It has been a while since I have written any flight stories. After being in Uganda over 6 years now a lot of it is "normal" life for us. We notice this when MAF UK or one of the other MAF's ask us for a story. Often the pilots will say its just been a typical day in the "office". Then in casual conversation later on in the day you will find out that the flight consisted of flying people who couldn't drive on the roads because of land mines or flying in a team of doctors to do some medical work for the day which would have been impossible to do by road because of the time factor.
Yesterday, as you know, was Sunday and usually a day we can count on as being a non flying day. On our way back from Church we got a phone call from our Programme Manager to ask if Simon would do a medevac flight (medical evacuation) to Kisoro (border of Uganda/Rwanda). A missionary Pastor was unwell and couldn't make the trip back to Entebbe by road. If he was to make the journey by road it would have taken many many hours. By air the flight was only about 1.5 hours. Just the journey from the local clinic to the airstrip was ardous enough for this sick man. Simon said he looked pretty rough by the time he arrived at the plane. Thankfully he didn't have to go any further and Simon was able to fly him straight to Entebbe where he was connecting with an International flight the next morning. It is a good reminder for us that MAF does make a difference to people lives.
The MAF Uganda programme is now doing some regular flights into Congo now. The MAF Congo team are slowly relocating back into Congo after having to evacuate some years earlier. Since the evacuation they have been serving the people of Congo from Uganda. MAF Uganda is now doing the shuttle runs for passengers from Entebbe into Bunia. This enables the team in Congo to do longer runs within Congo and serve the people there more efficiently. As we enter into a new era with MAF International we really see it happening between our two programmes. For those who don't know MAF US, MAF Europe, MAF Australia and MAF South Africa have just recently joined together creating MAF International. There is a lot of work ahead to make it work but we hope that by joining we can better meet the needs of the people we serve.
1 comment:
Dear Simon, Thank you so much for all your help on Sunday when you flew my father-in-law Ray and I out from Kisoro to Entebbe. I am pleased to say we arrived safely back in the UK on Monday afternoon & Ray is now recovering at home with the help of his doctor. We are so grateful to you and everyone at MAF for your prompt response to our SOS. God bles you all real good!! From Simon King.
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