Flat battery and some treasure

Last week Simon was flying a regular Northern shuttle flight around the north of Uganda.  However, all did not go according to plan.  As Simon was planning to leave he realized that the plane wouldn't start due to the failure of the igniter box.  He was able to radio back to the office and organize for another pilot to fly up with an engineer so that the part could be replaced.  Of course, this took some time and as you will see from the photos below there is not a Starbucks (that comment was for you Ian :) or equivalent that you can relax in while waiting.  However, Simon being a lover of wood was not bored while he waited and took off into the bush in the hunt for some unique pieces.  You will see the pile below that he travelled back with.  Not a wasted day at all. :)  Now we just need to see what appears out the woodshop.

A typical landscape of Kaabong District taken from Wikipedia.

 

 

Above and below, Mark Newnham, MAF Maintenance Engineer.  Thankful for our Maintenance Team who keep our planes in great working order.

 

Behind Mark is the other pilot, Greg Vine, who helped to rescue Simon.  We have a great MAF team!

 

Simon's "treasure" which he found scrounging around in the bush in Kaabong district.  Doesn't look like much now but with a bit of Simon magic we will see what comes of it all.

Eventful Week

Some of you might have read the header of this post and thought "what now?" :)  This time it is all good news.

Joshua and Zara had a busy week between an Athletics meeting at another school.  Zara came first in her race.  Joshua said she was way ahead of everyone else.  Great to have encouragement from your older brother.  Joshua, unfortunately, didn't fair as well due to having to race against kids two years older than him. (I guess there was a bit of confusion going on)  However, we were proud of him for going for it anyway.

Last night (Friday) Zara was selected to be in the talent show at her school.  Her and some friends auditioned for a magic act.  It went great as did all the other kids who sang, acted and played instruments.  They were quite the talented bunch and to have all that confidence to do it in front of such a large crowd.

The weather has also changed here. For some reading this post you will find this to be normal where you live but for us the last few months have been hot, hot, hot.  We have now moved from living in a dust bowl to something quite pleasant after having a couple of days of heavy rain.  On Thursday when I went to do the school run the dirt road I use to get there was more like a gushing river bed.  Thankfully we have a car that can handle that and made it without any incident. 

Another momentous occasion is that our wall is up.  It is not pretty but its functional.  There are still bits to be put right but they will happen in time...hopefully not "African" time.  One downside of getting the wall put up was that all our lovely bougainvillea got hacked so now we are looking at a grey wall rather than an array of colour.  However, our grass has turned this week from being brown to green again so colour is returning.

Our faithful guard dog and family pet "Chewy".  She has sure protected us on a number of occasions.

 

Part of our colourful wall before it disappeared.

 

The next layers of bricks going on top.

 

 

Check out the scaffolding...a couple of poles and a few planks of wood.  Health and safety would have a fit here but it works.

 

 Navigating the river to school

 

 

Unfortunately the photo of Zara didn't come out well.  Might get one from a friend that I can post later.