, help me to put their needs ahead of my own comforts, help me to treat them as you have treated me, Thank You for showing me my selfish hand, please take it from me.
After being gone for 6 weeks I have a lot of catching up to do. Beto (the pilot I am following) has two more weeks in Peru before his permanent return to the States. But we have seen God’s hand in our work and look forward to what comes next.
P.S. By the way, Lake Titicaca is awesome, Colca Canyon (2nd deepest in the world) is neat, La Misty should not be climbed by humans without O2, but the view from 19,000 feet is good (and the last 1000 feet long and grueling). You can see pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/odonesky/TravelsInSouthernPeru