Well our family has been in country now for about two weeks and I (Greg) still find ourselves adjusting but doing well for the most part. Here is a list of things that seem strange to us but actually should be familiar:
- Driving from the opposite side of the vehicle and road then when we drive a vehicle in Indonesia. Once established here on the road it doesn't seem to be an issue, however when making turns on and off the road I have found myself looking the wrong direction for traffic. And once in a while ending up on the wrong side of the road briefly.
- The handle on the toilet is on the opposite side compared to Indonesia and even functions the opposite direction as well. Many times I find myself searching on the wrong side for the handle and then when I do find it I try and pull it up rather than push down.
- Passing things with only my right hand only. It still feels strange to me to pass someone some thing with my left hand. For in Indonesia the left hand is viewed as being unclean (use your imagination for what they would use one hand for that would make it unclean)and is not used for a lot of things.
- Hearing English all the time and along with that trying not to speak Indonesian with someone that is of Asian descent.
- So far shopping hasn't been as overwhelming as we thought it might be. Switching back from a cash based system back to a card based system has not being without a couple moments of uncertainly and awkward feelings as card use protocol was fogging in my memory. Thankfully I hadn't forgotten that number.
- Our blood is still a bit thin after two weeks, hopefully by the time fall and winter rolls in our blood has thickened up.
Thank you for your continued prayers and support for our family. We would like to connect with as may as we can during the course of September and October, so please call or email us and let us know when it would work in your schedule to reconnect.
Blessings
the dole clan.
gregjuliefij@gmail.com
403-586-8040 (Greg's Cell)
403-586-8042 (Julie's Cell)
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Sunday, August 2, 2015
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.
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.
Friday, July 31, 2015
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Base Life
Greetings,
Well we've been in the guesthouse apartment for just over a week now. No more worries about power outages here, when the power goes out just wait 10sec and it's back on via the base generator. Base life does have some perkes. The move went smoothly getting most of our stuff back into storage to wait for our move to Merauke early next year. My motorcycle is not seeing many miles at the moment now that I walk across the street for work. Hopefully I can fix that on the weekends with some rides.
The kids are enjoying having easy access to friends to play with during the day. New challenges for mom and dad "setting boundaries" so that there is a balance between family time and friend time. They've started some homeschooling as well, which has been going well from what I hear.
The month of June was a full one in my flight log book which is exciting for me. I was able to put 60+ hours into my log book almost all of which under the PIC (Pilot in Command) column. I had the privilege of serving a missionary family in Bokondini with a couple (some what rare) flights into Bokondini. Along with those flights I was able to serve the villages of Bime, Borme, Kiwirok, Kobakma, Mamit, Mulia and Nongme with several flights in and out carrying supplies and passengers.
July is around the corner now well pretty much here already. July we will be traveling back to Canada for a mini home assignment. We depart Sentani July 26th and head to Jakarta then on the 27th we depart Jakarta for the long journey around the globe arriving in the evening of July 28th. Not bad only 24 hours oh but wait, we are suppose to gain a day traveling back to Canada, so it turns out be 40+ hours travel time. There will also be a 12 hour layover in Seoul that we will have as well. So we ask for strength and endurance as we make our way back to Canada later this month.
Once on the ground in Canada we have a few things planned out schedule wise. Here is a rough calendar for our time in Canada.
August Training/Rest
September 1st to 30th Central, Alberta
October 1st to 6th Waldheim, Saskatchewan
October 7th to 19th Central, Alberta
October 20th to 26th Sayward, BC
October 31st Depart back to Indonesia
Please contact us if there is a date that we can put something in common down on our calendar with your calendar.
email: gregjuliefij@gmail.com or gdole@maf.org
Well we've been in the guesthouse apartment for just over a week now. No more worries about power outages here, when the power goes out just wait 10sec and it's back on via the base generator. Base life does have some perkes. The move went smoothly getting most of our stuff back into storage to wait for our move to Merauke early next year. My motorcycle is not seeing many miles at the moment now that I walk across the street for work. Hopefully I can fix that on the weekends with some rides.
The kids are enjoying having easy access to friends to play with during the day. New challenges for mom and dad "setting boundaries" so that there is a balance between family time and friend time. They've started some homeschooling as well, which has been going well from what I hear.
The month of June was a full one in my flight log book which is exciting for me. I was able to put 60+ hours into my log book almost all of which under the PIC (Pilot in Command) column. I had the privilege of serving a missionary family in Bokondini with a couple (some what rare) flights into Bokondini. Along with those flights I was able to serve the villages of Bime, Borme, Kiwirok, Kobakma, Mamit, Mulia and Nongme with several flights in and out carrying supplies and passengers.
July is around the corner now well pretty much here already. July we will be traveling back to Canada for a mini home assignment. We depart Sentani July 26th and head to Jakarta then on the 27th we depart Jakarta for the long journey around the globe arriving in the evening of July 28th. Not bad only 24 hours oh but wait, we are suppose to gain a day traveling back to Canada, so it turns out be 40+ hours travel time. There will also be a 12 hour layover in Seoul that we will have as well. So we ask for strength and endurance as we make our way back to Canada later this month.
Once on the ground in Canada we have a few things planned out schedule wise. Here is a rough calendar for our time in Canada.
August Training/Rest
September 1st to 30th Central, Alberta
October 1st to 6th Waldheim, Saskatchewan
October 7th to 19th Central, Alberta
October 20th to 26th Sayward, BC
October 31st Depart back to Indonesia
Please contact us if there is a date that we can put something in common down on our calendar with your calendar.
email: gregjuliefij@gmail.com or gdole@maf.org
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Power's Out Again
Well as our days living on Pos 7 are coming to a close, we got to experience one more (we hope our last) extended power outage. Last Saturday as it commonly happens during my Skype call with family the power goes out. Okay not to worry this happens often, it's just one of those annoying things that seem to happen regularly, during my Skype calls. Later in the day the power does return but it is already after my window of opportunity for finishing my visit with family. Oh well, there is next weekend. Well the day was a bit breezy and so the power was off and on a couple more times that afternoon, but still no big deal. Then a little after 10:00 p.m. the power goes out again. Still not a big deal other than it gets a little warm without the AC's. Usually the power comes back on in a couple of hours but this time we wake up Sunday morning still without power. We just thought maybe a tree fell on the line last night and they'll clear it today, however it is Sunday so who knows. It turns out that a new building that was under construction was built too close to the power lines. It's a miracle no one was killed working that close to the high voltage lines. Anyway the wind was swinging the power lines enough that they were contacting the building and shorting out the whole town of Sentani. Later on Sunday it comes to light that there is a power struggle between the power company and the building owner on who is going to budge. Either the building corner needs to be trimmed back or the power lines moved. And then there is the question of who is going to pay for it. This all is happening of course Sunday when offices are closed and decisions can't really be made. Which means the the power stays off. I'll be honest it was hard to keep a good attitude when driving by the problem area Sunday night and the area with the offending building still had power and everyone else down line was cut off. It seemed a bit hopeless as the only motivation for the building owner to do anything was pressure from his neighboring community as he still had power.
Thankfully we have a great team of friends here that helped clear some space in their fridges and freezers so we could keep our food from going bad. Eating by candle light is a nice change every once and while.
Monday roles around and I head off to fly my schedule like any other day thinking that this situation at home without power could go on for days and maybe we should move to the base earlier than planned. However it's amazing even here where things seem to take 2, 3 times or even longer then they should to get resolved, the was power back on at the house by the time I returned from my last flight of the day. Turns out that the builder did in fact have a proper building permit, and so the power company decided to pursue the Government to pay the bill to move the power lines being that they issued the permit to build in that location. As you can imagine there was a great cry of joy when the power came back on.
In other news our house is upside down in the middle of our move back to base in a little over a week from now. Julie and the kids made some good progress yesterday while I was out enjoy the skies of Papua. Today I'm at home helping were I can as well Julie and I will start to plan out our home assignment that is coming this summer. We will be back in Alberta sometime late July and will be returning to Indonesia end of October. As we work out details of where we will be and dates we'll be sure to communicate that as best we can. We would like to see as many people as we can so don't be shy please contact us if we don't contact you first.
Thankfully we have a great team of friends here that helped clear some space in their fridges and freezers so we could keep our food from going bad. Eating by candle light is a nice change every once and while.
Monday roles around and I head off to fly my schedule like any other day thinking that this situation at home without power could go on for days and maybe we should move to the base earlier than planned. However it's amazing even here where things seem to take 2, 3 times or even longer then they should to get resolved, the was power back on at the house by the time I returned from my last flight of the day. Turns out that the builder did in fact have a proper building permit, and so the power company decided to pursue the Government to pay the bill to move the power lines being that they issued the permit to build in that location. As you can imagine there was a great cry of joy when the power came back on.
In other news our house is upside down in the middle of our move back to base in a little over a week from now. Julie and the kids made some good progress yesterday while I was out enjoy the skies of Papua. Today I'm at home helping were I can as well Julie and I will start to plan out our home assignment that is coming this summer. We will be back in Alberta sometime late July and will be returning to Indonesia end of October. As we work out details of where we will be and dates we'll be sure to communicate that as best we can. We would like to see as many people as we can so don't be shy please contact us if we don't contact you first.
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
More Right Aileron Trim Required
Thankfully the solution was provided on Wednesday of last week for our IFR problem that had arose the previous week that I mentioned in our last blog. After taking care of that problem then came the a PFR (proficiency flight review) the next day which was successfully completed. With both of these items behind me the right seat next to me became vacant, and the airplane was a bit left wing heavy. Okay maybe not enough to make a noticeable difference! I couldn't have asked for a better day for my first solo flight here in Papua. It's not very often you can see the top of Cyclops (mountain between Sentani and the Pacific Ocean) 100 miles out. On the return leg I had the privilege of bringing seven passengers with me that wanted to get to Sentani. I was a little concerned about having passengers for the return trip knowing what awaited me back on the ground in Sentani. The ground crew was good about getting the passengers off the plane before the traditional soaking commenced. It also happened to be the kids first day of summer vacation so all the kids from the base along with ours had a great time joining in the water throwing.
After a quick change of cloths and handing in the paperwork our family climbed into another plane captained by Uncle Steve (my instructor pilot prior to my solo) and headed to Wamena to visit friends. This was the first time out into the interior for Julie and the kids. Saturday we ventured out for a drive and found a cool cave to explore. The boys seemed fearless, Jaclynn however was a bit nervous. The Wamena weather is cooler for sure but this Canadian blood isn't completely thinned out yet, but it's not as thick as it once was 2 years ago. Sunday we ventured out again and found a suspension bridge that well you'll see the pictures. Then we flew back via Trigana Monday afternoon.
We had a great time and we look forward to visiting Wamena and possibly some of the other MAF bases in the future.
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| Waiting for papa. |
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| Waiting by the radio |
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| Short Final |
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| Taxing in to park |
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| Good time had by all |
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| Yep Franklin is now taller than mom. |
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| Alva getting a wet shoulder. |
After a quick change of cloths and handing in the paperwork our family climbed into another plane captained by Uncle Steve (my instructor pilot prior to my solo) and headed to Wamena to visit friends. This was the first time out into the interior for Julie and the kids. Saturday we ventured out for a drive and found a cool cave to explore. The boys seemed fearless, Jaclynn however was a bit nervous. The Wamena weather is cooler for sure but this Canadian blood isn't completely thinned out yet, but it's not as thick as it once was 2 years ago. Sunday we ventured out again and found a suspension bridge that well you'll see the pictures. Then we flew back via Trigana Monday afternoon.
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| Uncle Steve's new co-pilot. |
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| Just excited to go and see friends |
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| Not everyday Franklin can say he's sitting closer to the controls than dad. |
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| The view doesn't get much better than this! |
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| Celebrating #9 a few days late but with friends. |
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| Fishing from a dugout canoe |
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| Can't say that I'd be able to do this and stay dry. |
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| Suspension bridge not for the faint of heart. |
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| Not sure it was a good idea for a 200+lber to cross this but I did anyway |
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| Local going for a swim, looks like fun but not in what I was wearing. |
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| Hiking with friends. |
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| Cave exploring. |
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| Wamena Airport waiting area, yep pretty much a pole shed with some seats. |
Saturday, May 23, 2015
The Saga Continues
Greetings,
Well 5 weeks ago I was very close to finishing the initial stage of the flight checkout here in Papua. 5 weeks later (now) I'm very close once again however a new obstacle has appeared as it were. But before I get to that lets take a quick look at what I've had the privilege of being apart of the past 5 weeks, which have been far from wasted time, so not to worry. The shift of gears from flying back to the hanger was closely connected with our base assignment of Merauke. This assignment comes with a very specific aircraft. Meet PK-MAO.
MAO as some may already know will be my future ride in which I will have the honor to use in serving the people of Papua while reflecting God's love and light. In following the picture MAO is missing a few pieces one might think. Every 100hrs our aircraft undergo an inspection of one kind or another. This one happens to be phase #5 inspection and it was felt that it would be good for me to get to know MAO a little bit better. So for the first 2 weeks of my time off the flight line and in the hanger I got to know MAO a bit more intimately you might say.
I've found some cool pictures of MAO at work to close out this post. God Bless Tuhan Memberkati
Well 5 weeks ago I was very close to finishing the initial stage of the flight checkout here in Papua. 5 weeks later (now) I'm very close once again however a new obstacle has appeared as it were. But before I get to that lets take a quick look at what I've had the privilege of being apart of the past 5 weeks, which have been far from wasted time, so not to worry. The shift of gears from flying back to the hanger was closely connected with our base assignment of Merauke. This assignment comes with a very specific aircraft. Meet PK-MAO.
MAO as some may already know will be my future ride in which I will have the honor to use in serving the people of Papua while reflecting God's love and light. In following the picture MAO is missing a few pieces one might think. Every 100hrs our aircraft undergo an inspection of one kind or another. This one happens to be phase #5 inspection and it was felt that it would be good for me to get to know MAO a little bit better. So for the first 2 weeks of my time off the flight line and in the hanger I got to know MAO a bit more intimately you might say.
At the conclusion of this inspection I got to go along for the RTS (return to service) flight. Which was my first experience riding along in an amphib plane. It was an enjoyable experience and I'm looking forward to moving over to the left seat in the future and trying my hand at amphib flight ops. Next time I should bring my fishing pole though.
Okay so now that the inspection on MAO is complete I was gearing up to return to the flight line. But hold on, its become apparent that the line up of aircraft coming in for inspection was getting long and the hanger could use an extra set of hands. So another 2 weeks go by helping maintenance reduce the pressure of the heavier inspections that had come due back to back. 4 weeks later I'm back in the air and on the flight line once again in hopes of getting through an MAF PFR (proficiency flight review) and then flying solo shortly after that. Here are a couple picture my IP (instructor pilot) took this past week.
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| Working with the strip agent, checking the tickets & money. |
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| Scanning for misbehaving gauges. |
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| Got to love those smiles! |
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| Taking a moment to wear the flight attendant hat while giving a passenger briefing, before departure. Ya I know there are better looking flight attendants out there. This is one of the many hats other than pilot we get to wear here while serving with MAF. |
I'm happy to report that after a 4 week break from flying, that the flying this week some of which had some pretty big challenges went very well. And it looks like maybe next week a PFR will be on the schedule for me. However the speed bump mentioned earlier which can also be a item of prayer. It has been determined that my FAA IFR (instrument flight rating) is not current. Now normally this won't be a big problem as we have qualified staff here to conduct an IPC (instrument proficiency check) which would revive my IFR rating. The problem lies in that Papua doesn't have a reliable precisions IFR approach available an item which happens to be required to conduct a proper FAA IPC. To have a current IFR is important as our programs default when weather becomes an issue is to resort to IFR. In summary this means that even if I'm able to get the PFR behind me there won't be any solo time for me until a solution is found.
Despite this minor delay I'm happy to report our family is doing well. The kids now only have 3.5 days of school left and are excited for summer holidays. Julie has also started the tedious task of packing and sorting as we begin to prepare to move next month back down to MAF's guesthouse on base.
Thank you for your prayers and support through MAF, we wouldn't want to be doing this alone without you!
I've found some cool pictures of MAO at work to close out this post. God Bless Tuhan Memberkati
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