A Special Flight

    The last Friday right before leaving Indonesia for Canada, Greg was able to do a flight into the village of Bime. What made this flight special was that Isaac, Jaclynn and myself got to go along for the ride. This was supper special as it was our first time into one of the villages that Greg fly's into some what regularly. Franklin choose not to come as he didn't want to get up in time for a six o'clock flight.
     We woke up on Friday morning to a light rain with storms around the area but since Greg was scheduled to leave at six in the morning we were able to make it off the ground. I will admit that it was my first time taking a flight that was mostly in the clouds the entire time due to the weather in a small plane. However, it was great to see Greg use his training to safely fly us through the clouds, valleys, and mountains.
     One of the great challenges with flying here in Papua is that the weather can change moment by moment and you are not sure what you will find in the next valley. So even though we took off in weather that was not so great, Greg had received reports that the weather in the mountains was good. When we got close the the village, Greg was able to locate a opening in the cloud cover large enough to safely navigate it to the village of Bime.
     When we landed the entire village had come out to greet the pilots, passengers, and to watch as well. As we came to a stop Jaclynn became very nervous and was worried because she could not speak the language and the plane was surrounded by adults and lot's of children. I was able to encourage her and remind her that with children it does not matter if they can speak the same language or not for it seems that children can play together without using words.
     Due to the weather getting worse back at our base we got delayed in the village for a couple of hours which was perfect for us. This allowed the kids time to visit with the people and really explore their beautiful village. So we were able to give each of the children camera's and let them go explore and video what they found.
     When the weather finally cleared back at base and we had climbed into the plane Jaclynn asked when it would work out for her to stay over night. As she loved seeing all the animals, walking along different trails, and all the beautiful crafts. For she wanted time to learn how they did it all as well. Isaac also asked about when he could return as well and loved sitting up front of the plane with his dad for the journey as well.