Oh Chute!
Every plane ride here seems is an adventure of some sort. Many times, I’m seated next to or near a first-time flier, as was the case the last time I flew out of here when I was seated next to an elderly woman. This woman looked super nervous and was clutching the airsickness bag as we taxied to take off.
As the plane began heading down the runway, I reached over and patted her hand and said, “no problem”, after which the woman immediately grabbed my hand in a death grip and didn’t let go for the first 20 minutes of the 35-minute flight. As we began our ascent, she grabbed my hand again until we landed; this time I snapped a photo..
A week later, on my return flight to our village, I flew back on what was essentially a cargo flight. Because the plane was loaded beforehand, the three of us passengers boarded via this hatch, which was about four feet off the ground so one must do a one-armed pullup with the supplied handle and shimmy your way past the co-pilot’s seat. Once I sat, with my knees up to my chin due to the cargo under my feet, I noticed…
… this sign thumbtacked to the wall directly in front of me. While perusing the sign, I found something I’ve never seen on a plane before…
… the directions to find a parachute. Another bonus was that I wouldn’t have to fight the other two passengers for a parachute because the sign indicated that there were three parachutes on board the plane back near the rear exit. The only problem was that…
… it was going to be difficult to get to the back of the plane, and upon further inspection…
the seats containing the parachutes were missing. Heavy sigh!
Distributing Water Filter Sytems
Part of what was blocking my path back to my parachute was 100 of these buckets. We continue to distribute Sawyer water filter systems; 95 this past year. Each system takes two buckets that we have to buy and transport up here via an airplane.
Tambwe, Miles’ apprentice, drilled a hole in half of the buckets to accommodate the filter system and off we went.
Besides the distribution process, the video shows the beauty of our area of Minembwe.
This beauty was blocking my path on the way back from distributing filters.
I was visiting a friend at the hospital a few weeks ago and a woman approached me and said that she had received a system from us during our previous distribution, and that she is very much enjoying the good taste of the water.
The Next Step Project
The upgrade of the Next Step House for the older orphan boys was completed and the program has now been up and running since late December.
Backrow (left to right): The guys - Andre, Lawi, and Tambwe, and the “parents” Aimable and Bikumi. With Aimable and Bikumi we also inherited a Grandma and four kids.
While trying to get Grandma to smile for a photo, I broke out one of my infamous dance moves which seemed to have an effect on the others as well.
Bibles for the Orphans
During my last visit to the US, someone donated funds for Bibles. We gave the teenaged orphans each a Bible in the Kiryarwandan language. Here’s the girls writing their names in their bibles.
None of these girls had ever owned a Bible. As it is with many things we do here in Minembwe, you’ve got to start somewhere.
I was over at the orphan’s home a while later and found this same group of girls (from the photo above) bringing home wood for cooking. There’s no shortage of hard work to be done in Minembwe.
Somehow! - Michael