Time Flies When You Are Busy (and the emails get less detailed)
O Donesky
Short Version:
A week of civic flying out of Iquitos paid for us to finish visiting the remainder of the villages we are working in on the Amazon. It also allowed us to visit a bunch of new villages mainly North and West of Iquitos and allowed me to get to know the area a little. Several emergency flights and a Church building project with a group from Day Star Academy in Utah have kept us busy for most of the last two months. How quickly time has passed. Next week I leave for a stint of studying Spanish in Arequipa up in the Andes. For more detail read on. Andrew has posted some pictures for your enjoyment at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22727&id=1171340696&l=bda8c905fb.
Long Version:
Back in February, when I wrote our last update, I had just returned from a week of flying on the Amazon River out of Iquitos with the plan to spend a second week there the following week. The area around Iquitos is rich in oil, and it seems that the state government has a program where some of the proceeds from the oil are shared with the families in the local area. One of the aircraft operators in Iquitos has a contract to support this program by transporting the funds out to the villages. The pilot had the miss fortune of hitting something in the water with his Cessna 206 and damaged a float, which ended up with him sinking his airplane. Ouch, however everyone was ok and the airplane is being rebuilt. Then he hired another operator to fly their Cessna Caravan to do the work and all was fine, until they ran it into the river bank under full power and forcefully removed the floats from the airframe, effectively destroying the airplane. Ouch, everyone survived and the airplane is now back at Cessna for a rebuild. That left no one flying sea planes in Iquitos who could support this program. So for a week, we flew around the officers and money to support the families that depend on this program for their cash. It was interesting visiting a number of villages that are far from where we normally work. This civic work fit into our work plan well because we were able to visit the rest of the villages that we are working in on the Amazon for only the cost of making the local flight. It also gave me an appreciation for how big the area of Peru is where we work. This ended up not being just about flying. During the week we worked together, we had several opportunities to share with the pilot the love of Christ. He knows that he survived two aircraft accidents for a reason. He and his wife even joined us for church the last weekend we were together.
Upon returning from Iquitos Beto went to the states for a visit with his family. Odil and I spent the time getting ready to host a group from Day Star Academy in Utah. This was an interesting project because the group was scheduled to build a church in the village of Tiruntan (S7 56.826 W74 50.514) some 8 hours (by boat, 20 min by air) down river from the base. The village is not at the end of the world, however it is far enough out that everything had to be purchased in advance and taken with us from Pucallpa. Since there was no running water, we took 35, five gallon water containers for drinking and packed most of our food in 55 gallon drums which we used for bucket showers once we arrived. The group of students were troopers, they also put up with no electricity and an overabundance of mosquitoes. Our time in Tiruntan was not in vain, the whole town took notice of why the Americans had come and there was a huge impact on the young people of the town. Besides building the church during the day, we held evangelistic meetings at night and had a special program for the children. For the church dedication the church was full to overflowing. Even the local bar closed down during the dedication. It was a blessing to see people willing to change and wanting a better life for themselves and their families. We came home exhausted and are still recuperating.
One highlight of our time in Tiruntan was Christina’s 11th birthday. See, she is at an age when she says she would like everyone to forget her birthday, but you know she really does not mean it. So to her chagrin (pleasure) her birthday was well advertised by all to all. So now it is your chance, her email is flick...@gmail.com and she loves emails :-D , and remember she was 11 on the 19th of March.
Around the above activities we have done some civic and emergency flying. One day we even had two calls at the same time, a poisonous snake bite and a post partum bleeding patient. How we wish we could do more. This week we transported a 3 hour old baby and his father, to be treated for an abnormality in his abdomen. We have also flown a couple of trips for the local mission. Beto and I spent last weekend with the Mission President in Saramiriza (S4 deg 33.917 min W77 deg 24.800 min on Google map) providing him with much needed transportation to the end of the world. I was told that for him to travel there by other methods would have required a minimum of two days each way and we covered it in 3 hours.
Next week I am going to experience my worst fear in checking into an institution for learning Spanish. I will be spending 4 to 6 weeks, by myself, in intensive study of the Spanish language. I will be living with a Peruvian family and focusing all of my time on Spanish. I long to be able to share the Love of Jesus and hope of the Bible truths with those I come in contact. Please pray that this time of learning will give me a working knowledge of Spanish. Thanks to the donors who have helped cover the costs of this training.
For your entertainment needs Andrew has posted a few pictures from our time in Tiruntan. You will find them at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22727&id=1171340696&l=bda8c905fb.