Back to Work

Well after a wonderful family vacation, we have returned refreshed and ready to get back to daily living here in Merauke.

For the first time anyone could remember, this past week MAF Indonesia stopped all operations across the country.  To gather all the technicians (pilots, mechanics & IT), for 4 days full of meetings and reports.  I'm not much of a meeting kind of guy so that part, well let's just leave it at that regarding how the meetings went.  My highlight for the week was the grand reunion with guys I had met at candidacy going back to 2010, others I had gone through A&P, pre-field training with and language studies.  I was starting to get into bit of a low as far why were we here, what makes us different, etc.  Departing this morning to come home I'm thankful for the renewed vision and excitement for why were are here and what make us different.  As we head into December which will be a very busy month of flying I'm looking forward to the privilege and opportunities that my Maker in Heaven will put before me to serve, reflect His Light and show His Love to those I interact with in days to come.

Blessings
Greg

Zoo

On the last day of our time in Bali Greg and Jaclynn headed for the Bail Zoo.

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As you can tell by the pictures that our little animal lover had a great time.

                                   

She had a wonderful time feeding, holding, and playing with a wide range of local animals from the different Islands of Indonesia. It was a great day for hanging out with her dad and just exploring and learning as much as she could about the different kinds of animals. She really loved playing with the elephants and greatly enjoyed going for an elephant ride with her dad. Not many girls her age can say that they have rode an elephant with their dad.

Surfing

For this family vacation we wanted to try something new as a family. And believe it or not it was both Julie and Jaclynn who thought about trying surfing before we even headed to Bali,  Well as you can tell from the pictures below we all enjoyed learning something new but it was Franklin who fell in love with the sport of surfing in a huge way.  The whole family did a two and a half hour lesson but Franklin went back for more lesson over the next couple of days after that.  I think we found his recreation/hobby of choice.  Isaac and Jaclynn were the first to make it to a standing position but it was Franklin who really enjoyed it the most.  And all the Indonesia people in the background are the instructors who are teaching and helping us in the water.

 This was me most of the time, falling, however I did mange once to stay up for a short run.  It was worth the pulled muscles, stubbed toes, and sunburn to see the kids succeed especially Franklin as this was what he wanted to do the rest of vacation.  Franklin continued to improve over the next couple days as he continued to practice.  Unfortunately here in Merauke we don't have good surfing waves.  Franklin is already made his request that we schedule more days at the beach next time so he can continue master the finer points of surfing.

Villa

I've been hearing that Winter is approaching and in some places already arrived.  Warning this post and the next couple contain no snow or winter weather conditions, viewer discretion is advised for those suffering from winter blues already. There are some perks to living in the tropics, and you are always welcome to come for a visit.  Here is the next segment of our family vacation the Villa.  

When looking for a place to stay in Bali, the choices became quickly overwhelming for me to say the least.  Which was the main factor for taking us 3+ years before finally planing a vacation to Bali.  I'm someone who likes simple choices and searching the web for the right place that suites the budget and family was too much.  Thankfully a couple months back we received an email about a Villa in Bali that was being managed by a family that had previously lived in Papua and offered a discount to those serving with overseas ministries here in the South East Asia region.  Having this new information relieved me of wading through hundreds of hotel/villa web pages looking for the right one, and made the possibly of getting away to Bali a reality for our family.  

The Villa was a very nice 2 bedroom, open kitchen and family area with sliding wall that opened up to a nice private pool.  It was a perfect fit for the family.  Sorry we didn't get very many good photos of the villa but here are a few from an evening swim in the pool which the kids did almost every night after supper.

   

These pictures were from just searching the web for this villa,  I copied  just a few, what these pictures don't have is the clutter of beach balls, sandals and the fallen leaves.

Again we want to extend our great heart felt gratitude to all of you that are faithfully partnering with us, not so we can enjoy lavish holidays like this, but rather that we can enjoy these times of refreshment, to recharge for the tasks that have been put before us serving here in Merauke, for many years to come.  Next up family suffering adventure.

Family Vacation

Greetings,

We just returned home from a wonderful time in Bali.  Our family vacation experience started out with seeing some cool blessings some of which happen in the travaling to and from Bali.  We booked our tickets weeks in advance, not knowing that one of the airlines competitor's was about to add a competing run from Makassar directly to Merauke.  Our original tickets gave us a 2 hour layover.  We've learned in the past anything less than 1.5 hours can create some stress catching the next flight.  Still a few weeks before our vacation while I was departing Merauke, listening to the other traffic on the radio I caught on that the plane we were going to be taking to Bali in a couple weeks was no longer going to Makassar (transit airport) like it was originally scheduled.  After getting back I asked one of our staff to investigate if our tickets were still good.  Turns out what they had done was their Makassar - Merauke - Makassar flight became Makassar - Merauke - Sentani and there Sentani - Merauke - Sentani had become Sentani - Merauke - Makassar.  The only problem with this is now we are departing 2 hours later than originally scheduled.  And this flight from Sentani is notoriously late.  On a side note Merauke is about as close as you can get for the end of the line.  There are or were no connecting flights here prior to this switch in scheduling all the planes would return to their point of departure.  And by 12:00 all the jet traffic (3-4) had come and gone and left the Merauke airport for us (MAF) and another small operator to enjoy, outside of the occasional military flight.  Back to getting to Bali, as we prepared to depart they continued to assure us that we would make the connecting flight in Makassar as they had moved it back 45mins.  But as for normal our departing flight was more than 45 mins late which gave us no layover time.  Also knowing that our connecting flight was the only Makassar - Bali flight for the day I was preparing myself and family for the high likely hood that we would be trying to find a place in Makassar for the night.  Upon arriving the flight attendant assured me all was good, but knowing a bit of the culture here they will tell you what you want to hear rather than to truth a lot of times.  So I didn't get my hopes up until exiting the aircraft and was met at the bottom of the stairs by airline personal.  They whisked us into a van which then raced across the tarmac to our connecting flight.  During this whisking across the tarmac I inquired about out luggage which I was assured would make it.  But again knowing that I'm likely going to hear what I want to hear rather than reality, and the fact we hadn't finished stowing our carry on luggage and seated before the plane was being pushed back for start.  I was thinking there was no way our bags made the connection.  After departure I dug out the address of our villa so I would have it ready to give to the baggage claim counter in Bali.  The flight went smoothing and we were looking forward to enjoying our first night in Bali as planned, even if it was going to be with our carry on luggage only (which Julie had packed a few extra sets of clothes just in case).  Once we arrived in Bali I almost didn't bother but we stopped at the luggage belt just in case and low and behold it made.  Wow, we were stunned and very thankful!  So we started our vacation with what started out looking like a lot of inconveniences ahead of us to everything falling into place.  Backing up a bit as were waiting for our first flight (late one) Pak Hammi met us in the waiting room telling us that the flight home at the end of our vacation had been cancelled and we needed to find something else.  One bright side for the late departure was I had time to go with Pak Hammi to sort out tickets for our trip home.  So we ended up on the competitor's airline for Makassar - Merauke, but choose to stay with our original tickets from Bali - Makassar (portion of the flight not yet cancelled).  And yes the day before we are to come home I get a text message that this flight was also cancelled, thankfully Pak Hammi was able to arrange a different flight from Bali - Makassar.  And yes we arrived home safely with all our stuff in toe after a great vacation.  Being that this post is already getting long I will close with saying there will be more to come on what we did, along with lots of pictures over the next couple days.

Blessings
The Dole Clan

Pictures from Julie's Trip Interior.

These first few pictures are from Piramapun, which is just down river from Saman where the NTM missionaries are considering as there location of service.  The first picture is the landing area at Piramapun it's nice and wide with a gentle curve in the landing and takeoff area.  The ocean is there as well but we choose not to operate on the ocean for a few reasons so a gentle curved river is our preferred landing zone.  

This picture is of Saman from overhead, the curve in the river here is a bit sharper.  Hopefully in the next few months I'll have gained enough experience to be able to up the level of difficulty of my landing and takeoff locations.  

A random photo from the trip that Julie wanted me to include.

 This next group of photos are from Senggo, which is the place Julie mentioned regarding the book our family is reading together.

They are not standing on water as it may appear in the picture, there is a dock of sorts below their feet and yes below the water.

These next pictures are from Tanah Merah which means red soil.  We don't have a dock here so we just find a good spot along the shoreline to pull up to and secure the plane.  The location changes depending on the water levels.  The week before these picture was taken, the high area where the people are standing and holding the rope was covered by about a foot of water and we ended up docking up river against a wood dock that during this visit was high and dry.  When the water is lower than this (which 2 days later was the case) we beach bit further down stream up against a gravel beach that is visible during low water times.  This like many of the places we go to our docking methods/locations vary with conditions.  (The flying is the easy part some days)

This picture is of the Boma or Bomakia airport terminal building.  This was our last stop before heading home that day.  Boma was previously an MAF base for float plane and wheel plane operation for the south coast several years ago. 

The MAF hanger just in front of the tower (left side of the picture) as we approach to land back home in Merauke.

Hope you enjoyed seeing some of what we have the privilege of experiencing daily.