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The kids in the main square of UB |
As soon as my license was validated I was scheduled for flying. I had two days of flying with our training officer, who does not live here in UB but who had flown in to conduct my training. He was scheduled to fly out in a few days, and so the tight time table continued to press us forward. The training flights went well, even though many of my flows and muscle memory needed sharpening up after a couple of months without much flying. Flying here in Mongolia is different than anywhere else I have ever flown. Air traffic control is done here in Mongolian (the international standard is English) and so they require that a Mongolian speaking radio operator ride along as a crew member. It is interesting to hear radio calls come through and then have to wait for the translation, although I am beginning to get used to the way things are done here and can already begin to anticipate what the clearance will be. Another challenge is that here the altitudes are given in meters above sea level. Once again, this is very different than the international standard of feet above sea level. Non of the altitude equipment in the airplane show meters, so all clearances need to be "translated" into feet, and of course the altitude is always an odd number of feet. Again, it's something that I'm beginning to get used to, and I have to look at my altitude conversion table less and less as I begin to remember what the appropriate altitude in feet is when given an altitude in meters.
Taking frost covers off of the wings in the morning after an overnight stop in the countryside. |
The view from our hangar in UB |
Mongolia is a big country. In Uganda, the furthest that we could fly in a straight line and still be in the country was about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Here, the furthest flight that I've done so far is 5 1/2 hours, and that was straight line, before I picked up passengers and headed back. It's on those flights that one realizes how important it is to manage liquid intake, as well as how large ones bladder can get. No troubles or humorous anecdotes on that front yet.
Many of our flights are medical flights. The medical care that is available in the countryside is often not that great. It is... "adequate" in a few places, but even there the care provided often is only enough to get the patient well enough to travel to UB for further treatment. Our medical flights can make a huge difference to the well being of the patients that we fly. Last week I flew a medical flight that included two infants. The "big" baby that we flew weighed 1 1/2 pounds, and did indeed look large when observed next to the second infant that rode on that flight. Teeny-tiny babies who were being taken into UB to get the help that just wasn't available to them in their own town. I flew another team out west to a small community where they conducted an assessment clinic. A few days later returned to pick them up, along with two families with children who were being transported to UB to undergo two weeks of physiotherapy to begin the process of straightening crooked joints, teaching them to walk properly (or crawl properly), and training the parents proper techniques to continue rehabilitation once they return to their town. Next week I will hopefully fly those families back to their homes where their children will hopefully be able to continue improving and enjoy a higher quality of life.
Well, that's just a short glimpse of what the last month has held for me. Now that winter is near the flying will slow down considerably and we will begin to take Mongolian language lessons. I enjoy the sound of the Mongolian language, and there will be some interesting challenges to meet for all of us as we start to navigate the varying challenges and frustrations of learning a new language.
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A Sunday afternoon hike, with UB in the background |
Thank you for your prayers and support for us as we have undertaken this huge transition from Uganda to Mongolia. Keeping an open heart and following God's leading in our lives has indeed been an adventure, and has brought us somewhere we would never have dreamed that we would ever be. It will be interesting to see what lays ahead!
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