Happy New Years/Update From Peru
O Donesky
Short Version: To Andrew’s joy we have rejoined the 21st century with a reasonable internet connection. This required the building of a 100 foot tower with a wireless link to downtown Pucallpa some 5 miles away, but so far so good. Andrew has it set up so we can move from the office to the house with a wireless connection the full way. What a blessing. With his new found connection he has also uploaded some pictures for your enjoyment. They can be found at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=14377&l=cf5ce&id=1171340696 . We have done about 10 hours of flying in the Lake. Lots of water, lots of places to land and lots of villages to visit. Currently the Bible Workers are at home for the holidays, the launch is home for the holidays and flying is a little slow. But there is still plenty to do around the base to keep us busy.
Long Version: Andrew’s favorite subject – Internet. When we got here the base was running off of one cell phone internet device with a max speed of about 40. However often we were getting speeds of 1 to 5 and running multiple computers off of the connection (like we did in Tennessee) was not a real viable option. Before coming to Peru I had been introduced to satellite weather maps on the internet and a device called SPOT for keeping track of family and friends beyond cell phone coverage. Both technologies seemed really good in support of my flying, but both were internet intensive and not practical with the old internet. So we went looking for other options. Long story short the best option we found was an arrangement with TexMex (Telephone Mexico) where if we built a 100 foot tower, they would, for a reasonable cost, provide us with a direct data link from their office 5 miles away in downtown Pucallpa for both Internet and two phone lines. Building the tower was another story. We did our homework, selected a supplier, made a down payment, did our ground work and on the appointed day the guys came out to build our tower. After we had four sections up I was looking and noticed brush marks on one of the sections of tower. This didn’t seem right because the tower was specked to be galvanized. We brought it to the attention of the owner and boy was she hot. It seems that she and her husband were having difficulties in their marriage and he had order several additional sections of tower for her from Lima for our project and had order them without galvanizing. So everything stopped while the sections were reordered, ended up on a slow truck from Lima, showed up a week latter and finally on Christmas Eve we had a complete good looking 100 foot tower complete with light and lighting protection ready for use. We would like to publicly thank the donor who so generously supported the building of the tower for Peru Projects. We were unable to get Andrew internet for Christmas, but last Friday, TelMex showed up on schedule and the job was completed. Yes, it is good. Each of us are connected. Emails show up in a timely manner and we are starting to use the technology of email for internal communication here on the airbase. We were able to watch a major storm system move across Pucallpa yesterday on the satellite image. SPOT, its great, what a blessing to have a more dependable way of following the movement of the airplane than trying to transmit locations via the Ham Radio. Ok enough of Internet. . .
Last update we left you in Lima expecting my pilot’s license the next day. Well I am happy to report I have it. It seemed so hopeless on Wednesday, but by Friday it was in my pocket, what a blessing. We have some more challenges for our next trip to Lima but we will talk about those another day. So we headed home with full permission to fly the Lake Renegade. Beto (the pilot I am replacing) had not flown for some time so there were several villages that our director wanted us to visit. I am happy to report that the Lake flies the same in the southern hemisphere as state side. Paul, Luke, Peter, Thank you for your help preparing me for the operation of the Lake airplane. So after a few landings at the base and on the water, I was ready to go to work. My job for the next while is to learn all I can from Beto about flying in Peru. There is not much air traffic to contend with, the controllers speak some English, although some are easier to understand than others. Weather can be an issue however the internet satellite images should help with some of those surprises. There are not a lot of places for emergency landing on wheels (when we start flying the 182) but with the Lake there are lots of water options. One of the most interesting problems is beaching the Lake. Between wind and current and always being met by different people who I can’t talk with, things can get interesting. One of my major assignments is to master basic communication in Spanish.
In the Airplane we have visited a number of villages and towns looking at church building projects and working with the churches. Beto is also recognized as a Pastor and has preformed many baptisms for the people who have been prepared by the Bible Workers. There are two kinds of settlements. Village life is quite simple. Most villages are set up along a “main street”. In some cases the main street doubles as the landing strip. Most villages have a generator and an electrical system, however the generators are only run on special occasions. Life in the village is made up of gardening, fishing and generally surviving. No one seems to be in much of a hurry. Every now and then they may sell some fish, produce or wood to make some cash to buy what the jungle does not provide. There may be someone who brings supplies into the village and runs a little store but don’t expect a Wal Mart. As we spent the night in one of these villages it hit me how different life was even compared to the life we have now chosen at the airbase, let alone life in Tennessee. I am not sure of what direct role we will play with reaching out to villagers, now I am coming to see our role as a supporting role to the Bible Workers and the launch, who have come from the different cultures of Peru to minister to their own people.
Happy News Year,
Orville Donesky