« May 2002 | Main | July 2002 »

What can I tell

What can I tell you about today? We did the usual. Ate a puff pancake and listened to our church tape. It's so neat to be able to have those tapes. Without speaking spanish, going to church here is so difficult, especially for the boys.

After church we had to get a few things together for someone to take to Sucua. There will be three MAF families living in Sucua in a month. Two are there now. We're slowly sending all their belongings down. It's been a while since MAF has had any pilots at the Sucua base full-time, now we have two pilots there. Darryl and Sandi Holland used to be here in Shell. Chad and Andi Irwin are new to the program. In a few weeks a teacher will also be in Sucua. She's coming to teach two of the Holland boys. The other one will be at boarding school in Quito since he's in high school. The teacher, Suzie Kroker, used to teach in PNG. She arrived just a few months after I left in 1980. It's a small world. Here we both are in Ecuador.

Tomorrow the neighborhood is going to have a hotdog roast and celebrate Canadian Independence day. We're doing that because our neighbor is from Canada. The question is, should we invite the two MAF families who live off the base? We don't want to leave them out and offend them, but at the same time, we don't want this to turn into a big event. It was just supposed to be three neighboring families getting together to roast a few dogs. It's not always fun when the people you work with are the people you socialize with. This is one of those times when it might get awkward.

On a work related note, I rebuilt my server for Quito one more time this weekend. And it still isn't working the way it should. Tomorrow I'm going to take off in a different direction with it and see if I can't do something to get a working system.

By the time Brian

By the time Brian was done flying today he'd flown 5.9 hours. That's a lot for a pilot down here. His first flight out to the jungle took a boy dying with hepatitas back to his village. Then on the return flight he picked up a one-month old baby who had been bit on the top of the head by a bat. After that he made two round trips up to Quito. The guy loves to fly.

It's a little after dinner. The kids are going to play Capture the Flag tonight, an all-time Shell favorite. Taylor really looks forward to it and gets dressed up in his best camoflauge outfit. Dustin doesn't care for it, so he's downstairs watching a movie. I think he and Ellyn are going to make some cookies in a few minutes. We went out at six to pick up dinner. A whole roasted chicken, lots of rice, some fries, and a small salad. All for $8. But we didn't have quite that much. We were 60¢ short, but the owner said we could bring it to her on Sunday. Such is life in the small town of Shell. I can't tell you the number of times I've been to a store and been a bit short, but was able to bring it in at a later time.

Right now I'm yet again reinstalling the software on the server for Quito. I still haven't got it working, but I won't rest until I do. I've got the machine at home again and set up in the study so I can work on it here.

Today is a day

Today is a day with sad news. I got to work for prayer and Brian had just finished loading his plane. One of the passengers was a four year old boy with hepatitas. His parents were with him. He is there only son. His condition is beyond treatment, so his parents are taking him back home to the jungle so he can die at home. I don't know if his parents or he are believers, but I know the doctors and nurses at Vozandes shared the love of Jesus with him. That is if he was at that hospital. It's possible he was at the hospital in Puyo.

Then I just found out that the same flight that will bring Ellyn back to Shell will also bring a body back. When Ellyn went to Quito on Tuesday, she flew on an emergency flight with this same person. Three days later and she is flying back and the patient is dead.

It's just about time

It's just about time to walk across the street to the hangar. Actually, I've been walking back and forth quite a bit this week. Ellyn went to Quito on Tuesday to get some things done, so I've been holding down the fort and being both mom and dad. With the office just across the street, it's easy to check on the guys.

On Wednesday I took my Quito server back over to the hangar. It had been here at the house, but since things weren't going well with it here, I took it over there. The problem is with the dial-up part, where it must connect with an internet service provider to send mail to Redlands. I need it to connect every thirty minutes. It never connects at all, unless I do it manually. I have it on the network at the hangar right now, and it's working great. I'm waiting for the guys at Redlands to work out a fix with Micro$oft and send it to me.

Dustin is doing much better. I took him to the doctor again in the afternoon yesterday, but by the time the appointment rolled around, we could have skipped the visit. But with all the hospital time he's done in the past two years because of infections, I didn't want to take a chance. Looks like all he had was a case of the flu or stomach bug. He did wake up yesterday with a huge lower lip. At first we wondered if that was the cause of the fever--another infection. Turns out it's a fever blister, or cold sore. Ellyn has had them all her life, and he was really bummed to get one. He doesn't want to think about getting those for the rest of his life. We'll have to wait and see.

I woke up about five this morning and heard a rat chewing in the kitchen, maybe in a wall. I've know they're around, and have been leaving poisen out all week. I can see I need to get serious.

Dustin is sick. He

Dustin is sick. He started feeling bad yesterday at noon when we came back from getting water. A sore throat and feeling yucky. By early evening he had a high fever and was vomiting. He managed to sleep most of the night, but still has a headache and fever this morning.

The trampoline is set

The trampoline is set up again. Wonder why they say these unsupervised backyard tramps are dangerous? Then again, the boys make it look easy. Dustin has forward and backward flips down pat.

Bruce took this shot of a bird that chewed it's way out of it's little wicker cage. Wonder if it tried to fly around the cabin in flight? I forgot to ask him.

John and Joe have

John and Joe have been working on changing a landing gear saddle. They get changed every 4000 hours anyway, but this one is cracked. The plane is in for a 1000 hour inspection.

I'm making some progress

I'm making some progress with my Quito server. It's been slow, but I've been plugging along. Maybe next week I'll be ready to take it to Quito.

Guess I've taken enough

Guess I've taken enough time off from this. I'm not trying to avoid it, but it's been a nice break. We had a nice weekend. I managed to check a few more things off the to-do list again this Saturday. Oh, and also slept in until 10 AM. That was probably the best thing about the day! I was running really low on sleep. Sunday we listened to our church tape in the morning. We're trying something new and made this Sunday more of a family day, with the boys staying around the house instead of playing with friends or having friends over to the house. Ellyn and I tried to do more things with them, and they really enjoyed the day. I expected more of a fight from them about not being able to play with friends, but it never came. I think the fact that they had more of their parents' attention made a difference.

Here I am

Well, here I am again. I'm hoping to get a lot done today on the setup of the e-mail server I'm working on. We'll see. I'm working on the server at the house, as I need to be able to have it call over to the hangar to get on the internet. It's a similar scenario where this server will be placed in Quito, so I'm trying to simulate that. I also need to run to a client's place to update some anti-virus software. After lunch I'm going over to the HCJB hospital to help them with a web site they want to start. There's plenty to do today.

I should mention that

I should mention that those many landings the pilots make are on s that are dirt and grass, and often very muddy and slippery. I would say that most of them are in the range of 400 to 500 meters. If you do the math, that's about 1300' to 1600'. Not very long! Coming in low over trees, no margin for error, some s with no option for a go-around. This is stressful flying.

Father's Day

I had a nice Father's Day. Except for my coffee maker which keeps getting clogged and dripping all over the counter. After listening to our church service tape I helped Dustin with his balsa model. Then it was off to lunch in Puyo with a couple other MAF families. This afternoon was relaxing and easy going. Now I'm tired and ready for bed.

I was talking with Brian this evening. He's the pilot helping us out for the summer. In the past four days he's flown 21 hours and made 67 landings! That's a lot of flying. On Friday he made 21 of those landings. This is all in a single-engine Cessna 206. There isn't a waitress serving him cold drinks and snacks. This is constant loading and unloading the plane in humid jungle heat.

I had a slow

I had a slow and relaxing day. I think this is the first day since we moved into the new house that I haven't felt like my life was moving at a pace I couldn't keep up with. I slept in until 9:30 AM and that was nice. After that I helped Dustin with his balsa model and started the go-kart for the guys to take turns on. I also tinkered around the house and was able to cross several things off the to-do list. Also, I've started another John Grisham novel. I think that's a good sign, because if I have time to read something, then my life is going at a good pace. The one thing I've let drop is a workout program. I need to get back into riding my bike again. I've got my eye on a long ride out into the jungle and back. Out to a place called Arajuno. Back when Nate Saint was flying around he used to go there. The times have changed, and now there's a road all the way there.

Two of the pilots were flying today. Saturday is treated as a scheduled flight day with only one pilot flying. Today both Bruce and Brian were out. They were gone most of the day, and both were back just before 6 PM. Brian said the weather out in the jungle was nasty. It was good here in Shell all day long.

The worst part about today was putting Canela to sleep. It's a long story and I really don't want to go into the whole thing. Not sure what I already mentioned in here, but Canela was a seven year old boxer we got from the Ross family when they went back to the States this summer. The idea was that we'd take her for the summer, and if it worked out for us, we'd keep her even when they came back in August. As it turns out she was sick, with an abcessed liver and cancer. This morning we had her put to sleep. I had really started to get attached, so it was hard for me. She was Taylor's dog, and he was sad about it today to. It didn't seem so at first, but as the day went on we could see the emotions showing. We'll let some time go by and then we'll start to look for a puppy.

I found out later

I found out later that the snake had actually struck at the maid while she was getting something out of the closet. I'm glad she wasn't bitten!

Aagghhhhh! It happened!

Aagghhhhh! It happened! I knew it would eventually, but I hoped it really wouldn't. We found our first snake in the house. We lived almost two years in our other place and never found a snake in the house. The people who previously lived in our house seemed to find a small coral snake in the house every few months. As soon as I got to work I got a call from Ellyn to come home and take care of this snake. I ran across the street and found a small snake on a shelf of the door of the utility closet. I scooped it into a garbage can and realized it wasn't so small--about 18" long. I hate snakes!

I keep telling the boys to keep the back door shut. I think that's where they can get in. They leave it open all the time. When we first moved in I put a doorknob on that door, as it only had a deadbolt and the kids were forever leaving it open. Truth is, they still leave it open, but they're getting better. Our other house had screen doors with springs, so there was never a problem with doors not getting closed. But this snake was upstairs. The others that have been in the house have all been downstairs. I hate snakes! I can't believe God brought me to a place where there are a ton of snakes, and 30 species of them are poisonous. One statistic though. Even though we bring small kids with snake bites in from the jungle on a weekly basis, in fifty years of missionaries being in Shell, no missionary kid has ever been bitten by a snake.

I was wiped out

I was wiped out yesterday in the evening. It had been a long day, but I was able to accomplish much. I spent some time finishing up with a machine I'm getting ready to use for some testing. I signed up an new e-mail client and went to her house to set up her computer. I spent quite a bit of time troubleshooting the server at the school which provides internet access to the four workstations there. I still haven't recovered from my vacation. You ever come back more tired from a vacation than when you left?

We had Joe over for dinner. He's a 24 year old from Redding, California. He's just finished A&P school and he's here to help with aircraft maintenance for the summer. He's known for quite a few years that he wants to get involved in missions somewhere in South America, so this summer is a bit of exploration for him. His next step is to get his pilot's license.

After dinner Dustin and I started on a balsa model plane that he ordered on the web and had hand-carried down here. He's been patiently waiting, but I think his patience ran out last night. We took the picnic table of the back patio and put that in the bodega so we have a table to work at. The bodega (storage room) is a great place to work because there is a lot of room and we have a dehumidifier in there. It's nice and dry, so good for balsa work. The model is a Corsair that is rubber band powered.

During the trumpet concert

During the trumpet concert Bruce came in and wanted me to get a picture of a walking stick bug. He was across the street working on the water tank. When we came back from Quito we found that there was a water shortage on the base. Today Bruce found that the inlet pipe had been blocked right at the float valve. Our water situation is back to normal again. It's amazing that in a place where it rains more than twenty feet a year we can sometimes be short of water. The tank that we use for our water storage supplies five families. It's right next to Nate Saint's house and I'm not sure how old the tank is. I'll bet it dates back to the sixties.

Right after leaving the tank I went over and climbed twenty feet up a tower to take this picture of our 'new' place. It was good to come back home after being in Quito for the week. Quito is noisy, busy, and at almost 10,000', a bit draining for us. It's always nice to come back to quiet little Shell.

As I headed back to the hangar I took this photo of Ellyn. She was walking back from the road with Lucy. Every once in a while Lucy heads out to sit on the fence by the street, which is quite busy. It makes me feel a bit better when she's not six feet from buses and trucks whizzing by at 50 mph.

I had the chance to look at the road when I went up to get water today. It was just like they said. The whole road had fallen off the side of the cliff and into the Rio Pastaza. From the road down to the river is almost two hundred feet. That would be a long way to fall. An hour and a half after we drove over that spot, it fell away. When we prayed for the Lord's protection as we left Quito at noon, we had no idea what that would mean by the end of the afternoon.

We had a good time getting to know Brian a little this evening. He was here in Shell many years. His kids went from toddlers to junior high here. He was flying with Bruce Wied today, and he said it was great to be back. Bruce's Ecuadorian license finally came through. Brian was checking Bruce out on s today. Before MAF pilots can fly on their own, they must be checked out on each they will be flying in to. This can mean taking off and landing five or six times at a for a new pilot. Since Bruce has a couple year's experience flying with MAF in Venezuela, it didn't take that long. At any rate, they flew 5.8 hours and had 18 landings today. Let me tell you, that's a lot of flying! The weather was great, but the s were sloppy. Here's a photo of Panchito unloading the pod before Brian took off for one short trip at 4:30 PM. Check out all that mud!

I've got to run

I've got to run home in a minute. Brian Shepson is coming over for dinner. He's a pilot who used to be based in Shell a few years ago. Now he works at MAF headquarters in Redlands, California. He's down is Shell for almost two months to help us out with the flying, since we're short on pilots. He just landed a few minutes ago. He's getting his own trumpet concert. Pablo, who used to be an MAF pilot, brought in a friend to play a few songs for us. We put up some benches in the hangar at 5 PM and had a little concert. The guy is from Bogota, Colombia, and plays in the presidential band there. He also plays at his church and where ever else he can.

Well, back to work.

Well, back to work. Here's the scene. I'm trying to clean up, organize, and get ready for some serious work here. I brought back a Codan radio/modem and the Quito office mail server. I'm going to try and set it all up here, then take it up to Quito and put it into place. That should save me a week of work in Quito and being away from home. To make it work I've had to add a modem to my workstation computer. But now I've run into trouble, as the computer only has one serial port. I'm using that for the mouse, but I need another serial port for the Codan modem. So now I'm stuck trying to figure our what to do.

We arrived back in

We arrived back in town from Quito this afternoon, about 5:30 PM. As we passed the section of the road just before the Camp Mangayacu driveway, I noticed that there were several big cracks in the road. They were big enough for me to feel them as I drove over them. There was a truck and a couple guys unloading piles of dirt and rock. I commented to Ellyn and the boys that the road didn't look good, and that it was right next to the cliff by the Pastaza River. About 7:30 PM tonight Jim Shoberg called me and told me that God must have been watching over us. The road had collapsed sometime after we drove by, leaving no way to get between BaÒos and Shell! Apparently they'd been expecting this might happen, as the province has been making plans recently to detour traffic through the camp while they worked on the road. Guess they'll have to hurry now! I'm heading out that way to get drinking water tomorrow, so I'll take some photos.

We're cleaning up in

We're cleaning up in the apartment, getting ready to head back to Shell. We're leaving the truck here at the Nissan dealer and going back down in an MAF van. It's an old Ford, and very rattly, but it should get us there. The Nissan needs a clutch replacement and we need to wait two weeks while they import the parts from Japan. We'll miss having the car in Shell, but it needs to be done. It's not our car, and I want to take good care of it. I'm not sure where the money will come from to pay for the new clutch, as it's quite a bit, but I know the Lord will take care of that. He always makes sure our needs are taken care of. Funny thing is, no matter how often I am reminded of that, my first reaction isn't always full peace that He will take care of it. I'm slowly learning though.

Anyway, I won't keep

Anyway, I won't keep boring you with whatever it is we do on vacation. The point is, that it's really fun for us to get out of little Shell and come to the big city. It's not quite like the States, but it does give us a fix of modern life and convenience so we can go back to the edge of the rainforest for a while longer. Don't get me wrong. We like Shell a lot, but every once in a while we have to get a taste of the big time.

It was a beautiful

It was a beautiful clear and sunny morning when I woke up. Lots of blue sky and three of the big volcanos were out. How'd you like to have a view like this from you're kitchen window?

The guard buzzed us at 4:55 AM so I could move the truck out of the driveway. Ughh! Then I was up again to take the truck to the Nissan dealer. I thought it was a minor problem with the clutch. Turns out it's going to cost a lot to replace three parts of the clutch. Ouch!

Another reason it's not much of a vacation--we went to the dentist this morning. We all had our teeth checked and cleaned. None of us have cavities, but Ellyn needs to have an old filling replaced. We all felt like the cleaning hurt a lot more and was really rough. We miss our dentist back in Oakhurst, Dr. Jones!

To put a little fun in the day, I took the boys bowling. It was a nice place not too far from where we're staying. We couldn't get a lane with bumpers, but the boys did very well anyway.

It's cold and damp

It's cold and damp here in Quito. With a year round average temperature of about 63� F, it's not exactly a warm place. More like eternal spring. But since it's been rainy and cloudy for the past three weeks, the whole city is cold. It's 61� F in the house right now, and there is no source of heat other than an electric blanket.

I raced the family today. They rode the elevator, and I ran up ten flights of stairs. They beat me by a few seconds, and at an elevation of almost 10,000 feet, I was quite winded.

There's an old Mack truck parked across the street. I figured my dad would get a kick out of seeing that photo. Our family is from the part of Pennsylvania where Mack trucks are built.

So far it hasn't felt like much of a vacation. Too many errands. Also today and tomorrow I have to get up a six each morning to move the car out of the parking garage so others can get out too. It's a pain, but it's a safe place to park. We've got more errrands tomorrow, and then maybe the weekend will be better.

What a long day.

What a long day. Started off with me getting the stairs ready to varnish. With us heading off to Quito for six days, now was a good time to cut off the top and bottom floor of the house with layer of Varathane. The stairs had been refinished months ago before we moved in, but they needed one more coat. I was hoping to leave by 11 AM for Quito. Right! I had forgotten that a good painting job takes a lot of prep. I don't think I actually started brushing the Varathane on until 11 AM. By the time we left town, it was 1:40. It's a five hour drive to Quito, and I really don't like driving at night. Great, we should make it, as sunset is about 6:15.

Well, an hour in Baños took care of that. We stopped at our favorite restaurant there, the Inca Flame. They have great Mexican food. Then I wanted to see if I could sell a tagua 'cabeza' that Sandy had left me. He had decided not to take it in his shipment since it's a seed and would probably be a problem. There are some people who work with tagua in Baños and I thought I could make a quick buck. If you're not sure what tagua is, it's often called vegetable ivory. Take a look at this page. Anyway, it turns out that the cabeza was no good. Rotten. So while Ellyn and the boys picked out a couple tagua rings, I ran the 'cabeza' back to Don at the Inca Flame. We had told him what we were up to, and he said if we couldn't sell it he'd like it for his place. So now he has a new decoration.

Once we got to Quito we went straight to eat. Dustin was worried that McDonalds would close before we could get there. The fast food places don't stay open all that late here. Not to worry, they were still open and we were soon stuffing our faces. The Big Macs weren't all that great, but the fries were wonderful! There's nothing like that in our little town of Shell.

More later. I've got to get to bed. I must get up at 6 AM to move the truck. In order to park it in a safe place off the street, I parked it in the drive that goes to the basement parking. I need to move it so that people can get to work.

I was hoping to

I was hoping to get to this last night but it didn't happen. Ellyn went to a MAF staff meeting, and I stayed home with the guys. I was hoping to get some work done with Brian up in Quito. I've got a test server set up and have a Codan HF radio and modem connected to it. He's going to try and call in from Quito with his notebook and a radio modem. It took him longer to configure the software than we thought it would, and then he ran into a problem with the modem. We didn't get a connection. Today I go up to Quito, so that may be the end of our testing for a while since I won't be down here to tweak things if we work on it up there.

Yesterday was water day again. The boys each invited a friend and hopped in the trailer with all the containers. It's nice being in a country that isn't so worried about liability. On the other hand, sometimes I wish people were more concerned with that. Drivers pass on the roads in the craziest places. Yesterday was interesting, as I headed down the hill towards the bridge over the Alpayacu river. A bus was passing a truck coming up the hill on a curve. I had to slow way down and pull over to avoid being hit. That got my pulse going. Then, around the next corner a police car came up behind me with lights flashing. I knew my papers were in order, but I still started to get nervous. I slowed down, but he just wanted to pass me. Several people in the police car waved at the boys in the trailer as they passed. Whew!

The boys enjoyed playing in the empty pool again. I think that will become a mini summer tradition. The pool is actually a stream that gets dammed when they want to fill it. There is always something new and interesting to do, as there is always something different about the way the water is running through. There weren't a lot of containers to fill, and before long I had filled them all from the spring. It's easy to do, as they have set up a resevoir and a faucet, and I just hook up a hose. By the way, for those of you wondering, the verses on the sign are John 4:13-14.

I can't wait for

I can't wait for things to just slow down. I'm beat. I was able to get some things done today, and that's always a good thing. I was up 'til almost 1 AM last night working on a multimedia kiosk idea I have for our home church, Sierra Vista Presbyterian Church. On top of that I have a newsletter to get out the door soon, and that's hanging over my head. Also I'm trying to get a level spot in the side yard so we can get our trampoline set up. Thankfully a great young man by the name of Jorge has been helping us out. I had to take part of the tramp frame over to the hangar so that I could weld a small crack that had started. The original owners of the trampoline had the frame made down here in Shell, and it's actually quite a good one.

Alpha, the new hangar

Alpha, the new hangar cat has become my friend. Since I'm going to be here through out the summer, I volunteered to make sure he gets fed. Bingo, I have a friend! He loves cat and dog food, but is not above eating a cockroach or a bird now and then. Sounds yummy, doesn't it? Alpha is the replacement for Flash. Flash was the hangar cat about ten months ago. I think he was too friendly, because one day he was cat-napped and never seen again. Flash was a cool cat, and even managed to stow away on more than one MAF plane headed to the jungle.

We're flying again. Guess

We're flying again. Guess we have insurance once more. I haven't heard the whole story as to why there was a gap in our coverage.

When it rains it

When it rains it pours. So they say. But here in Shell it rains a lot. I don't mind the rain because it's a warm rain, and because it usually doesn't last more than a few hours before you see the sun again. Often a huge rain storm lasts less than an hour. And then there are the occasions where it rains continually for days and days. Fortunately that doesn't happen all that often. It's raining steadily right now, and it has been since about midnight last night. It looks like we'll have insurance and might be flying today by noon, but that's only if the weather cooperates. By the way, a twenty year record of rainfall here in Shell shows that we get about twenty feet a year. This chart shows the average rainfall per month over twenty years. For those of you who don't want to add up the numbers, it's 232.2 inches a year!

My commute has gotten

My commute has gotten shorter. I now have a walk of about 30 seconds to get to work. This photo is taken from my front door looking toward the MAF hangar.