Good morning, I hope you are all doing well.

I’ve been in Africa for almost 2 weeks now and I love it!

Internet is scarce and very slow (128Kbps), so I apologize for not writing until today.

I will try keeping my blog updated, but not a whole of pictures will be up, they are too large to upload.

I wanted to share a bit of my day today August 15th. It started as a pretty standard day, got up at 6, started doing maintenance at the hangar at 7, tea break and prayer time at 10, but at noon while I was scrubbing some dirty upholstery, Ryan (one of the mechanics) asked if I wanted to go on a flight on a Cessna Caravan.

Cessna Caravan

I was dying to go flying and obviously it’s was just like offering candy to a 5 year old… I had no clue where I was headed other than up.

I saw a paramedic rushing through our hangar loading her equipment into our plane which was being fueled and checked by Mike Delorenzo. I was upstairs changing “hats” from a dirty mechanic to a neat 4-bar-captain-pilot’s uniform.

I helped Mike get the plane ready, one paramedic jumped in the plane, there was 3 seats and an empty stretcher. We started up and headed to customs, which to me doesn’t make any sense since it’s a regional in-country flight…it only adds up unnecessary wear on our planes and lots of ridiculous paperwork, which sometimes can really cost lives (I am not exaggerating either).

We quickly taxied down to customs, cleared everything, and asked the tower to depart. We took off due east, climbing out to 11000 feet (Nairobi is 5500ft). In the air I found out we were headed to pick up a patient out in the boonies that was in pretty bad shape. The plan was to bring him back to Nairobi where better hospitals are available.

We were climbing at 130mph and later cruising at 155mph. It was a quick flight, about 50 minutes. Beautiful country too.

Mike had never been to this private “airport” (a narrow dirt strip), but we had a general idea based on what our dispatchers back at our base told us. Mike entered the possible coordinates in the GPS. We had to circumnavigate (fly around) Mt Kenya, which is 17000 feet high in order to get there.

I was piloting the plane for most of the trip while Mike was doing his stuff. I started down, we spotted the “airport”, Mike took over and landed. This is in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Lots of rich Europeans and some Kenyan politicians go there for vacation. It’s gorgeous country, you can spot zebras, elephants etc

As we taxied in I could spot two little huts at this strip. We saw the people waiting for us. We shut down, I jumped off the plane and installed a tail stand. We started rushing the equipment from our plane to the hut about 200 feet away. As I walked towards the hut I saw this older gentleman laying half dead after a sudden heart attach. I think he was still alive when we arrived. An African lady doctor was performing CPR but she didn’t have a whole lot of equipment.

It was somehow shocking to me to see this man laying there, purple and dying in front of eyes. It was the first time in my life I actually saw somebody in those conditions.

This was all so surreal to me. An hour earlier I was going about my day, and now I was there where all this action is taking place that I only saw on ER before

Not pleasant at all.

Mike and I walked back to the plane since there was nothing we could really do for the man.

The paramedic we flew over was trying to stabilize him so we could fly him back.

After about 10 minutes, all the rushing ceased. Somebody walked over to the other hut, and a lady’s grieving scream echoed in the perimeter.

We all knew this man was dead. I could only cry and grieve for this man, even though I had no clue who he was. I just hoped he was saved and went on to be with the Lord.

I could only feel a very small portion of the pain his wife and kids were going through at that moment.

I watched his wife walking out the hut being physically and emotionally supported by her children from the hut to a van. That was pretty impacting scene too.

The paramedic, one of the kids and some African man were carrying the body towards our plane. His arms were dangling as they walked over.

I was inside the aircraft, so I got to lift this heavy stretcher with the body and place it on top of another stretcher while the paramedic adjusted his head and folded his arms in order to tie the body down. That was one of the hardest parts to watch. This man was alive an hour earlier and now we are flying his body back to Nairobi.

The family would later on be driving down to Nairobi. It’s probably a 4 hour drive.

Everything is apparently settled and the Kenyan police shows up as we are getting ready to start up. These tall Kenyan policeman, like the ones you see on tv, carrying really big guns wanted a report of what happened, where the body was going, etc. The police man were saluting me like I was some sort of really important person, I figure it had to be those 8 bars on my shoulders that made me look really important …to them.

Everything was cleared up. No customs this time. Mike starts up the plane and taxies down this dirt strip. I loaded up the GPS waypoints for our way back.

Mike calls AIM Air via HF radio giving a report of 5 on board report. Really 4 souls and one body.

I flew the plane all the back to Nairobi, and Mike landed. We go through customs again. Again I get to carry the stretcher from the floor to the main cabin door where a mortuary van picks him up and drives him away.

These flights are not really mission related. The medical company called everybody else that does medical flying but none were available, our plane was not scheduled, so we did. Those kind of non mission flights are financially great because it helps subsidizes trips to missionary work.

I got to taxi the caravan part of the way back to the hangar. Mike shuts the engine down, I deplane, thank Mike for letting me come, walked upstairs to where 4 hours earlier I had no clue what I was headed to. Change back to mechanic mode, and go for a lone walk down the airport road towards a restaurant to get a late lunch. That walk felt “different”. In 4 hours I got to see a lot of events I was not expecting. It just brought into perspective how fragile life is. That man, which I found out was from Denmark, was apparently having a great vacation the day before with his wife and kids, at one of the most pretty places in Africa, and the next day, a heart attack, and death. It all seems to end so fast. The way the whole afternoon turned out to be was obviously not the ending any of us wanted. That lady’s desperate grieving screaming is still echoing in my head.

As I had lunch I could only thank God for allowing me to be here. What I saw was not pleasant. I sure wanted to report we flew him back and he would later be ok, but that’s not how it went.

I learned a lot today. I prayed that God would quickly allow me to come back here long term soon. Another thing that came to mind was also that I should live my life while I can, sounds simple but countless are the days I just hope tomorrow would come soon and forget today. Making sure I live it for the Lord because when I die to this world it will really be gain, lots of work to do til then. Each day is a really gift, sometimes I’m quick to forget that and complain.

A passage about heaven came to mind “…They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe out every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

I also wanted to thank each one of you so very much for praying and financially supporting me to be here.

Even though we don’t always get to see the end of things, we can surely plant seeds together and the Lord will prepare the harvest on His sovereign timing.

I will have more (uplifting) stories soon. I’m headed for Sudan in 2 weeks on a DC-3.

Thanks for listening,

God Bless you all,

In His service,

Will

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