Days Come Days Go but Where do the Monthes Go?
O Donesky
For two weeks I have been trying to write an update for each of you. I don’t know what I have been doing or where the time is going but to date your update is still disjointed words in this draft email. I guess I have been back in Pucallpa for a couple of months since I spent my time studying Spanish. I will try to recap the last couple of months and get it sent.
After my return to Pucallpa, I had two weeks of final training with Beto. Since Beto’s departure, I have been kind of on my own. Not totally, it has been good to be able to discuss things with Chris our new mechanic/backup pilot that has joined us here.
Most mornings as the dawn comes to the air base where we live I do not have a clue what the day may hold. This is a feeling that I have always tried to avoid. I always wanted to be in control of the situation that I was in. In the States I never wanted a pager and the control that it would give to others over my life. For years I avoided a cell phone and allowing others free access to me any time any where. Now my day can be changed in an instance. Thursday I was doing paper work for the DGAC. Now the DGAC likes their paperwork. As the final forms were just being signed and sealed the phone rang. It was a request for an emergency flight to Puerto Breu, over by the Brazilian border, to pick up a child with Pneumonia. Could we come? How soon? “Yes, I think I can be airborne in 20 minutes.” Flight Plan filled out, Faxed, Confirmed, Fuel in airplane Checked, Confirmed, Preflight complete, Emergency and Tool Kit in the airplane, Flight bag and Head set transferred to the correct airplane. Everyone was involved in making it happen. I get dressed up to look the part of pilot, a prayer for safety and God’s blessing on our passengers and I am off. At this time I have an hour and 20 minutes to think about what has just happened. It is a nice day. A scattered layer of clouds add something for me to play with as I fly along. The jungle stretches for miles in all directions crossed by the occasional river or stream. Below me, I see the occasional evidence of human life, a clearing, a building, a village. What am I doing in Peru? From a human perspective you might blame my career change on a late midlife crises. If you are a bit suspicious of the financial position of the USA, you might think I am trying to escape the coming predicted melt down as the bailout bubble bursts in 2011. Why would anyone in their right mind walk away from a great career to sweat out each day flying around the Jungles of South America? Two babies, two mothers and a nurse all safely transported to Pucallpa for advanced medical care.
That was written last week but, it happened again twice this week. Different locations, different people, but same concept. Maybe this is where my days go.
A couple of weeks back one of our Bible workers was traveling on a local wooden boat that was hit by a barge in the middle of the night. It seems that the barge hit the boat dead center and broke it in half. Many hurt and dead, lots of kids. We did not hear about the incident until late in the afternoon the next day. We made plans to fly out the next morning to check on our Bible worker who was reported to be ok but suffering from a concussion. Long story short, when we got to the village most of the hurt and dead had already be transported back to Pucallpa, except one child. It seemed that the child was traveling with his grandmother. Could we help? Not a fun, or comfortable flight, but that little box and grandmother joined us for the return flight. The boy’s father lived in the town right next to our airbase. Help for a family who did not know how to transport the child they had lost.
Looking back a couple more weeks we had a group of kids come to work on finishing up some of the projects here at the base that the March group had not had time to do. We were just starting to have lots of fun with the group, then we got a request to do some flying out of Iquitos. So off Chris and I go to Iquitos for a week. It was a good chance to revisit some of the distance spots that Beto and I had visited back in February but also a lot of flying. We got home just in time to make a supply trip to the Medical Launch (most of the way back to Iquitos), catch my breath then we got asked to return to Iquitos for another day of flying. We wondered why are we being asked to do all of this civic work out of Iquitos? I flew the route we had been asked to cover, and was preparing to fly back to Pucallpa, when we got a request to make a emergency medical run down the Amazon most of the way to the Brazil border. So the next morning, I found myself flying east instead of home. The lady that we were involved in transporting had lost a baby, and in the process of taking the dead baby by C section they had nicked her liver and could not stop the bleeding. It is always a good feeling to land with the patient still alive. I look at the time spent: was it about building a relationship with a fellow pilot, helping the people in the villages we visited, transporting a half dead lady for medical help? I don’t know but that is life in Peru.
So what do we do for fun? Get ready to fly again.
For your enjoyment: http://www.youtube.com/user/adonesky#play/all/uploads-all/0/NAvEOqxfTgs
Orville
Short Version:
Since being back from language school things have not been exactly boring. We had a group of Kids from the states helping fix things up around the base. Beto (the pilot I am replacing) returned to the States. A week of flying in Iqutos. Several supply trips to the medical launch currently working on the Marenion river. A second short visit to Iqutos, ending with an emergency medical flight.