The Forney Flyer

Lizard

2012-01-27T22:36:00.000-05:00

Our kids love animals! We play host to a wide variety of pets, including birds, rabbits, cats, about a dozen different turtles, a huge 30 lb tortoise, a reticulated python, a monkey, and a whole bunch of transient critters that stay no more than a day or two. Maybe someday I'll do a post introducing you to all of the animal "members" of our family.

Britton, our oldest, is also the most passionate about animals--especially reptiles and amphibians. However, his excitement to hold and feed and study these creatures is balanced by his desire that they live a "free" and "good" life. So usually when a wandering "critter" happens through our yard, it's time in captivity is limited only to a day or two, as was the case with this little lizard.

After getting a chance to view and feed and interact with the creature, Britton usually grows increasingly concerned about it's stress level and soon thereafter releases it back into the wild. But we usually take a few photos and some video during the process, so he has something to remember it by later. Next furlough our "Critter Video" should be pretty awesome!

This lizard, was very mild-mannered and showed no big desire to flee. What was amazing was it's ability to change color, from light brownish to dark green to brilliant green to an almost yellowish color. We used to see these a lot back in language school in Bandung, but we rarely see them here in Tarakan.

Well, like so many a lizard or snake before him or her, this little lizard has long since moved on to a different home...or just as likely been eaten by one of the roaming tomcats in our neighborhood. Either way, our kids were blessed by the short time they had to interact with another one of God's amazing little creatures.

Gong Xi Fa Chai

2012-01-24T07:35:00.002-05:00

This has post been corrected thanks to Irvan. It's not a dragon dance, but a lion dance depicted.

Gong Xi Fa Chai! Congratulations and Prosperity! Yesterday was Chinese New Years and it's widely celebrated throughout most of Asia. Tarakan is no exception! 99% of the stores in Tarakan were closed yesterday as everyone celebrates and visits family and friends. The banner below was hanging on the wall of our favorite restaurant, just down the hill from our house.

According to the Chinese calendar, this is the year of the dragon--the water dragon to be exact. There's a tradition (with spiritual beliefs often attached to it) that's widely followed where people pay to have a dragon dance (or lion dance) performed at their establishment or home or in a parade or whatever. As Irvan pointed out, this is actually a lion dance below, not a dragon dance. Since it was the year of the dragon and some of the locals asked me if I wanted to see the dragon dance, I just assumed this was a dragon dance. But I must admit, I didn't think they looked very much like dragons. I figured it was just a "small town" version of the dragon dance. Wrong. To be fair they don't look much like lions either.

The truth is, both the lion dance and the dragon dance play an important role in the Chinese New Year celebrations, and both have many traditions and beliefs associated with them. We heard about many of those from our friends, and perhaps some of that crosses over between the two. In any case, don't confuse them like I did. These are obviously lions, not dragons. :-)

This is the first time I've had the chance to see it because usually I'm flying on Chinese New Years.

Our friend who owns the B21 Restaurant, just a stones throw from our house, invited us down to watch the lion dance at his restaurant and then eat lunch there with all of his family and friends and other MAFers.

We could hear the drums off in the distance as the lion dance team came down the road from a previous dance location. All the kids in our kampung (neighborhood) came running, along with their parents and crowded into the front room of the restaurant (which was closed for the holiday).

Outside, the truck carrying the drummers was parked in the street, drumming and playing music, while inside, two brightly colored "lions" were dancing around at the whim of the two men who were inside each suit. It was quite a spectacle, and must take a lot of skill and practice. There's a lot more to it than that, including the beliefs and traditions that are associated with it. If you want to find out more, I'd encourage you to look it up on Wikipedia, or go find your nearest China town and ask some of the friendly folks there all about it. If they're anything like our friends here they'll be very happy to tell you all about it.

As I said, after the dance was over, we joined a bunch of other people and had a really tasty lunch at the restaurant, courtesy of the owner.

So there you go! In the spirit of all of the Chinese celebrations going on in Tarakan, Gong Xi Fa Chai to you and your friends. Congratulations and Prosperity!

Random Stuff

2012-01-21T00:43:00.000-05:00

This week, on Wednesday, a bunch of local pastors and members of their congregations got together to pray for the people and city of Tarakan. We were able to help them with their unique request to use our airplanes to overfly the city while praying. Pictured below, some of the Indonesian church members and a few of the pilots that were involved in the prayer flight.

A view from my "office window". Lately I've actually been flying a desk a lot more than a plane, as I'm filling in for our Kalimantan Program Manager while he's on furlough in the U.S.

Another load of much-needed supplies being delivered to Long Sule. We're looking forward to getting a cargo pod installed on our Kodiak in the not so distant future, which will make this plane even more useful to the people we serve.

About 10 miles from the little, remote village of Long Top, dozens of squatters have taken up temporary residence on the spine ridge of a little mountain where gold has been found. They're digging tunnels into the side of the hill, through the mud and into the rock to get at the gold that's inside the mountain.

A random grasshopper I spotted on the side of the strip one day while waiting for my passengers.

A beautiful lily pad flower, in a nasty, smelly swamp.

Roasting Waffles and Drowning a Camera!

2012-01-08T00:44:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago Britton and I spent the better part of a day hiking in the jungle on our island of Tarakan. We were trying to find a good place that we could go camping some time--he and I and the rest of the Forney boys. I had spotted a place from the air that looked promising. Even though it's only about 60 seconds from the end of the runway by air, it took us an hour and a half to walk there.

When we got to the area I had seen from above, the jungle opened up into a wide sandy area surrounded by cool looking trees, where a tiny little stream apparently floods when it rains. We saw tons of monitor lizard and pig tracks all over the place. There were hawks and birds and butterflies and the big big yellow flower pictured below. The flower was about the size of Britton's head!

We had a good time exploring around and then we stopped for lunch at an abandoned campsite that we found. It looked like a good place to come back to, although it would be a pretty tough hike for the twins.

Since the main objective of our little expedition was to find a good camping spot (but not actually to camp this time) we didn't plan on stopping to cook food or anything. We had brought some cold pieces of leftover pizza that Joy had made the night before, and some floppy leftover waffles from earlier that morning for snacks. Tried to keep it simple.

But what's a hike in the jungle without a fire? NOTHING! That's what it is! Every boy needs to make a fire--it's practically required that you build a fire if you're feeling manly in the woods! By the way, the wood and leaves may look dry, but trust me, looks can be deceiving. It's really, really hard to make a fire in the jungle without kerosene or something to help. But we eventually succeeded, thanks in large part to what I've picked up from the guides on all the long-distance jungle hikes I've done.

So what's a fire good for in the middle of a hot, muggy, sweaty afternoon (besides proving your manliness?) if you have nothing to roast? NOTHING! We just HAD to find something to roast, but we'd already eaten all the pizza. And then it struck us both at the same time--waffles! We could roast the waffles! So that's what we did. And how did they taste you might ask? Well, Britton summed it all up when he bit into the first one and said, "It tastes like a hot, burned, smoky waffle...with no syrup." Yup. That's what they tasted like. But it was fun!

On the way back we saw a bunch of carnivorous plants. There's a lot of different kinds of fly trap plants in Kalimantan, and this is just one of them. This variety typically grows in clusters on the ground. They fill with rain water and then when the insects are drawn to the lip, they slip into the inside and drown. The plant then digests them. Yummy!

The fly trap plants (pictured above) were located just beside the little stream that we were following (pictured below). The stream was pretty neat because it was following a line of coal that was right there on the surface. It literally cut a channel right through the dark, black, shiny coal. There's a lot of coal in Tarakan, and throughout this part of Kalimantan. The water was actually crystal clear before we walked through it and stirred it up. It looked odd seeing a crystal clear steam running through a channel of pitch black coal like that.

Well, those are officially the last pictures that were ever taken by my point and shoot camera that I had just gotten this past summer. Unbeknownst to me, when I went to put it back into the pocket of my backpack, it went "plop", right into the creek. Fifteen minutes later I went to get it out and couldn't find it. Eventually we found it...submerged in the water pretty close to where Britton is standing. I was able to salvage the pictures, but the camera was toast! Bummer!!! Well, I guess it's a good thing it was just a point and shoot and not my "good camera". Jungles are not friendly to electronics!

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

2012-01-02T01:08:00.000-05:00

It's true--time does fly when you're having fun! Or in my case, maybe it's that I know I'm having fun when I'm spending time flying. But it's not just the flying itself that makes it fun--it's the reason I'm flying that makes it fun! We're flying, in the name of Jesus, to serve people who often have no other options. I love MAF UK's slogan, "Flying for Life"! That pretty much sums up what we're doing out here and that's why it's so much fun!

The weeks leading up to Christmas are especially busy for us here in Kalimantan. In addition to tons of church-flying requests to fly National pastors here and there and everywhere, there's also always a bunch of government officials that want to visit their constituents and school children that want to go home for the holidays (many village kids have to go to schools out in the city if they want to continue their education past elementary or junior high) and general requests for supplies of food and other stuff. This year was no exception! There were waaaaayyyy more flight request than we could possibly do, but we did our level best.

The Kodiak is the workhorse of our fleet right now! It's crazy what that thing can carry into and out of our short, rough, marginal airstrips! It'll be even better when we get a cargo pod installed (technically called an ECC, or External Cargo Compartment). It's actually being shipped to us right now and we're hoping to install it sometime in March. It'll be a HUGE job, but will make the Kodiak even more useful to the people we serve. And then, a few months later we should be taking delivery of our second Kodiak, which will come with a pod already installed! I can't wait!

One morning the week before Christmas, I was flying one of our Cessna Turbo 206 aircraft in the Krayan region. I couldn't get into the villages that I was scheduled to fly to because the weather was smashed with low clouds and rain. But a few miles away from Long Bawan (where I was waiting for the weather to clear) the sky had opened up over Long Umung. So I took the opportunity to go over and do some evaluations of the airstrip there. If it's not obvious from the picture, I had to close the strip upon leaving, because as often happens on these jungle strips, the conditions deteriorate very quickly if not continually maintained. In this case, they'll be able to request it be re-opened after completing some much-needed cleaning and cutting.

Later that morning I did finally get into Buduk Kubul with a load of national church folks. The runway there is the opposite; it looks like a golf course, due in large part to the wonderful fertilizer it receives on a continual basis--water buffalo pies.

On Saturday, the week before Christmas, I was very busy flying the Kodiak in the ApoKayan when the auxiliary fuel pump began to fail, resulting in me having to cancel all the rest of the flights and fly back to home base without my passengers, including two medevac patients.

Early the next morning, Sunday, I left Tarakan with a 206, heading an hour and a half back down to Mahak Baru to pick up the patients. But rather than flying down there empty, I took a huge load of desperately needed rice from Tarakan into the village of Long Sule, which is only about 10 minutes from Mahak Baru. Because it was so wet this year, their rice crops are several months behind schedule, and the folks there are running out of rice, which is their staple.

After dropping the rice off in Sule I jumped over to Mahak and loaded up the Medevac patients and their family members for the return flight to Tarakan.

And that's just a "tip of the iceberg" snapshot of some of the reasons why time flies when you're having fun as a missionary pilot!

Fattening Up For the New Year!

2011-12-30T22:12:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to ya! We've been down in Balikpapan for the past few days, enjoying a much needed and long-overdue vacation from Tarakan. And yes, they DO have a McDonalds here, so we're fattening up for the new year!

Balikpapan is the first city that you have to fly through when leaving Tarakan. Every large commercial flight to/from Tarakan goes via Balikpapan. Whereas Tarakan has almost no expats (with the exception of the MAF staff), Balikpapan is home to many, due to the major oil, gas and mining industries. For many of these expats, Balikpapan is definitely "roughing it"--a place to escape from when it's time for vacation. I guess it's all relative, because for us Balikpapan is like the land flowing with milk and honey...offering all sorts of food and perks that we're not used to in Tarakan. We try to get down here once a year to recharge our batteries. This time, we were so blessed to be able to stay in the home of an expat friend, Alison, who was on vacation in Australia. It was sooooo nice to have the space and independence of a home, while still enjoying the perks of Balikpapan! Thank you Alison!

On Christmas morning we dined on a J.CO doughnuts (sort of like Crispy Creme), real bacon and sausage, and dad's special, bacon-fried-cheesy eggs! Like I said, we're fattening up for the new year! The only time we get to eat bacon and sausage is in Balikpapan, so it's a real treat for the kids.

Another huge treat is the swimming pool. The house we stayed in was part of a beautiful housing complex which had it's own swimming pool. And what made it even better (according to the kids) was that the jets that were coming and going all day from the airport, flew directly overhead the pool and the house. It was like the best of everything--getting to watch airplanes fly low overhead, while swimming!

Whereas you might have been wishing for a white Christmas, so you could go out and make some "snow angels", our kids were hoping for a hot and sunny Christmas so they could go out and make "water angels."

We spent a lot of time in the pool!

We also went to the Crocodile Farm, where they raise crocodiles for eating and making things from the hides. It costs about $2 for our whole family to get in and walk around looking at all the crocs. You can also pay a buck to chuck a chicken in to the hungry crocs. It's cheap fun! To find out more about the crocodile farm check out my older post, "Hey Mr., That'll Cost You $5!" To see a video of us chuckin a chicken to the crocs on a previous trip, go here and scroll down to the end of the post.

At the crocodile farm they also have two elephants that are native to Indonesia. We especially like Happy, the 8-year old elephant.

The kids took turns feeding Happy fruit and nuts. They decided that we should have an elephant for a pet...but um, I think we'll have to old off on that one!

It's been a wonderful time of family fun, relaxing, and battery re-charging! We'll need it, because the new year is already shaping up to be one of the busiest we've had here!

Christmas in the Hangar

2011-12-18T07:19:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy Christmas party week at the airport! Monday night the kids did their school Christmas program--at the hangar. They all did a great job!

That's Hannah, second from left in the front row, Hudson third from right in the front row, and Britton right behind Hudson.

Hannah on the far left, Hudson third from right.

Britton in the blue.

Wednesday night their was a Christmas party in the airport proper--over in the passenger terminal. It's the first time ever that the minority Christian employees at the airport were allowed to have a Christmas celebration there. MAF was invited, along with all of the local Indonesian churches in the area. Several other MAFers and I attended...it was a really neat event both for the significance of what it represented, as well as the sermon and singing.

Then on Saturday night we had the MAF staff (Western and Indonesian staff) Christmas party in our hangar. (Below).

Here the pilots & mechanics and their wives were singing a song, while in the background a few hundred feet away a 737 was roaring down the runway on takeoff. Those sideways light streaks in the darkness just above the center tables--those are the lights from the plane as it screamed past, completely drowning out anything and everything that was being sung for the next 30 seconds. Well, hey, at least the electricity stayed on this time! And that's something that we certainly don't take for granted! :)

This is already shaping up to be another busy week, but we look forward to remembering and celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, this weekend! More later.

Christmas Safari Flying

2011-12-11T00:38:00.000-05:00

This week we were busy doing Christmas Safari flying for the Bupati. No, we weren't flying him around to hunt tigers and elephants. Rather, there's a tradition in the Apo Kayan, where the Bupati (regional elected government official) goes around to all the villages at Christmas and spends some time meeting and greeting and generally just spreading Christmas cheer among his constituents.

They call it the "Safari Natal Bupati" (Bupati's Christmas Safari). I've flown Bpk Yansen, the current Bupati, many times over the past years, long before he became the Bupati. He's a man that shares our faith and has a long-standing great relationship with MAF! The people really seem to like him too!

At each location the people get all dressed up and come out to greet him when he gets there. He usually spends one to two nights in each village before moving on to the next. It goes without saying that without MAF, this would be an impossible trip--especially when it involves an entourage that's swelled to now 26 people!

On Tuesday I flew the Bupati and some of his entourage into Mahak Baru in the Kodiak. They started the "Safari" from there. By Saturday they were in Data Dian, needing to go to Long Sule. We "stood down" the Kodiak on Friday, so that it would have just enough time to fly them on Saturday before it had to begin an inspection. So on Saturday I flew more people from his entourage, including his wife, below, directly to Long Sule from Malinau.

Then, I made several trips over to Data Dian to pick up Bpk Yansen and his team and bring them back to Sule. Tripp also made several runs in a 206. Next week the Safari continues from Sule to Pujungan, then Alango, and finally back to Malinau.

Do you have any safaris planned for Christmas?

Flying the Governor

2011-12-04T03:08:00.001-05:00

Last Saturday we were asked to fly around the Governor of East Kalimantan and his entourage. Craig flew the Caravan and I flew a 206 (they requested the Kodiak, but it was grounded, waiting for a part from the U.S.)

And here (pictured below) is the Governor himself, all smiles after a great flight by Craig.

A huge line of people were waiting to greet them when they got off the plane in Malinau.

Then, later in the afternoon they had requested the Caravan to take a group of them directly from Malinau to Samarinda. Because it would be late in the day and it's a long flight, there was no way that Craig could get there and back to Tarakan before dark. So he was planning to spend the night in Samarinda. However, as often happens in these situations, there was a communication blunder and in fact they wanted BOTH planes to go to Samarinda.

It's been a long time since we've taken a 206 to Samarinda. It's a loooong way from Tarakan (or Malinau) and there is no Avgas. What's more, late in the day the weather can be very wild en route in that area. And the 206 is a lot slower than the Caravan. I wished for the Kodiak, but alas, it would have to be a 206 or nothing. I pushed for my passengers to get there earlier, but again, as is often the case, they were not to be "pushed". Finally, at 3:15pm I departed Malinau, heading for Samarinda, a 2:15 flight away. If all went well, I planned to arrive 30 minutes before sunset.

This is not normal for us here. We typically plan to land at least 45 minutes before sunset, and especially on a long flight like this! But since there were two of us going and the Caravan was faster and would be out ahead giving me weather reports, I departed--planning to turn around within the hour if the weather was anything but perfect.

Ten minutes after departing Craig overtook me in the Caravan (pictured below as he flies past to my right). As you can see, the weather was absolutely beautiful. In fact, I'd say that it's probably only this good about 10 times a year at this time of day. I climbed up to 11,500 feet and settled in for the ride.

Shortly after leveling off I saw a nice mushroom topped thunderstorm way off in the distance. It was dead ahead and about 100 miles away. That was the only "bad" weather on the entire trip, and it was easily avoided and as it stood all alone in a clear sunny sky. Here's a shot of it out the window as I skirted well clear of it to the west.

Helped by a nice tail-wind we made good time and landed at about 5:20pm in Samarinda (the airport is called Temindung).

When I landed, there were hundreds of people on both sides of the runway from end to end--not right up next to it, but off to the side. I thought that was strange, but no one was moving and the tower said the runway was "clear" and that I was "cleared to land". I was very much on edge, ready to abort on a moments notice if someone ran out into the runway. But they didn't.

However, by the time I taxied in and shut down, I realized what they were doing. They were waiting for me to land so that they could overtake the runway. Normally the airport closes at 5:00 pm. Apparently at 5:01 it gets overtaken by throngs of kids playing soccer and couples going for romantic walks.

After securing the airplane for the night, I walked out onto the runway to see what all the fuss was about. It just struck me as both funny and surreal to see a paved, aviation runway, covered in swarms of screaming, laughing, happy kids. It was so not normal--at least for my western mindset. So here I stood looking to the west as the sun set down at the end of the runway that I had just landed on 10 minutes before. The shirts on the ground make a goal at one end of a make-shift soccer field. There were probably a dozen similar games going on simultaneously from one end of the runway to the other.

Then I turned around and shot a picture the other way--yes, another goal, this one defined by two pairs of shoes. I hung out and made a bunch of new friends for the next 20 minutes or so, before finding Craig and making our way to a hotel.

The next day I flew back to Tarakan, and once again the weather was great. I have some pictures I want to show you from that trip, but that will have to wait till next time.

Thankful for Candles!

2011-11-27T22:23:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving! If you're not from the U.S., then you probably don't celebrate Thanksgiving, at least not at the same time we do. But of course this is one of the biggest holidays in America, and many family traditions often go along with Thanksgiving, not the least of which is stuffing yourself with good food and hanging out with family and friends!

We certainly have a lot to be thankful for...a loving family, great friends, an awesome ministry and team here in Indonesia, generally good health, and most of all the hope of eternal life with the One to Whom we give thanks for everything--Jesus!

As is the tradition here in Tarakan, our entire MAF team got together to celebrate, including our Dutch and Canadian families! The wives slaved away in their respective kitchens all day, cooking up a massive feast, on par with anything found on a Thanksgiving table in America, but this one being made entirely from scratch! I mean, seriously, take a look at the dessert table above! Unbelievable!

There were smashed potatoes and rolls and corn and green been casseroles and salads and more! Joy even went so far as to string and cut each individual green been lengthwise, to make her green been casserole look and taste as much like it would in the U.S. This is one of my favorites, and her's was awesome!

What about the bird you ask? You see, in the U.S. you virtually HAVE to have a turkey or a ham. Well a ham is just out of the question in this country--at least in Tarakan, and a Turkey--well, um yeah, those are really hard to get and very expensive too! One of our families, Chris & Sarah, generously bought a turkey to share with the team, but in addition to that we also roasted eight chickens! Yeah, you can stuff a chicken and put gravy on it just like a turkey, only it's smaller! Over here you have to improvise.

By 6:30pm we were finally all crowded together and getting ready to start the feast. You can see Paul, on the left, whistling loudly to get everyones' attention. (Notice the beautiful lights and ceiling fan--that's important, as you'll see in a minute.)

And then, just after we prayed and started dishing up the food, this...

I guess we forgot to be thankful for electricity--which seems to be rather sporadic as of late.

It stayed off the rest of the evening...which gave us the chance to be thankful for candles! I mean, despite the fact that it was stiflingly hot and humid, with no fans and no breeze, what could be better than eating a thanksgiving meal with dozens of your best friends, lit by candles, cell phones, and LED flashlights?

The below picture almost makes it look like the ambiance is intentional. Isn't it "romantic"? Well, this is one of those rare cases where something actually looks better in the photo than it was in real life. This is a long exposure that I took just after the power went out, just to show you what was going on in the darkness. Initially, it actually looked a lot more like the picture above, almost totally dark...until we rounded up more candles and flashlights. (You might notice that the ceiling fan is still moving in this shot, since it was just a minute or so after the power died.)

Well, it wasn't what we had in mind for our Thanksgiving dinner, but we still had a great time none-the-less. And now we won't forget to be thankful for electricity--when we have it--and candles when we don't!

Here's a few ladies from Long Sule that seemed joyful and thankful the other day. I had just flown in some government employees for a meeting with the village, and I was waiting around for a half hour until they were ready to leave. These ladies were taking a lunch break, having been working hard in their rice fields on the hills behind the airstrip. They were all laughter and smiles!

And here's the rice field where they were working. There's two types of rice here in Kalimantan--wet and dry. "Dry" is misleading, b/c it's never really dry here, but the dry rice grows on hills like this, whereas the "wet" rice grows in the flooded, flat rice paddies like you've probably seen in pictures from here, or areas like Vietnam or Thailand. It just depends on the village and the terrain as to what type they grow.

It was a busy week, ending with some flights for the Governor of Kalimantan on Saturday, along with an overnight in Samarinda and return on Sunday. But I'll save that for next time.

Weekends

2011-11-20T23:15:00.001-05:00

Here's a few shots from the past couple of weekends. First, flying RC airplanes down at the airport on Sunday afternoons with MAF friends. To see a few more photos like these, go see Joy's post, "The Glorious in the Mundane."

And last Sunday we went to a baby dedication that we were invited to attend for a family in our neighborhood.

Notice the envelope that the guest is slipping into the side of the crib, beside the sleeping baby. It's customary to bring an envelope with a monetary gift inside for this type of event.

Of course, the family wanted to pose for photos with my family.

The proud grandma was sitting on a chair next to the baby. I never saw her get up. However before we left she specifically asked for this picture, with her older granddaughter, knowing that later we'll print it out and bring it to her.

And of course, no "weekend post" could be complete without an airplane shot. The Kodiak is in such high demand, and there are so many flight requests, that we started flying it six days a week way back in May when I finished my Kodiak checkout. Ever since then I've been flying the Saturday schedule, and taking my weekend on Sunday and Monday. Here's a shot from this Saturday in Data Dian. It was a beautiful day, but those big white clouds in the distance were an indicator of things to come. Usually when it's this hot and sunny there are massive thunderstorms that build up in the afternoon. Saturday was no exception, as I had to negotiate a lot of ugly weather on the way home.

Airstrip Checkouts etc.

2011-11-13T20:46:00.003-05:00

On Friday I rode along with Tripp Flythe for the day so that I could give him airstrip checkouts in Long Alango and Long Pujungan. Below, Pendeta (Pastor) Yahya walks down the Long Alango Airstrip in the direction of the village, carrying woven roofing thatch for his rice field pondok (hut).

The Long Alango airstrip from above. 385 flat, slippery meters long (actually short). This photo was taken on a different day.

Two pondoks surrounded by fields of beautiful, green rice growing next to the airstrip.

Long Pujungan airstrip, with the village just visible to the right.

An old photo that I took when Paul College and I got checked out at Long Pujungan a few years ago. It's a very narrow, dog-legged strip that has a challenging hooking approach and an exciting departure!

A few shots from the Kodiak last week.

Lunch in Mahak Baru. Fried rice with eggs, cucumbers, and hot Chile peppers. And hot, sweet tea. They're always so kind and generous there in Mahak, making sure the MAF pilots absolutely do not go hungry or thirsty!

It's so great to have Joy back from America! While she was gone, the kids and I did a lot of fun stuff around Tarakan and at home. One of the things that the boys and I worked on for a few days was a building project. The boys have been looking forward to working with dad on this for quite a few months, but I wanted a good chunk of time (a few days off work) to "hammer it out" without interruption. So we hit it hard while Joy was gone. It was a lot of fun!

What is it? Well, nothing fancy, that's for sure. But we closed in the area under the wooden stairs that climbs up the vertical stone wall behind our house to our two neighbors' houses. This is the new home for one of our many pets. He had outgrown his previous home, so he needed a bigger place to sleep and "hang out". This area gives him plenty of room to swing and climb, even though he spends much of his time free, out and about in our yard.

For those of you that do building or construction in the U.S, you may wonder why it would take a few days to throw something like this up? Good question. First of all, there never seems to be a time when there aren't interruptions here--whether it's water pipes breaking, LPG running out, or someone calling from the MAF hanger needing something. But the main thing is the wood. You can either buy soft wood that's easy to work with and will be eaten up by termites within a few months, or you can buy the really hard wood that will last for years but literally can't be nailed without pre-drilling. Oh, and it's all rough-cut.

You can't just go buy dimensional lumber or boards here like you can in the U.S. Every piece is just a little different diameter or thickness than the previous one, and often one piece varies in width or thickness from end to end. It comes to you right off the saw from the saw mill, and I often think the saw must be pretty wobbly. If you try to pound a nail through this stuff (even a descent size nail like a 16 penny), it will absolutely not go in. I can drive hundreds of nails in a row without problems in the U.S., but I can't drive a single nail through this stuff without pre-drilling a pilot hole. It's humiliating to my manhood! How about decking screws you ask? Well, first of all you can't buy them here, but I do have some from the States. In this case the wood will either break the screw in half, or the bit will shred the head of the screw, or you'll split the wood if you do not pre-drill a hole. So yeah, it takes a lot of time--always way longer than I estimate, b/c I'm still used to doing things the easy way in the U.S. Oh, and all I have to work with are hand tools--no table saws or anything like that. But who's in a hurry when you're having fun with your boys? Oh, and by the way, Hannah was happily reading a book nearby (her favorite pastime) and she's the one that took the picture of me and the four boys.

Idul Adha (Part 2)

2011-11-08T06:40:00.000-05:00

Here's a few more shots from Idul Adha on Sunday here in Tarakan.

As I said before, everyone was very friendly as usual. After prayers I was swarmed by a bunch of kids, many of whom wanted their pictures taken. In this case they begged to have their picture taken with me.

Shortly thereafter a guy who'd just finished prayers walked up to me and began asking some questions. Turns out that he is a photographer in town here and was curious what I was up to and why. He invited me to follow him back to his home and studio to drink coffee and chat a while. So for the next hour or so I sat with Pak Tony and had a great visit over a cup of coffee as we talked about photos and people and Tarakan and America and many other things. I'm sure it won't be the last time Tony and I get a chance to hang out over coffee and cameras.

Idul Adha (Part 1)

2011-11-06T09:22:00.001-05:00

Today Muslims throughout the world were celebrating Idul Adha. Here's a few shots from morning prayers outside one of the many mosques in Tarakan.

As usual, everyone was extremely friendly and curious. I never cease to be amazed at the devotion many of these folks demonstrate in their beliefs...today many in the overflow crowds threw their prayer mats down on the rain soaked pavement right in the middle of the street to pray. Would you be willing to do that?

I have a few more shots I'll share in a second post as well. In the meantime, if you want to see and read more about Idul Adha, you can check out my posts from last here, "Idul Adha - The Tarakan Muslim Center" and "Idul Adha - The People" and "Idul Adha - The Sacrifices".

Pretty Flowers

2011-10-30T23:19:00.000-04:00

If you tried to watch/listen to Joy's talk on Friday night then you already know that they were having technical difficulties and the screen was black. Sorry. The kids and I were all geared up to watch, but alas we'll just have to use our imaginations. I think she's still planning to put up a link to the audio recording on her blog at some point, so we'll have to hold out for that.

In the meantime, I'll share some random "pretty flower" shots that I've had for a while. Some of these were taken in our yard, some in the jungle, some by the edge of village airstrips. What gets me is how much beauty God hides in plain sight--many times we walk right past and don't even notice. Well here's a chance to take in a bit of that beauty from the comfort of your office chair, without having to soak up the heat and humidity that goes along with it here in Indonesia. :)

Don't Miss Joy's Talk

2011-10-28T04:12:00.005-04:00

So apparently Joy's Friday night (Oct 28th) keynote talk at the Relevant 11 conference in PA is going to streamed live (video) on the internet here starting at 7:00pm EST. (For us, here in Tarakan, that's on Saturday morning at 7:00am.) If you go to the streaming video sight and there's nothing playing right now, scroll down to the bottom to see the "upcoming shows" where you'll see Joy's keynote listed. There, you can sign up for a "reminder" if you want one.

Photo by Tripp Flythe

If you can't tune in live, then I'm sure she'd at least appreciate your thoughts and prayers. Pray that the Lord would speak through her in a powerful way so that many would be encouraged and challenged.

Also, if you miss it live, but still want to hear it, I think she'll be putting up a link to the audio recording on her blog when she gets a chance.

What Happens When Mama is Gone.

2011-10-24T08:46:00.000-04:00

Joy left for America on Thursday to speak at the Relevant 11 conference this coming Friday. You can read about it on her blog. The kids and I are so proud of her, but we sure do miss her! While she's gone we're trying to think of all the fun and crazy things that we can possibly do and cram them into the two weeks before she gets back! Obviously this is a plan to help the time go faster, not to leave her out of the activities.

Today we took a hike in the jungle. Don't be fooled by the solemn looks on the boys faces. They were having a blast! But after five minutes of waiting for my camera lens to unfog in the hot, humid air, I think they had long since slipped into daydream world.

In this shot Britton and Hannah are looking for "artifacts" in the stream bed. Britton keeps a big supply of spare rocks, wood, moss, etc. for his pet reticulated python and turtles. Hannah just loves to collect anything and everything that she possibly can--in this case pieces of petrified wood and coral that are abundant here in the stream.

Aw, Tyler! The little guy cracks me up. Check out those socks! He refused to take them off, even when we were walking through sand and water. He loves 'em! And boy can he talk! In fact, he never stops talking--ever! Fear not mama, any snake within a 100 miles of us had plenty of warning to run away before we ever got close, because Tyler was talking continuously. I must have heard "I'm o.k. dad. I'm o.k." at least 50 times or more, as he reassured himself (he's tougher on the outside than he is on the inside) that he was going to be o.k. by telling me as much. And of course, I told him that same thing, "Yep, you're o.k. buddy, you're doing just fine." as I held tightly to his hand. The jungle stresses him out even though he begs me to take him in. Meanwhile, Tanner never says a word and refuses help, plowing full steam ahead trying to keep up with Britton. Amazing how unique and different the twins' personalities are!

The kids were spotting all kinds of bugs and flowers and stuff. Here's one of the flowers.

And here's some thorns. These suckers are BIG and SHARP!

Just as we were reaching the bottom of the ravine, Hannah spotted a ginormous wasp nest not more than 15 feet away. We were standing right in line with the HUGE wasps that were flying into and out of the nest. I've never seen anything like it! It was at least six or seven feet tall and probably two and a half feet wide at the base, attached to a dead palm branch hanging close to the stream. These wasps were crazy BIG! And EVIL looking! One of them landing on Britton right about the time Hannah pointed out the nest. Fortunately he kept his cool as it climbed in his shirt and I slowly turned it inside out until it flew away. Others were flying over our heads. Praise the Lord we got out of there without any stings. There were thousands of them and I'd of hated to see them stirred up and mad!!!

Shortly thereafter we got overtaken by a thunderstorm and made our way back to the car in a downpour, dripping wet like a bunch of drowned rats. But the kids had a blast! We've also been playing a lot of board games and drawing pictures. Last night we took the RC plane down by the hangar and joined another MAF guy and a group of Indonesians who had brought their own Radio Controlled planes to fly. It was like an air show! We've also enjoyed a family movie night with popcorn and sodas. Oh, and we've been blessed by many of the other families here on our program who have graciously and generously done everything from having the kids over to play, to making us yummy pumpkin bread, scrumptious doughnuts, amazing pizza and more!! We have the best team!

This afternoon we also busted out the Red Ryder BB gun for some target practice. Each kid takes a turn as I teach them basic gun safety and they get to try their turn at becoming the "Top Shot". Of course, Tyler (at left) who is a weapon fanatic, always takes a turn every single time, with or without the real gun. In this case he's "shooting" with the scope covers that came off my pellet gun (not pictured). Oh, and just to put your mind at ease, the gun was unloaded and the safety on for this picture. Obviously this is rule number one--never point a gun at a person. Of course, there's always exceptions to rules--like when your dad wants to take a picture and personally takes responsibility for the risk of getting shot in the schnoz!

On Wednesday we got a unique flight request. It was actually a "no fly" day as we had a full day of meetings planned here in the hangar--tech meeting, staff meeting, and then a half day of prayer. However, an Indonesian pastor had died the night before in Samarinda, and we were being asked to fly his body back to his home and family in Malinau. We agreed to do the flight.

Samarinda is about 1 1/2 hours direct flight from Tarakan by Kodiak and we rarely make that flight from our home base. In fact, I had never done it before--been there quite a few times from the Apokayan region, but never directly from Tarakan

Large areas of limestone formations appear out of nowhere, like the Badlands of Borneo! It's hard to capture it from three thousand feet above, out the window of a bouncy airplane with a point and shoot camera, but these things are seriously impressive!

It's literally miles upon miles of sheer rock spires and cliffs and caves in the middle of the jungle! Nothing much seems to grow on them or in between them. It would be an awful place to have an engine failure, but a really sweet place to explore! I think I just got a new idea for a future trek!! :) Anyone wanna join me?

MAF used to have a base in Samarinda but eventually closed it, for among other reasons, the fact that it was getting so dangerous on the runway. The runway is literally carved out of the middle of a very densely populated city. The approach and departure take you directly over the roofs of houses and mosques, which also line both sides of the runway very closely. Since the time when MAF moved out, the conditions have improved a lot. Though the runway is still surrounding by dense buildings and population, the runway is controlled tightly and we haven't had the issues of the past with people and vehicles running out in front of us on the runway.

We still have an old hangar and a employee there and he helps with the arrangements for a flight like this. After we loaded up the pastor's body the large crowd gathered around the plane for prayer. It was touching to see how extremely grateful the family was to me and to MAF for helping them in such an important matter. Likewise, when I landed in Malinau (another 1 1/2 flight) we were greeting by hundreds of people, all offering their deep gratitude for the help that we provided.

That's a bit of what's been going on this week. We're missing "our Joy" as she's thousands of miles away. But we're so excited for the opportunity that God's given her, and proud of her for taking it. In the meantime, we're holding the fort down here, and having fun doing it! :)

Oh Rats!

2011-10-16T08:04:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago we decided to start paying Britton 10,000 Rupiah (that's about $1.00) for every shrew he catches and 20,000 Rupiah (about $2.00) for every rat he catches. It's like a win-win for us. He certainly has the energy and drive to set lots of traps, which will help cut down on the ever-plentiful rodent population. AND, the small ones that he catches in live traps can be fed to his reticulated python, which means we don't have to buy a baby chicken every week. So you see, it's a great solution!

He's been catching several a week, but this week he caught the big one that's been out-smarting us for weeks. He (and JOY!) were pretty happy about that!

Here's a few shots from my office window this past week, which happened to be the Kodiak. Not a bad view hugh?

And one more plug for my beautiful wife's new blog, Grace Full Mama. It's obviously geared towards women and specifically moms, but I gotta tell ya, there's a lot of good stuff in there for the rest of us too!

I'm so proud of Joy for stepping out and starting up her new blog. It obviously takes a lot of time and energy, but she's very disciplined to only work on it during specific times she's set aside for that. I feel like the Lord has given her many wise insights and experiences to share, and I think many women are being blessed, encouraged and challenged through her blog.

Snapshots from Various Villages

2011-10-09T22:06:00.000-04:00

Last week was busy--with the Kodiak in for an inspection during the first part of the week. In addition to helping on the inspection I was also involved in several other things going on in the office.

Being busy in the hangar and office, the only day I flew was on Saturday. I had the privilege of flying down to Samarinda to move a national pastor and his family to Long Nawang where they will be serving in the village church.

The Kodiak was stuffed to the gills with over 700kg (over 1,500 lbs) of "stuff" (all of their personal belongings and possessions in this world). The pastor's wife also rode along. Next week the Pastor and his kids will ride on a different flight, as their wasn't enough room on my Saturday flight.

The above shots and the one below are just little random glimpses into the Kodiak' operations in various villages throughout Northeast Kalimantan. They come from my own personal "stock" photos, for weeks like this where I'm too busy to be more creative. Below, "Mike Echo Bravo" is approaching the island of Tarakan (where we live) as the sun sinks low over the mainland of Borneo to the west.

That's all I got for this week. Don't forget to check out Joy's new blog "Grace Full Mama".

Back in the 206 Saddle Again

2011-10-05T07:57:00.000-04:00

After nearly nine months of not flying any of our Cessna 206 aircraft, I finally climbed back in the 206 saddle with a full PFR (Proficiency Flight Review) last week. From here on out I'll hopefully be staying proficient in both the 206 AND Kodiak aircraft, flying either one as needed day to day. Below is a shot I took of our newest pilot, Brian, taking off from PaUpan back in August.

In February of this year I went to the U.S. to attend Kodiak training. After returning to Indonesia and completing a local Kodiak checkout, I've been tearing it up in the Kodiak ever since!

On Friday I flew a group of government officials into Long Bawan in the Kodiak to attend a grand opening of the first official bank in that region of the interior. Several months ago we flew the bank vault into the village in our Caravan--a very difficult and awkward thing to load/unload.

Last week I took 28,000 tea plants in one load, into the village of Long Nawang--a government sponsored project to help the people start a little tea plantation. Each box contained 1,000 small tea plants, shipped directly from JAVA on the airlines the afternoon before.

The weather has been a little cantankerous as of late. The haze has been thickening up and mixing with smoke, which has cause our blue skies and nice visibility to all but disappear.

Why? Well, simply put, lots of people are burning jungle. Actually, in our area of Northeast Kalimantan most of this was already done back in August. Here's a shot I took a few weeks ago when the sky was still blue. This was a big, billowing pillar of smoke that went up to more than 20,000 feet! In fact, later that afternoon it grew into a self-generated thunderstorm, producing plenty of lightning and heavy rain. However, believe it or not, these are not the fires that have produced our bad weather.

Although this one was putting out a lot of smoke, the fires in our part of Kalimantan generally only affect our weather temporarily and locally. Often if you fly a few miles to one side or the other, or wait till the next day, the sky is blue and nice again...unless the winds blow from the Southwest!

In that case it looks like this! Down in Southern Kalimantan the smoke is much worse and lasts for a much longer period of time. Large fires burn newly cleared small fields and huge palm oil plantations. The fires get down into the peat bogs and smolder and smoke for months. When the wind blows from that direction day after day (as it has for the past week or so) it brings the smoke with it. And that makes our flying job much more difficult!

If you squint and look carefully you can just see the horizon line below the wing, where the smoky haze layer meets the high overcast/haze layer. When you're up above it, it's not too bad. But obviously you have to get down into it to takeoff and land...and that's not nearly as comfortable when you're flying into a little jungle strip on the side of a mountain.

Here's a shot from Saturday, when I was flying down to the Apokayan. I actually thought things were looking better. I had good visibility, though the overcast layer above was producing some light rain and fog here and there. However, things got bad again with 30mph winds from the South bringing in smoke and thunderstorms. So I turned around on the way to Samarinda and cancelled my flights. Dealing with the weather can be one of the most challenging aspects of jungle bush flying.

Grace Full Mama

2011-10-03T04:51:00.001-04:00

My amazing and beautiful wife, Joy, launched her new blog today, Grace Full Mama.

Many of you followed her old blog a while back, and I know you'll be encouraged and blessed by the "all new" Grace Full Mama. Why not take a few minutes to check it out right now.

Borneo Trek 2011 (Part 3)

2011-09-26T07:38:00.000-04:00

Here's the third and final installment on the trek from the upper Iwan River to the Upper Pujungan River.

Still about six days from our destination, this is where we stopped to camp one evening along the rocky banks of the upper Pujungan river. It was beautiful to catch glimpses of the sky now and then, but the going was very, very tough along the extremely steep and slippery rock banks (cliffs at times) of the river.

Another shot along a different part of a river. It all blends together in my mind after 14 days out there, but our camp was just off to the left, just out of the shot.

This group photo, taken about 10 days into the hike, might adequately show how tired we are, but it does not do justice to the power of the river. It was literally roaring at this point--pounding and grinding against the rocks so that you could barely hear the person next to you when they were yelling.

Most of the time we were picking our way along the jagged, steep slopes--often climbing hundreds of feet up to traverse a vertical rock overhang, and then back down again. At times we would walk for hours, only inching forward at a pace of a mile and a half per day. But once in a while we'd catch a break and find a rocky "beach" along our side of the river. Then we could hop along the rocks, enjoying an easy pace, even if it was only a few hundred feet long.

The jungle took it's toll on us. Paul and I both lost a noticeable amount of weight, if not from the prolific sweating, exertion, and dwindling rations, then certainly from the copious volume of blood we were donating to the army of leaches and other biting insects. And then there was the beard. With a backpack already approaching 50 pounds, a razor just doesn't make the list of "required" items. Besides, my kids always love the "new look" upon my return, and the glorious shaving-it-off ritual, where I create all kinds of wild and weird new looks, however short lived. My wife? Um, yeah, she's not so fond of that.

Here's a shot of one of our campsites. In the foreground, my Hennessy hammock--a great way to sleep in the jungle! In the background, the shelter for our guides, and our cooking fire. Pauls hammock was just out of the shot to the right. And yes, the tree in the foreground really is as big as it appears to be!

Our trip took 14 full days from the time we left Tarakan early on a Friday morning, until we returned two weeks later after dark. The first and last day involved lots of boat travel. Without the boats the trip (one way only) would have taken up to two months or more! During the 12 days of hiking in the middle we walked a total of nearly 65 miles (104km), though if you look at our track on the GPS, we were winding all over the place like a lost snake. Our straight-line distance was about half of our total distance. But by MAF airplane, we could have flown what we hiked (from the starting point tot he finishing point) in about 10 minutes, less than one minute by air for every day that we hiked. Over the course of our trek we ascended many mountains--a total vertical ascent of almost 19,000 feet--significantly more than the vertical ascent required to climb Mt. Everest from base camp. It was grueling and exhausting!!--a great reminder of why MAF is out here!

On the last day of hiking we finally left the edge of the river near Long Saan, an old abandoned village sight, and climbed up into higher elevations where we broke out into open areas with expansive views. The scenery was gorgeous! It looks like this would really be easy hiking hugh? Well, think again. The ferns are about eight feet tall and thicker than flies on manure! Trying to cut a trail with a machete (or parang) is all but pointless. Instead, our guides cut a pole about two meters long for a "pusher". The lead guy would place it up at a 45 degree angle onto the ferns in front of him, and then basically walk up the pole, thereby pushing the ferns down under it. The rest of us would follow, enveloped in a cloud of fern dust. But hey, at least we weren't fighting for a a foot or handhold on the edge of a slippery, plunging precipice. AND, we enjoyed the sunshine.

The Long Saan area was some of the most intriguing and beautiful jungle of our entire trek. We saw animals all over the place--lots of pigs, deer, payau, monkeys, hornbills and other birds. It was a really beautiful area! There were waterfalls and babbling brooks. We entered an area where the canopy was high but the undergrowth was thin. You could actually see for hundreds of feet in every direction down on the trails, which was very strange after so many days of hacking through thick bush. Below is a shot of the old cemetery in long Saan. We took a "tour" through the old village sight, now overtaken by jungle--a surreal and fascinating place. We were most excited that for the first time in 13 days, our guides knew exactly where they were and we were on an actual trail--albeit an old one.

After several hours descending back down to the Pujungan river, we still had another day of hiking to get to Long Jelet. But out of nowhere a motorized canoe showed up. We were at the very point that is considered the furthest spot upriver that is navigable by boat. From that point on up, it's violent whitewater. A couple of young guys had brought a boat up from Long Pujungan to do some pig hunting. They didn't even know that we were there. We talked them into taking us the rest of the way to Long Jelet by river, which saved us at least a whole day in the end. We could only take two guys at a time, because the river is still totally crazy in these areas--as in, lots of intense whitewater. I only pulled my camera out once, on a nice lazy stretch, to grab this shot of Pak Lajau driving the ketinting downriver to Long Jelet. It was a great feeling seeing all the jungle and rocks go zipping by at such a fast speed!

We made it all the way to Long Pujungan before dark, by river of course. Although there is an MAF airstrip in Long Pujungan, we would have needed to wait two days to get picked up by air. for what would have been a comfortable flight to Tarakan. However, we opted instead to take a "longboat" the very next morning, and go all the way out to the coast by river. That was indeed quite an experience! Over 40 of us crammed into what is essentially a gigantic wooden boat in the shape of an enormous canoe, with four outboard motors on it!! Then we took off down the swollen river, many time facing waves and whitewater that towered high above the boat. The scenery was amazing, the ride was thrilling, but mostly we were just glad to be nearly home.

Just before dark we made it to Tanjung Selor and caught another boat (this time a speed boat) to Tarakan, one more hour up the ocean. After catching some motorcycle taxis home, we surprised our families by simply walking in the front door--five days past when we were originally due, but two days before they were expecting us based on the last word they had heard. All in all it was an amazing experience, and one that I will never forget. But had I known what we were getting into this time, I probably would have picked a different route. As it turns out, trekking through uncharted territory in virgin jungle is much, much harder than simply flying over it!!!

Borneo Trek 2011 (Part 2)

2011-09-17T23:18:00.001-04:00

We certainly saw more than our fair share of glorious, deep, undisturbed jungle. However, to be completely honest, I didn't even try to photograph most of it. The truth is, I cannot afford to take my good DSLR camera into the jungle on a trip like this. The camera and lenses would almost certainly be ruined despite the best possible water-proof cases and care. So I don't even bother.

Instead, I take a point and shoot along, and even then I'm afraid to pull it out 90% of the time b/c I'm completely, totally soaked to the bone with sweat--soaked and dripping the same as if I had just jumped into a swimming pool with all my clothes on. So the pictures you see here are just a very small glimpse of what the "real" jungle looked like. You'll just have to take my word on that. But every once in a while, usually after we'd taken a short rest and my hands dried off just enough to take the camera out, I'd take a shot of our surroundings. Above, a gargantuan tree, who's trunk was like a solid mass of spiderweb roots that extended hundreds of feet up into the canopy above.

Well, I promised you some shots of critters. Once again, many critters that we saw never got to be photographed, b/c I wasn't able or willing to get out the camera. However, I got a few of them. One evening we camped alongside the river shown below (but it wasn't at this exact location.) As we usually did most nights, after hanging the hammocks, making camp, and laying out stuff for the following morning, we'd jump into the river to cool off, wash our clothes as best we could and bathe. For whatever reason, in this particular spot both Paul and I felt a little bit fidgety--something about the look of the river and the water...it just gave us "chills" a bit. Something could be hiding in there and we nervously joked about it, cause that's what guys do when you don't want to be a wimp, but there's good reason to be hesitant about something.

This was prime territory for a giant reticulated python, and indeed these are the very parts of the world where they thrive. A huge python could easily eat a man, though that's obviously not a common occurrence. However, I can't remember how many times we nervously joked that evening as we were trying to wash our clothes and take a bath, that at any moment a big ol' python might just come up and grab one of us, yanking us under water never to be seen again. Ha ha. Nervous laugh. Scrub some more grime from the nasty socks and steel a quick look back behind when the other guy wasn't watching. But fortunately nothing tried to grab or eat us.

The following morning, however, we were in for a bit of a surprise. On the very branch that hung directly over the very spot where we were swimming the night before, there sat a fully wild and evil-looking reticulated python. Now, to be fair, it wasn't a giant in the world of reticulated pythons (they can grow over 30 feet long), but that's not the point. It wasn't the type of thing you'd want to cuddle with--it was probably only about 12 feet long and as thick as my forearm. None-the-less it sent shivers down our spines, because it brought a sudden dose of reality to our nervous little jokes the night before. Indeed, we were deep in the heart of wild Borneo, where we, not the pythons were the strangers and intruders.

But speaking of cuddling, here's a much cuter and cuddlier critter to look at. One day while carefully negotiating a slippery, steep rock ledge that dropped precipitously into a whitewater river below, (seems like we spent the better part of 13 days doing that--one step from falling tens or hundreds of feet down rock faces to massive boulders below, which gave way to thundering, pounding whitewater,) we came upon a river otter family. The mom (or it could have been the dad--not sure) promptly jumped off the ledge and that was that. However, two of the cutest little cubs (or pups, or whatever you call these things) were just sitting there in their little den, too small to run away and to young to be afraid. We watched them for a few minutes and I managed to take a picture, but then we let them go, hoping the mommy would come back again. They were about the size of a small ferret, except fatter. And cuter.

One day while taking a break on the trail I looked down and saw this massively long caterpillar. It was at least four inches long and a half inch thick. I have no idea what it turns into (as in what type of moth or butterfly) but it must be big! Incidentally, the soccer socks hiked up over our pants are not a fashion statement, but rather an additional deterrent, albeit a failing one, to keep out the armies of blood-sucking leaches. Despite this, and 100% deet, as you saw in the previous post, we still donated plenty of blood to the future generations of Bornean leeches.

As far as large animals go, we saw lots of signs of bear (the honey or sun bear is endangered and only native to this part of Borneo), but Paul and I did not actually see one. On one occasion we heard two bears, quite close, growling loudly. According to our guides, they were either fighting or mating, in either or both cases, not wise to interrupt them. Our guides saw three bear, each at a different location, when one of the guides had wandered off on their own in a different direction for some reason.

We also saw small jungle deer, as well as Payau (large deer between the size of a mule deer and elk), monkeys of various types, birds, and lots of pigs. Over the course of the trip we shot four pigs for food, about once every three days, as well as a small deer. Late in the afternoon on the 12th day in the jungle, I shot my first jungle pig here in Indonesia, just as we were getting ready to set up a camp. Since that was the first pig that we took near a campsite, we were really able to feast that night! Below is a large pig that jumped out of a pig "den" like the one in the second picture below, and nearly gored one of our guides. Two of them had to jump out of the way to avoid being run over by the doomed porker!

There's always thousands of insects in the jungle . The bees and moths never fail to find us within minutes of stopping for a rest on the trail. It's insane how fast they sniff us out, and how many there are! They love to suck the salty, sweaty juices from our clothes and backpacks. But in this case, the morning after we ate a small jungle deer, there were dozens of brightly colored moths (or are they butterflies?) sucking the juices from the entrails of the deer on a rock by the river. Yeah, it's nasty thought to be sucking on gut juices, but the moths are really pretty.

Check back again for the third and final installment on our Jungle trek of 2011. I'll show you the conclusion to our trip and give you some of the stats from our 14 days in the jungle.

Half Alive--Borneo Trek 2011 (Part 1)

2011-09-13T09:06:00.000-04:00

We finally made it back to Tarakan--and still half alive! It would be a dramatic understatement to say that this trek was by far the most grueling and difficult trek we've ever done through the jungle. It was much, much more than that--it was quite frankly insane (but that can be said with the advantage of 20/20 hindsight). Here's a shot of Paul and I and with our families just before departing the MAF hangar in Tarakan.

On the second to the last day of the trek we broke out of the canopy with a view looking back upriver at where we'd come from. At the lower right of the picture you can see a river. That river snakes it's way up through the rugged cliffs and mountains into an area that we pilots refer to as "no man's land." Indeed, what was supposed to take six to eight days took double that--and never, till the last day of hiking did we encounter a trail. In fact, the majority of the time, we saw not a single sign that a human had ever been in the area before--no sign at all! It was indeed "no man's land!"

Our trek took months of planning and preparation. It all came together in the last week, when we flew three guides (friends of ours) out from their respective interior villages (near our ultimate destination), who then accompanied us on an MAF flight into Data Dian. From there we took two motorized canoes a day and a half up the Iwan river towards Malaysia. Here's a shot of the four guys from Data Dian (that drove the boats) and our three guides, one each from Long Jelet, Long Pua, and Long Pujungan, and Paul and I, on the banks of the upper Iwan River.

From the Iwan, we entered a small, clear-black water river called the Suhen. This is a shot taken just beyond the mouth of the Suhen River as Pak Markus is getting ready to throw out a fishing net. Yes, it really was as wild and rugged as it looks. Very few people ever venture into this area anymore, and in a matter of days we would be in an area where NO ONE goes at all!

We only made it a few hundred meters up the Suhen river before we hit gravel bars. From there we said goodbye to the boats and any hope of help or rescue from the outside world. We set out (five of us) with our 45-50 lb packs and a lot of energy and excitement, hoping to find signs of an old trail that was used in the early 1900's.

Though we would never find that trail, and indeed were slowly forced into a desperate bush-whacking scenario for the next two-weeks, we did enjoy the primordial beauty of a lush, undisturbed, virgin rainforest! Waterfalls abounded as streams cascaded down the steep slopes of jungle-covered mountains and rugged ravines.

But then the rains came. It began to rain and rain and rain! I guess that's why they call it a rain forest! The rains swelled the rivers, and on day two or three our guides made a critical decision to abandon the search for the old trail, and instead continue on the left side of the Bahung river, which would eventually spit us out into the Pujungan river system and eventually into the area of Long Jelet. The truth is that they had no way of knowing where we were or which direction we were going--and were unable to remember the area from many years before. There was literally no sign of anyone having ever been where we were going--ever.

I was extremely grateful for my awesome Garmin GPSmap 62S handheld GPS, into which I had loaded navigational charts of the area that we use for flying--without which we would have literally had no idea where we were or which direction we were going! There's many stories related to this, but too long to share here. Suffice it to say, the GPS was a life-saver--not just figuratively, but probably almost literally!

Below, Paul crosses one of many "creeks" that was swollen do to the heavy rains!

And yes, we suffered our fair share of leach bites, scrapes, falls, rotting flesh, blisters, stings--you name it we suffered it! This is par for the course for those that travel without the airplane!

After the second and third and fourth day it becomes harder and harder to keep things dry. In fact, everything--including us--begins to take on the smell and look of something rotting and/or dying. Perhaps more than anything else, this is one of the toughest parts of long-distance jungle trekking--there is no escape from the elements, they just seem to start consuming you!

Well, that's a quick intro into our jungle trek of 2011. I plan to do two more posts on it, but there's obviously way more to write and show you than what would be practical, so we'll have to settle for just the highlights. As it is, I'll leave you with this shot, which was the first time we were able to see the sky in our first eight days of trekking. The jungle canopy swallows you up and shuts out all but the faintest of light. Beyond that, the incessant rain and clouds gave a gloomy, ominous look to small holes of light that we were able to glimpse now and then. However, on this evening, on the banks of the upper Pujungan

Tune in next time when I'll highlight some of the critters and creatures we encountered along the way. And I'm sure some of you have questions like, "why in the world would you do something like this?" "Are you seriously nuts???" I'll try to answer some of those questions as well.

Indonesian Independence Day In Pa'Upan (Part 2)

2011-08-28T15:00:00.001-04:00

As you read this, I am well on my way into a jungle-trek, somewhere between the upper Iwan River and the upper Pujungan River, deep in the heart of Borneo. Please continue to pray for Joy and the kids in my absence. Also, please pray for Pual and I and our three guides, Pak Yu Taang, Pak Lajau, and Pak Ului.

As promised here is the second in the 2-part post on the Independence celebrations in Pa'Upan. I set it up ahead of time to post here while I was away.

In the middle of the hottest part of the afternoon, when most people were taking a rest or escaping the heat somewhere, Paul and I took the four college guys on a little hike to some outlying rice fields. Right now the people have finished cleaning up their rice paddies, and they will soon begin the planting for the next season of rice.

Around four in the afternoon, after the heat began to subside a little, the boat races began. Three teams of two, would compete side by side in paddle-driven dugout canoes, first up and then down river.

Sometimes the race seemed more like a canoe-version of bumper cars. But the crowd was loving every minute!

Here's a few shots of kids along the river bank watching.

Like I said in the last post, usually there would be a lot of eating going on in conjunction with the activities. But in this case, out of respect for the Muslim government officials present, most of the food-related activities were kept either far away, or inside individual homes. These three kids were chomping away to their hearts delight on freshly roasted pig ribs, over where the men were cooking the pork on the opposite side of the runway.

There was supposed to be a cultural food festival that evening, where many traditional foods would be served. But under the circumstances it was cancelled. However, our friends from Binuang who were there to defend their title in the soccer tournament, invited us over to their place to feast on some of the traditional foods that their ladies had prepared.

Among the delicacies were grubs. First we got to try the cooked grubs. They were boiled as-is, in bamboo tubes. No spices, no salt, no anything--except juicy, plump grubs that "popped" when you bit into them. After downing several of these cooked critters, I mentioned the fact that I'd heard some people like to eat them raw. Apparently only one guy that was present appreciated the flavor of the live grub. But somehow the challenge was thrown out there, that if he ate one, I would eat one too.

I readily agreed. But first I set up the video camera as I knew my boys would be disappointed if they didn't get to see this later. Below is a screen grab from the video, just as I placed one of those very juicy, wriggling, plump grubs into my mouth. It's little feet grabbed my lower lip and tried to hang on, even as I "popped" the other half with my teeth. All I can say is, it wasn't my favorite. O.k., I can go a little further and say that it had an extremely strong and very potent flavor, that led to my mouth and tongue going numb for about 10 minutes afterwards. The good thing is that it's supposedly a medicinal product that helps prevent cancer. Well, I guess I'll be cancer free for a while!

Stay tuned for news from our jungle trek, hopefully after next weekend.

Indonesian Independence Day in Pa'Upan (Part 1)

2011-08-21T20:00:00.000-04:00

Indonesia's Independence Day is August 17th. It's celebrated throughout the country, even in the interior villages. A few weeks ago, I had the chance, along with MAF's program manager, Steve, and fellow MAF pilot, Paul, to attend the opening festivities of the two-week long Independence Day celebrations in the south Krayan region. We also brought along a group of four U.S. mission aviation college students that had just arrived here the day before to get a taste for what missionary pilots do. It was quite an introduction!

MAF flew many people into Pa'Upan for the event, both from surrounding villages and from the far-away coastal cities. This year was a bit unusual in that the Bupati (a high-level, elected government official who is just under the governor and presides over a large area or region) from both Malinau and Nunukan were planning to attend. They specifically requested MAF to transport them, along with their entourages, so we flew multiple loads to see it happen. Pictured below, just to the right of the MAF dove on the tail of the airplane is the Nunukan Bupati.

I was originally scheduled to fly that day and then after completing all of the flights, I was planning to overnight with the Kodiak in Pa'Upan. However, my good friends, Pak Ajang and Pak Gat, in Pa'Upan, insisted that I be there on the ground with my camera right from the get-go, in order to photograph the festivities and documents the celebrations. So Paul readily agreed to swap me out and I was able to be there, ready, when the events kicked off in full gear.

Pictured from left to right: Paul, Craig (our chief pilot), and Steve, (our program manager). In the background is our Caravan. The Kodiak and Caravan did the lion's share of heavy-hauling for these celebrations.

After the arrival of the Bupatis, the opening ceremonies began immediately. The entire village was lined up in rows beside the airstrip, many wearing traditional colors and clothes.

They faced a make-shift stage while speeches and introductions were given on a battery-powered sound system. Below, my good friend, Pak Gat, is doing some of the opening introductions. You can see the people lined up in the background, but Pak Gat is turned around at the moment speaking to the Government officials who are seated on a stage behind him. To the right is the top of the big soccer trophy, that will be given to the team that comes out on top after a grueling, two-week soccer tournament between all of the villages in that area.

And here are a few of the soccer teams, who were also lined up during the speeches and intros. Whereas the Kodiak, driven by Paul, flew multiple loads of people throughout the day into Pa'Upan, and then spent the night there, the Caravan had other places it needed to go after flying the Bupati in from Nunukan. You can see it here, piloted by Craig, taking off in the background.

The young kids were torn between watching the festivities in the foreground and the airplanes in the background.

After all of the opening speeches and introductions etc. etc. were completed, we returned to Pak Ajang's house for a feast of delicious food. At left is Steve, at right is the Malinau Bupati.

The village killed two water buffalo and six pigs for the opening ceremonies. Here, the men are dividing up buckets full of pig meat and fat (the best part) to various houses and families after it's been boiled and roasted for hours on fires they have going under their barbecue tent. Still hot and freshly salted, this stuff was like candy to the villagers. Think of it like that big, fat, stuffed Turkey (or whatever it is you like to eat) for Thanksgiving dinner. To the people interior, this is as good as it gets. And it IS good! However, being that this was right in the middle of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and that the Nunukan Bupati and most of his entourage are Muslim, there was great effort by the people in Pa'Upan to keep the Pork (which Muslims are not allowed to eat) and all other food and drinks out of sight as much as possible (most Muslims fast from food and drink each day during Ramadan). Whereas normally the food would have been part of the festivities, this time they kept the festivities on one side of the airstrip, and the pig roasting and eating on the other side of the strip.

I'll have one more post next week, showing some of the other things that were going on there in Pa'Upan. Be sure to stop back to see the rest of the story.

HOME SHCOOL UPDATE:

But in the meantime, we just wanted to say thanks for all of you that were praying for a quick resolution to our lost home-school books. We still have not been reimbursed by Singapore airlines for the lost books. It seems that they are good at dragging their feet when it comes time to paying up. However, Heart of Dakota Publishing, has been exceptional in their response to our request for a speedy re-shipment of the books. Joy has been blown away by their generous offers to help with the costs and the great lengths to which they went to ensure that the replacement books got to MAF in a very short time. (And so far she is very impressed with the curriculum!) Thanks to them, and to Barb, at MAF, who also went the extra mile, we were able to get the replacement books shipped to MAF in time to go with Tom and Pam, who were moving over here from Nampa. They agreed to bring the box of books as an extra piece of luggage. If not for everyone's help, it could have easily taken several months to get them here the slower and cheaper way, OR, a whole lot of extra money to get them here in a reasonable amount of time. Thanks all of you for your help!

Because of that, the kids were able to start school, pretty close to when Joy had hoped to start. It may seem a bit early to you, but she likes to start a bit sooner, since throughout the year there tend to be a lot of "interruptions" like village trips etc. Here's a quick shot of the kids on their first day of the new school year, each holding up a sign that Joy made indicating their current grade. She's always so good at making things special and memorable, so of course she had a special "first day of school breakfast" and these little "place mats" were at each kids plate.

JUNGLE TREK:

This coming Friday morning (Thursday evening in the U.S.), Paul College and I will be embarking on our annual "Man Vs. Jungle" expedition. In what seems to have become a yearly tradition, we'll be giving up the relative comfort, safety and predictability of life in Tarakan for the grueling, sweaty, leech-infested jungles of the interior in an effort to experience travel the "hard way", without the use of the airplane. This trip promises to be our most ambitious effort to date as we'll be attempting to traverse an area that is so remote and isolated that only one of our three guides has ever been there--and that was more than 20 years ago! Unfortunately, the other few people that remember that area are either too old or too sick to accompany us.

Although this trek holds a high degree of uncertainty as to the total length of time that we'll be hacking through the bush, the difference in this and others that we've done is that we will not need to meet another group of guides somewhere in the middle of the jungle to complete the trek. That's always a little disconcerting as it feels like you're looking for a needle in a haystack. But this time we will be flying our guides into the starting point with us, and they will then accompany us the entire length of the journey until we make it back to their home areas anywhere from 7 to 12 days later. We're confident that they will find their way, as these guys are masters at navigating and living in the jungle. It may take a while, but we'll eventually make it out.

If all goes well, we plan to complete the entire journey all the way back to Tarakan without the use of the airplane. Stay tuned, I'm sure that there will be some interesting photos and posts after the trip. In the meantime, please keep us, as well as Joy and the kids in your prayers. It's a pretty special wife that lets her husband go trekking in the jungle for a week or two every year! But I'm sure she and the kids would appreciate your prayers as they hold down the fort here in Tarakan.

Kids and Critters

2011-08-14T19:34:00.002-04:00

Here's one of the "critters" Britton was keeping around the house last week. He's since released it back into the wild. (WARNING: the last picture in this post contains a slithery "critter".)

We're now finished with our busy birthday season. It starts with Hannah. On June 21st she turned 9 years old. She had a slumber party here with some of her MK friends.

Next is Hudson. On July 28th he turned 7. He also had some friends over for a sleepover, but since I was interior that night, we celebrated again with just our family after I returned.

Finally it was Britton's turn. On August 4th he turned 11. You may notice that part of the chocolate chip cookie cake is missing (ummmmm, I don't know anything about that!). And the other thing that cracks me up is Tyler, trying to grab some of the birthday attention from Britton.

The twins are growing up fast! Here's a picture we took after we got a package from my parents with the new shorts and shirts and whistles (Tyler isn't holding his). Their facial expressions really capture their personalities here.

And finally, another "critter" that Britton had for a few days last week. He caught it in the neighbor's yard and kept it for three or four days before releasing it again in front of our house, much to the chagrin of his mom!

Along the Airstrip

2011-08-08T19:26:00.000-04:00

About three weeks ago Britton and I went interior for three nights (four days) to fly people to a church conference (Flying for a church Conference Part 1 and Part 2). While I was flying all day, Britton was hanging out with village friends. One morning while I was waiting for the fog to lift off the end of the airstrip so I could takeoff, Britton and I and some of his friends took a walk down the airstrip to see if we could finds some interesting macro life to photograph. Here's some of what we found.

A curious praying mantis.

A strange-looking grasshopper thingy. It was no more than a half inch long.

A bright read leaf.

This tiny flower was only about the size of a pencil eraser.

There were hundreds of grasshoppers, and they all seemed to be different! This was also a little tiny guy, but much "plumper" than the stick-like one above.

No idea what this is.

A bee collecting pollen.

Another red leaf.

Yep, yet another grasshopper!

I was actually focusing on the flower itself when it dawned on me how many bugs were inside collecting pollen or nectar or whatever they're doing. Every single one of this particular type of pink flower had three or four or five bugs inside working feverishly to collect whatever it is they're collecting. Must be good stuff!

All of the above shots were taken with my macro lens in the span of about 15 minutes. Isn't it awesome how much life and beauty are right there around us each and every day--most of which goes unnoticed unless we take the time to slow down and look for it?!

This last shot was taken the following day in Long Nawang. It's taken with an ultra-wide angle lens (this one set at 10mm on a Canon 7D). As you can see it produces a totally different look--way up close to the flower, but still able to see the surroundings, the sky etc.

Blowgun Competition

2011-07-31T21:37:00.001-04:00

Last weekend we got invited to a blowgun shooting competition out at Amal, on the other side of the island of Tarakan. It was quite impressive, with each participate getting two rounds (five darts each round) to shoot at a target that was about 80 feet away. I would have been lucky just to get a dart to go 80 feet, let alone get it to stick into the target, or be anywhere near the center!

People from several different interior ethnic groups were represented, each trying to earn the title and pride of being the best shooter out there!

In the foreground (pictured below) is Pendeta (Pastor) Estenly, from PaUpan. He actually lives and serves in the interior village, but two months ago I flew him and his family out so they could go visit their family down in South Kalimantan. Like us, they are living and serving in a ministry role far away from their "homeland" and family. It had been almost four years since they'd had the chance to go "home." Well, their return trip back to Pa'Upan came through Tarakan at just the right time for Pdt Estenly to give it a go in the blowgun competition. We were actually surprised to see how many people we either knew, or had connections with there.

I don't know what it was about this dragonfly, but the whole time I was hanging out with the guys on the line, the thing kept coming back and landing on the very top of the spears. At the end of most blowguns is a stiff, metal spear. These are used to spear wild pigs and other large game.

Tougher than woodpecker lips--Pak Nelson! This was not a posed shot. I was a long way away using a telephoto lens, and he didn't even know I was taking his picture. But I think this shot totally does justice to Pak Nelson. What can I say. The guy is as tough and rugged as they come, yet no one is more generous and caring than Pak Nelson. He originally comes from an interior village, but has been one of our indispensable national staff here in Tarakan now for quite a few years. The people interior know and love and respect him, as do the pilots and mechanics. Pak Nelson loves the Lord and it shows through his work, his relationships and his integrity. He's also a great dad and husband. No one is quicker to offer a hand to those hurting or sick or in need, than Pak Nelson. He's always giving of his time and resources to encourage and love people the way Christ would. But make no mistake; that doesn't mean that you have to be a sissy. And he's no sissy! He's as tough as woodpecker lips, and man can he shoot a blowgun!!! Pak Nelson was the one who invited us to the competition, and I have to say it was pretty obvious right off the bat that he was one of, if not the very best there!

There was another guy there that looked particularly tough and rugged in his traditional attire. I walked up and started talking to him. I soon found out that he's originally from Long Alango. I mentioned one of my good friends there, that I've gone on several hikes with, and it turns out that they're related! So then he brought up the big sickness that occurred there almost exactly one year ago, and he mentioned that MAF had been the critical factor in averting a potentially huge disaster, by flying in the medical team on short notice. I told him that I was the guy that flew in that medical team. Well that sealed the deal. We were now friends! He took Britton aside and was determined to coach him on blowgun-shooting techniques. (Notice the heavy-weighted rings in his ears, the pig tusks hanging from his neck, along with the clouded leopard tooth and monkey skull. The designs on the bark vest are traditional Dayak.)

So, with his own separate group of spectators, a personal Dayak coach, and a snack box for a target, Britton set out with his new mini-blowgun to learn the finer arts of blowgun warfare. I have to say, he was impressive from the get-go. And the onlookers were quite impressed as well. It was determined that he would indeed have to compete at next years competition. Does that mean we need to find some pig tusks and ear rings???

It wasn't all testosterone-boosting manly, war games. There were several other competitions going on as well including the girls from each suku (ethnic group) doing traditional dances. Here's a few of the different suku, all dressed up and ready to dance.

Today there are four American college students coming to Tarakan to check out MAF and what we do. They'll be here for about two weeks. On Thursday, the big opening ceremonies for this year's Tujuh Belas Agustus (17 August, which is Indonesia's Independence Day) festivities interior start in PaUpan. We will be flying in two government Bupati officialsa and all their entourages, from the two districts in this part of Northeast Kalimantan. It promises to be a big shindig! The people there, and the Bupatis asked MAF to be represented as well. So I'll also be flying in our new Program Manager, Steve, and his family, along with the four college kids as well. I'll plan to spend the night with all of them on Thursday night, and then fly everyone back out on Friday. Should be fun!

Latest Happenings!

2011-07-27T05:22:00.003-04:00

Joy's parents just left yesterday after spending a few weeks with us here in Tarakan. The kids had an absolute blast with them playing countless games of Monopoly, building Legos, reading books, and generally just hanging out together. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that...guess I was too busy working or playing to take pictures. Oops! But here's one of Britton with a monitor lizard from a few days ago.

Two weeks ago, "Baca" and Grandma Hlavka payed for all of us to go to the pool on the other side of the island. Not only that, but they also bought a HUGE platter of french fries and a bunch of fried rice for all of us. The kids thought they'd won the lottery!

Last weekend, we made ice cream with our old fashioned ice cream churn--a gift from my parents waaaaaayyyy back on our first anniversary (I think. Maybe it was Christmas. I don't remember.) Anyway, we've taken it to Oregon, Alaska, back to Oregon, and now to Indonesia. The neighbors and Baca and Grandma all got to help churn and then eat it!

Tarakan is not known as a tourist destination. In fact, Lonely Planet pretty much says don't bother coming here unless it's on the way to somewhere else. However, we think there's plenty of fun and adventure here...if you're looking for it. One of the things we like to do is go for little "jungle" walks if/when time allows. One day a few weeks ago we found ourselves walking down this little flowing muddy stream, surrounded by very tall grass. The kids are always looking for critters along the way, and we're rarely disappointed.

Speaking of critters, I think I'll show you a few more of the monitor lizard. Some of the coolest critters come right into our yard (or in this case the neighbor's yard.) Steve, our new Program Manager and good friend is in the process of moving into the house just above ours. A few days ago while up there working he came across and caught this little monitor lizard. Knowing that Britton would love to see it, he handed over the "beautiful sheila" or "handsome bloke" (I have no idea what it was) to the smiling animal lover.

After keeping it for a few hours to observe and "study" it, and of course to show his daddy when I got home from work, he released it back into our yard. It stayed for quite a while on our little palm tree, just sitting completely motionless until it was sure it was safe. Notice the fire ant on it's nose. It wasn't biting the lizard, but simply crawling down the tree and in the process, over the lizard. The monitor lizard never even twitched.

And because he/she was sitting motionless, I looked deep into it's eyes, and what do you think I saw? Well, I saw a reflection of the sky, a palm tree, our fence, and me! Yikes!

By the way, one of the pieces of luggage that Joy's parents were bringing over here never showed up. The airlines have now stopped looking for it. It's officially gone. It contained 48lbs of home-schooling books and supplies, which Joy was hoping to start using next week. Obviously that won't be happening. But MAF is working on a plan to get a replacement order and shipment on the way. Please pray that we can find an affordable and efficient method to get the replacement books for the kids schooling in a timely manner. Thanks!

Flying for a Church Conference (Part 2)

2011-07-21T19:23:00.000-04:00

The third day dawned the same as the second, with low clouds and fog blanketing the jungle-covered mountains surrounding Mahak Baru. Although finished with the pre-flight and ready for take-off, I had to wait another hour and a half before the clouds lifted and revealed a beautiful blue sky. Meanwhile, Folks from the village were heading down the airstrip, branching off on various trails which lead to their ladangs (rice fields) for a day of hard work.

Among the many loads of people I flew from various villages, were two loads of kids from Data Dian. Because of their small size, we were able to put two people in almost every seat, which meant I had 14 people in a plane that contained eight seats (we can't put two people in the co-pilot seat for obvious reasons.)

Although Data Dian is connected to Long Nawang by river (whereas all of the other villages that I transported people from are not connected by river), it would mean about four and a half hours of riding in a boat like these. The airplane ride was seven minutes from takeoff to touchdown. The river is full of dangerous rapids, and the price would have been about three to four times what it cost them to fly with me in the Kodiak! Safer, faster, cheaper!

After another long day of flying, Britton and I headed for the river for a quick cool-down and mandi (bath) before dinner. Kids in the village were out having fun.

Down at the river, a group of kids joined us. The water was clear, cool and refreshing! Although the gravel bar on the right side makes it appear the river is very shallow, just a few feet from the edge is drops into a deep channel. There were two kids that were doing back flips into the deep water. I wish I could to that, but no doubt I'd break my neck or back in the process.

As the sun set, the clouds lit up like fire! Although it only lasted a few minutes it was gorgeous!

Well, as I said before, after three days of conference flying, we moved over to Long Nawang and spent the last night there, where I showed films and shared with a bunch of the people gathered for the conference. But I didn't have time to take any pictures of that.

The following day, (Sunday), we headed back to Tarakan.

One morning while waiting for the fog to lift, Britton and I took a little walk down the airstrip looking for interesting bugs and macro subjects to photograph. Sometime I'll do a separate post showing you some of what we found.

Flying for a Church Conference

2011-07-18T01:23:00.000-04:00

Last week I spent three nights interior with the Kodiak, flying tons of people and stuff to the huge bi-annual church conference in the Apo Kayan region of Northeast Kalimantan. This time it happened to be in Long Nawang (pictured below, as the sun was setting over their old hanging foot bridge.)

All said, between Thursday and Saturday I flew about 175 people from several different villages over to Long Nawang. (During the course of the entire week, MAF flew about 350 people total to this conference--there's no way an event like this would be possible without the wings of MAF!) It was a festive mood that greeted passengers disembarking the plane in Nawang. The pastors and folks from the village were always there to welcome people. For many, this is the only time they get to see friends and family that live so far away. Everyone was excited and cheerful!

My co-pilot was Britton. Actually, he flew down with another pilot in the Caravan, b/c my flight down to the region was full. But then I picked him up and took him over to Mahak Baru, where he spent the next three days hanging out and playing with his friends. He had an absolute blast. Every day he helped me pre-flight the airplane, then after breakfast I would take off and fly load after load of people and stuff. Around 1:00 in the afternoon I'd be back for lunch and fuel, and we'd hang out while I was eating, after which time I'd be gone again till nearly sunset. Then he'd help me secure the airplane and get it ready for the next day, with just enough time for a dip in the river before dinner. It was a good father-son bonding time!

Here he is, late Saturday afternoon in Long Nawang with some of his new friends there. After completing the conference flying we flew one final load of stuff over from Mahak to Nawang and then spent Saturday night in Long Nawang where I showed films and shared with the folks gathered for the church conference.

On Thursday and Friday Chris D. was down helping with a Cessna 206. I love flying for church conferences, and it's always fun to have two planes and pilots working it together. At the end of a very long day, Chris is finishing some paperwork on the tail of the airplane, having already tied it down and secured it for the night.

We stopped flying on Thursday evening at about 6:00 pm. Here's a picture just after I landed in Mahak at the end of the day. Isn't it a beautiful evening?! You'll notice that my buddies are already fueling the plane for the following morning. Over the course of three days I used about 10 drums of Jet Fuel out of Mahak Baru. All of it was pumped by hand by these guys, a very physically demanding process! It would be very difficult for us to do what we do with the help of so many people, from you guys that pray for us and give generously to the ministry, to the mechanics that keep the planes going, to the pastors and helpers at each strip interior!

Well, the clear, beautiful evenings almost always give way to foggy, ugly early mornings like this. Isn't that quite a contrast? The only difference between the two pictures is about 12 hours, and a whole lot of early morning fog! Even though we were ready to go early, we always had to wait until about 9:00 am before we were able to take off the first time, due to the fog.

Speaking of helpers, here's Pak Taman Bang helping to tie down my plane that evening. He's a good friend of all the MAF pilots and is always a joyful face greeting us when we land. He helps with fueling, loading, and getting the passengers and barang (stuff) weighed and ready.

And this is Ibu Tinan Kule. The smile says it all! She's a wonderful lady who loves the Lord and loves serving people. We are very grateful for her help with the passengers out of Mahak Baru, and of course the ever-so-delicious fresh pineapple that is often waiting for the pilots, as well as fried rice and tea.

As I mentioned, each night we made sure to have time for a dip in the river. In fact, that's where we bathed. Hey, it's either there, or out of a 55 gallon drum, and the river was nice and clear and refreshing! Here's Britton with his good friend Markus. He's the same age as Britton and was having so much fun showing Britton how to spear fish under water, make all sorts of toys with sticks and grass and whatnot, and generally just having fun in the village.

I have one more post I'll do about the village Church Conference flying. Check back soon to see/read the rest.

VBS in Pa'Upan

2011-07-10T19:11:00.001-04:00

Two weeks ago I ended my "A Day in the life of our Kodiak" post by promising you a few more pictures from the VBS activities in Pa'Upan. Here's a shot of the MAFers and some of the kids that attended. This was just after I landed at around 5:00pm, so only the kids that were there at the airstrip gathered for the picture. Apparently this was only a fraction of them!

The village of Pa'Upan surrounds the little airstrip, with houses lining both sides of the grass runway.

Since I was only there on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, I didn't get to see all that went on during the week, but I know that the last VBS classes on Sunday morning were pretty awesome. Each of the MAF wives that went along played a role in teaching, games, music or whatever was needed. Here Joy and Timo (our COM - Chief of Maintenance) are leading singing.

The kids always love the parachute games!

In the background is the Kodiak, waiting to take the team back to Tarakan on Sunday afternoon.

Timo showed some films. Right now the kids are watching a bible story cartoon, which obviously has their full attention!

But the adults also love the films. This was Saturday evening.

Hudson hanging out with a few of his Pa'Upan buddies.

This is a typical scene anytime we go interior...sitting around the evening meal visiting. The woven mats are used to cover the floor where you sit, and they often sleep on these same type of mats. Light is provided by a single hanging bulb, juiced by a battery that's charged by a solar panel during the day.

On Sunday after VBS, Timo preached a sermon and then the people went out of their way to thank the MAF team for coming to their village. These hats were given as gifts of appreciation. Here, Joy and Kathy are sporting their new "topi" (hat) fashion.

Well, there's a brief glimpse of some of the VBS stuff. I'm sure there's way, way more, but since I was only there briefly, that's what I have. When I brought the MAF team out, they were exhausted but energized and excited by the opportunities they had to hopefully impact little kids lives for Jesus in Pa'Upan.

This past week, I spent four days (three nights) interior with the Kodiak, flying a TON of people from various villages to a HUGE national church conference in the village of Long Nawang. This sort of thing could absolutely not happen (at least not on this scale), without the help of MAF. I love doing this type of flying--the people are so very thankful and you really get a sense of the need that the airplane is meeting. I took Britton along with me, and he hung out with his friends all day, each day while I was flying. Check back again soon and I'm sure I'll have some pictures from that trip posted here!

Happy Independence Day U.S.A.!

2011-07-04T09:39:00.000-04:00

Happy July 4th to all you people in the good ol' U.S. of A. Obviously it's not a holiday here in Indonesia, but we still get together as a team for a picnic and a few local fireworks in the evening.

A few shots before it got dark.

And then we lit off a few fireworks. Sure it's not like what you're used to in America...but it's all relative. To our kids, it was jaw-droppingly awesome! You can see them leaning against the fence in the lower left corner.

It's shaping up to be a busy week. This Thursday I'll be flying into the Apo Kayan and spending three nights interior with the Kodiak to fly a ton of people to a national church conference in Long Nawang. On Saturday night I'll be sharing and showing films to the huge group that will have gathered in Long Nawang. Appreciate your prayers for all of this, and for Joy and the kids and Grandma Hlavka (yep, she got here last week), who will be holding the fort down here in Tarakan while I'm gone.

A Day in the Life of our Kodiak

2011-06-26T23:29:00.009-04:00

Join me for a day in the life of our Kodiak-- Papa Kilo Mike Echo Bravo (PK-MEB). On Friday I had a busy day, flying a ton of people and stuff. I flew an Indonesian pastor/missionary and his family to there remote place of ministry, a bunch of people back and forth from various villages, and got called to pick up a lady having complications in childbirth with twins. It's hard to nail down what an "average" day is in the Kodiak, because aside from hauling lots of people and things, the only thing that can really be expected is the unexpected.

Nevertheless I decided to take my camera along the next day, Saturday, to give you a "ride-a-long" perspective of what I love doing--serving the people of East Kalimantan on the wings of MAF. All of the pictures in this post, unless otherwise stated, were taken on Saturday, June 25th, during the nomral course of the flight day.

I started out with a schedule, as usual, but before my first take-off from home base, Tarakan, it had already changed. Not unusual. A call came in for a medevac flight from Malinau. Since my passengers were already loaded up to go to Malinau, that part was easy. Twenty five minutes later we landed in Malinau and re-configured the airplane to make room for the seriously injured patient, who'd fallen from the top of a high building.

Within an hour and ten minutes of receiving the call, we were putting this man into a waiting ambulance at the MAF hangar in Tarakan. Then we further re-configured the plane to allow three full drums of Jet fuel to be back-loaded to Malinau for later use. Malinau serves as an interior hub for passengers, loading and fuel. Often, I can take four, 55 galon drums of fuel in one load, however, because MEB was already heavily fueled earlier in the morning in anticipation of the original schedule, I could only take three drums--still an 1,155 lb load.

After returning to Malinau and unloading the drums, we re-installed the six passenger seats (there are 10 seats available--pilot, co-pilot and eight passenger seats--but we don't typically use the aft two seats, at least not until we're able to get a cargo pod in the future). We then loaded up eight passengers (plus me makes nine total) and there stuff for the one hour flight to Mahak Baru.

In Mahak, we once again pulled all the seats out to allow for an all cargo load to be taken over to Long Sule. With enough fuel to complete my flight to Sule, back to Mahak, back to Malinau plus reserve, I was still able to take 1,675 lbs of food and supplies in one load, more than twice what a Cessna 206 could take out of the same airstrip. In the picture below, my good friends are loading 50kg (110 lb) bags of sugar into the airplane first, before the lighter cargo which will be stacked behind.

While Mahak Baru is accessible by land (several days of arduous boat and dangerous 4x4 travel), Long Sule is not accessible by anything other than foot or air. So they rely heavily on the help of MAF for supplies of every kind. The Kodiak makes quick work of the flight from Mahak Baru to Long Sule--less than 10 minutes by air--what would take about four days by foot. And here we are unloading the goods in Long Sule.

Again, without the help of the village "agents", many of whom serve as the local village pastors as well, we would be really hurting--literally. It's a lot of work to load and unload that much cargo, so I'm very appreciative of all the help.

Of course, that's not the end of the story. The airstrip in Long Sule is a 425 meter strip (4% slope) that sits atop a little ridge just above the village which is nestled in the river valley below. So usually a bunch of people show up with their nifty woven "utility" backpacks that they're famous for in the Apo Kayan region, and they shove an unbelievable amount of barang (stuff) into those packs and heft it down the steep slope to their village, all the while wearing very happy, big smiles!

So after Sule, I went back to Mahak Baru again, where we re-installed the seats again and loaded up another eight passengers (yeah, there's only seven passenger seats in our configuration, but that means someone was holding a lap passenger--small kids can sit on an adult lap with the use of a "kiddy belt") for the flight back to Malinau.

In Malinau we pumped one of those drums of Jet Fuel that I brought in earlier into my wing tanks, and also rearranged several seats to allow for a mixed load of passengers and barang (stuff) to the village of Binuang. This time I had four adult men (plus me) and 625 lbs of supplies. Right now, especially with loads like this, we're limited not by what the Kodiak could haul, but rather by the CG (center of gravity) limits. When we are able to get an External Cargo Compartment (ECC) or "pod" as we like to call it, we'll be able to take several hundred more kilos on a mixed load like this, because much of the cargo can be placed beneath the airplane, further forward.

Anyway, after loading the plane we made the 20 minute flight to Binuang, another village that's inaccessible by anything other than foot or air.

Each village is different, but it always amuses me in Binuang and PaUpan and a few other villages, where the children come out in droves to carry the "barang" from the airplane back to the houses. They seem to love it--laughing and smiling and giggling, all while wrestling heavy and awkward, stubborn boxes that often demand two kids work together to manage the weight.

By this time it was about 4:00pm. As you can see, the shadows are long and the sun is getting low, but the sky is unusually clear and beautiful for this time of day. Typically, there would be large showers and thunderstorms dotting the sky, sometimes joining together to make lines of ugly, impenetrable weather. But Saturday was not like that. Recently, it seems the winds have been from the west, indicative of upcoming "dry" season, where the clouds drop most of their rains on the Malaysian side of the mountains. Smoky season usually starts in July or August depending on the weather.

Here's one of those heavy boxes--a two-kid job! It weighs about 25 lbs!

Well, usually, I'd be heading home after that last run, but today is a bit unique. On Wednesday, Joy and the kids, along with several other MAFers went into PaUpan to do five days of VBS with the village kids. Since I'm the only guy on the schedule to fly on Saturdays right now, and since they needed to be picked up on Sunday, and since I would be nearby Saturday afternoon, I offered to spend the night with the plane there Saturday evening. PaUpan is a day and a half walk from Binuang, but less than five minutes by air. When I landed, I was greeted by a whole bunch of excited little kids--including my own, that I hadn't seen since Wednesday morning, and of course, my beautiful wife!

Here's a picture of the MAF VBS team (this picture was taken the next day, Sunday). Five adults and nine kids (one baby is not pictured--probably being carried around by one of the older village women at the time).

So, after a long, full day of flying and serving the people of East Kalimantan, I secured Mike Echo Bravo in the little grassy parking area at the side of the strip, under what would soon become a clear and starry night.

The next afternoon, after they did the final VBS in the morning, and a full church service (Timo, our maintenance specialist preached the sermon), we all piled into the Kodiak for the 45 minute flight back to Tarakan. You can't actually see them all, but there's 15 people in the plane, plus over 300 lbs of stuff. The smiles say it all--tired, but energized and excited after five days of ministry interior!

Stay tuned for a post specifically about the VBS team's time in PaUpan. I'll try to do that next.

Lunar Eclipse

2011-06-19T05:10:00.000-04:00

Very early Thursday morning I had the privilege of seeing a full lunar eclipse. I shot the first photo, below with a 200mm f/2.8 lens, and left it totally unedited to give you a good idea of what it really truly looked like. No cropping, enhancing, enriching, sharpening etc. etc. This is exactly what it looked like through the camera. (I did convert the image from RAW to JPEG and reduce the image size and compress it some--as I do with all the photos on this blog--to speed the upload and viewing of them in this format. But to fully appreciate these night time pictures you really need to see the original image on a high-def screen. Some of the stars and details are lost on these compressed images.)

I got up just a little after 3am and headed up to Gunung Selatan, (South Mountain), which is little more than a sand hill a few hundred feet high that overlooks the downtown part of Tarakan. There I sat for the next two and a half hours. In this 15 second exposure at 10mm, (16mm full-frame equivalent), you can see the lights of downtown Tarakan lighting up the low clouds, and the red moon hovering above the reddish glow from the airport area.

Here's a bit of a closer look at it. The way I understand it, the earth is between the sun and the moon, and the moon enters the shadow of the earth. When it's fully in the middle of earth's shadow, the light from the sun has to bend around the earth through the atmosphere to get to the moon. That process weeds out most of the wavelengths, with the exception of the red light, thus the reddish color. It's kind of a pain to photograph (at least with the equipment I have) because it's only reflecting a fraction of the light that a "normal" moon would be showing. As such, it's difficult to get the exposure correct and still get satisfactory sharpness. You can't use a slow shutter speed, b/c the moon is actually moving a lot more quickly than you think and it will blur the edges if the exposure is even one or two seconds long. So without a super duper expensive telephoto lens that lets more light in, you're forced to increase the ISO settings pretty high, which results in some grain visible in the moon. But you still get the idea.

It stayed in the full eclipse state for about an hour and a half--the longest one in 11 years! The below picture was taken just as it was starting to come out the other side of the shadow. You can see that the top edge of the moon now has a brighter edge (from direct reflection of sunlight), while the lower edge is still in the shadow (and now appears darker because the exposure is set to be in the middle of the two extremes. But even that little bit of reflected sunlight allowed me to use a lower ISO setting and longer lens to get more detail in the moon. However, as it's now coming out of the shadow, much of the reddish color is fading in this shot.

Now for a comparison. This is a picture I took two days later at almost the same time of morning, but with a normal (no lunar eclipse) moon. It's actually very bright under normal circumstances and needs to be shot using a manual exposure setup that will compensate for this. In this picture you can really see some of the moons details--craters, lines etc. What's interesting to me is that the moon appears to be black and white, although it's a color picture. The moon is really fairly colorless, but only reflects the yellowish or reddish color when the light is bent through the atmosphere on it's way to the moon.

Back to the lunar eclipse now; this is about a quarter of the way through the exit of the moon from earth's shadow. I exposed it to show the part of the moon that was out of the shadow, reflecting the sunlight. By doing so, the rest of the moon appears to be gone. Had I exposed it to show the part that was still in the shadow, the top quarter would have just looked like a bright, undefinable light. I know I know, you're probably bored out of your mind with this, but I think it's pretty cool!

Finally, here's a picture of the stars from the top of my hill perch, during the middle of the lunar eclipse. Because it was an unusually clear night (especially for the tropics, where there's usually haze in the sky) and because the moon was darkened, the stars were out in full force! It was a gorgeous spectacle!

"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?" --Psalm 8: 3-4

Killer Nose Disease and a Wedding

2011-06-12T07:41:00.005-04:00

WARNING: This first little story is more than a little gross and disgusting. It's quite graphic, but funny. If you don't do gross and disgusting then feel free to skip down to the first wedding picture. It gets better from there on down.

This is Tanner's nose. Last week Joy saw bloody stuff oozing out his right nostril. And pus. She put some medicine in there. Next day it was worse. And smelling bad too. We thought it was a staph infection so went and got some obat (medicine) at one of the local pharmacies (you don't need a prescription here for a lot of medicine if you know what it's called). So for the next few days Joy faithfully applied topical medicine inside Tanner's infected nose, and made him swallow medicine. It got worse, not better.

After I got home on Thursday I took a look inside that proboscis of his. It looked awful! Deep inside was a strange, spongy-looking, red fleshy growth of some kind, almost entirely closing off his nostril. And it was obviously infected. It was also causing him quite a bit of pain. I had never seen anything like it, and after several days of antibiotics it didn't seem to be improving. We decided to take him to the doctor.

The next day Joy took Tanner to the local Emergency Room. The doctor there took a good look inside and was totally perplexed. He told Joy that he'd never seen anything like it. He had no idea what to do and told her she had to take him to the Ear Nose and Throat Specialist ASAP! We didn't even know there was an ENT doctor in Tarakan. So the next few hours were spent worrying and praying...what on earth could this horrific, bloody, pus-oozing, spongy-looking, tumor thing be, that's so impervious to direct antibiotics??? The worst possible scenarios played out in our minds.

That night while Joy was waiting in the long line to see the ENT, my cell phone rang. It was Joy. I expected news...was it good or bad? "Tanner just told me that last week he bit off a piece of the red, foam, spongy-moose bath toy, and stuffed it up his nose. He just remembered." Ummmmmm, he did what???? Not that I would expect anything less from a little mischievous boy. (You may remember his twin brother, Tyler's, episode with the coin last year?) Well, a few minutes later and a simple pull from a pair of tweezers and all was well again. So if you ever have a bad case of proboscis peniculus morbus (from the Latin meaning proboscis sponge disease--yeah, we named it ourselves) try the ol' tweezers before you head off to the doc!

********************END OF GROSS STORY************************

In other news, Joy and one of her MAF friends, were asked to be in a wedding this week. Their very good friend, Fatimah, asked them to accompany her in her best friend's wedding. Fatimah is standing beside Joy on the left.

A few weeks before the wedding Joy and friend were taken to a penjahit (person who sews) who measured them and then made these beautiful traditional outfits.

Outside the reception hall, there was plenty of activity and good food.

Nearby a guy was selling cheap, lighted toys. They were blinking and whirring and swirling and generally sucking in children and their parents like black lights suck in bugs at night. I'm not sure but I think the guy must have made a killing that night!

A few more random shots at the reception.

Isn't she gorgeous!?

What do you think their favorite colors are?

These ladies were singing and doing the Emcee thing, and doing quite a fine job if I do say so myself.

Well, there you have it. A lot more happened this week, but alas, my time for posting is gone, so that's all you get for now. Thanks for dropping by.

Mangrove Swamp

2011-06-01T22:57:00.000-04:00

Recently I've been flying on Saturdays, so I have a Sunday-Monday weekend. On Monday morning I went down to the mangrove swamp for a few hours with the the camera. Here's a sampling of what I saw.

A toothy macaque monkey.

The elusive proboscis monkey.

Joy's and the kids' favorite local bird--a king fisher? I worked hard for two hours trying to get a shot of one of these. They're very wary and don't let you get close.

A small skink.

Yikes!

I love these little crabs. They come in bright and varied colors--blue, yellow, red, pink, orange. But they're very tiny and I've only ever seen them in one small spot. This blue one is the largest I've ever seen. It was a little smaller than a US quarter (as in $.25 piece).

This red one was about the size of a very small Lima bean. And it was about eight feet below me in the mud--hence, it's not the clearest picture in the world, but you get the idea.

Hope you enjoyed the tour through the mangrove swamp. Stop by often to see a smattering of ministry, wildlife and "Forney life" pictures from Indonesia.

Set Free!

2011-05-21T23:47:00.000-04:00

Well, I've finally been set free in the Kodiak! :)

Here's a few shots from the past week or so of flying in the Kodiak. It's a little grainy, b/c it's from my point and shoot, but a nice rainbow appeared over the massive axe-head cliffs jutting out of the jungles north of Mahak Baru.

Dropping off a load of sugar and gas for the village of Binuang.

Over the past week and a half I've flown quite a few flights for the new Bupati (regional government official) as he goes around to each village thanking them for their support and assessing the needs and wants of each village. It was pretty muddy in the turn-around area at the top of the Data Dian airstrip when I went in to pick up a group of people for the Bupati on Friday.

Actually it's more like clay, and it sticks to your tires and shoes and everything it touches!

The newly elected Bupati (in black) with some of his entourage. Third one over from the left is fellow MAF pilot, Paul College, who was riding along with me that day as an "observer pilot" during the final phase of my checkout before I was "set free" to fly on my own.

Saturday was my first "solo" day. The weather was gorgeous! I flew nearly 800 nautical miles to eight different locations, carrying 23 passengers and about 2,300 pounds of supplies. It's hard to imagine how much time and blood and sweat this saved the people that were served!

I'm thrilled to be fully-operational now in the Kodiak, and look forward to giving you many updates in the future as to how it's being used here to bless the people of Northeast Kalimantan!

Brothers & Bunnies

2011-05-03T00:56:00.000-04:00

Here's a few shots from the front yard on Sunday afternoon. Tyler (left) and Tanner (right). Though twins, these brothers couldn't be more different. Their personalities are totally opposite.

This shot captures Tyler with one of his best friends--that is, anything that is a weapon, or can be made into a weapon. I don't know why or where he got it from, but he has a total fascination with weapons of every kind. I know most boys like weapons, but this is beyond the "norm". He literally does not like to be without a "weapon" from the time we wakes until he goes to bed...actually, he likes try to smuggle a weapon or two into bed as well, but we try to intercept those.

Tanner on the other hand doesn't care that much about weapons. He's way more into tools and working on stuff. Again, this picture captured him in a candid, stoic stance. In truth, he's almost always laughing or smiling, very jovial and fun.

And speaking of fun, our rabbit had bunnies a few weeks ago. Four bunnies were born. One was DOA. Here's a picture of the surviving three, quite plump and fuzzy.

And a random flower in Joy's flower pot.

And another random picture of the house church that takes place in our home every other Sunday with some of our co-workers. It's a nice opportunity to worship in English, and to have an English Sunday school class for the kiddos. The guys take turns leading the adult time.

Kodiak is in for an inspection this week so I'm working on that. Hopefully next week I'll be nearing the end of my initial Kodiak checkout here in Tarakan. More on that later.

Orpa's Wedding

2011-04-22T11:48:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned, last week our good friend, Orpa, got married.

For many years she has been the house helper to the Holstens, our friends and fellow MAFers that live next door. She also happens to be the older sister of our helper, Abi. They're actually from Sulawesi, which is an entirely different island and a long way from here. Orpa has become like family to the Holstens, just as Abi has to us.

So when Orpa got married, the Holstens said it was like having their own daughter get married. And in fact, they did play a big part in the wedding.

Holstens asked if I could take of Orpa right before the wedding. Doesn't she look like she's glowing? I think that's exactly how a girl should look on her wedding day--glowing and excited and joyous!

I also took pictures of the families, together with Orpa. I'm not going to show them all, b/c there's a lot of them! But here's one of Dave and Natalie, along with Orpa, all being silly. It was funny because people here tend to not smile in photos. In fact, they like to pose stoically, or seriously. It reminds me of those old photos you see from the 1800s. Well, anyway, we made it our mission to get the "real Orpa" to come out. She's such a bubbly person normally, and often laughing, so we weren't going to settle for the serious pictures. Hence the spontaneous peace sign--another very common thing in pictures here. We had her laughing in all of the above photos as well. Those really capture who she is!

After the wedding there was a reception down the road. We got there 10 minutes after it "started" (it's set up more like a come-and-go when you want after 7:00pm type of thing). Already there was a long line out onto the road. This picture is looking back towards the road, through the palm frond under which you entered. I'll give you a brief idea what happens at a reception like this.

After slowly making your way through the line from the road into the make-shift meeting area (fancy tarps and lights hung up next to a house), you're given a heaping pile of rice and a variety of meat and veggie stuff to put on top of it.

Then, while you sit in the crowd and eat, there's various types of entertainment going on. It's very loud and ramai (busy). Here, the young ladies are doing a traditional Toraga dance from their home area in Sulawesi. To the left is Dorkas, the younger sister of Orpa and Abi. In the middle is Abi, who as I mentioned earlier is Joy's wonderful helper and friend.

Meanwhile, sitting up on the stage, the bride and groom look on, waiting for the next wave of people who decide it's time to leave. Before leaving, you file up onto the stage and shake everyone's hands (the families are also up on the stage and other "important players" are in a line down below and to the side of the stage). You also drop an envelope containing your money gift into the gift box. Then you leave. It's all really pretty quick and crazy and loud and fun.

Here's Abi and Lina, her friend, all dressed up in their Toraganese outfits.

Yeah, they even had a disco ball thing (or maybe it was some sort of laser light thing) going crazy. That's the source of all the green and red dots all over everyone. You can see the people filing through shaking hands on the stage as they get ready to leave. The whole thing went on for several hours like this, with hundreds and hundreds of people arriving, eating, greeting and leaving.

And here we are on our way out.

My Beautiful Fam!

2011-04-16T11:29:00.001-04:00

The tall one in the back row with the hot pink...yeah, she's a Beauty! Of course, the one in the pretty pink flowered dress is a beautiful little princess too!

And aren't those boys handsome!? Well, it wouldn't be a normal shot if Tyler wasn't grumping about something. This time it was the that the sun was in his eyes, albeit in actuality it was actually shining from back behind their heads. But I guess it might have been reflecting off of the wall behind me. I snagged these two shots before they all headed out to a wedding of one of our really good Indonesian friends. More on that in a future post.

Yikes! Well, if Joy is the Beauty, then here's the Beast! Kodiak training is progressing well. After several days of local training flights, we've spent the past several days doing operational flights interior. Here I am up at 19,000 feet learning all about how to use the oxygen system...just in case, AND b/c it's cool! Well, o.k., actually mostly just because it's part of what I need to know how to operate. We rarely go above 12,500 feet in normal operations here. (Photo was taken on my point and shoot by my flight instructor Dave H.)

It's been amazing to see how much stuff the Kodiak can carry. Of course, when we eventually get a pod, it will be even more capable, and easier to load! But even without the pod we can carry big loads of stuff. Here I'm helping to unload a whole bunch of medical supplies for a clinic in Mahak Baru. We had everything from medicine cabinets, desks and chairs, to stretchers, wash basins and thousands of syringes stuffed inside--everything to furnish a small overnight-type clinic. (Photo again taken by Dave H.)

Here's some of the stuff coming and going in the Kodiak. At this point, without a cargo pod, we often run out of space and or out the aft CG (Center of Gravity limits) before we actually reach the maximum payload capacity of the Kodiak. But one thing's for certain, it really performs on takeoff and climb-out!

Here's a shot in Long Sule. Again, this was a flight entirely full of medical supplies. In this case, the entire load was medicines, IV's etc. The ladies in Long Sule typically carry all of the stuff from the airstrip down to the village. I rarely see the men carrying any of the loads. That's just not how it happens here. I'm not implying that the men are lazy--in fact, they are all very hard workers. The men are probably out working in the rice fields or hunting or building stuff. But seriously, most of these women could take me in an arm-wrestling match any day of the week, and twice on Sunday! They're tougher than woodpecker lips! And they wear cool hats!

More later!

Kodiak Checkout and Vacation

2011-04-10T02:51:00.000-04:00

Well, on Thursday I finally started my Kodiak field checkout. Below are two random shots of the Kodiak in action here in Northeast Kalimantan. I took these shots back in November, on the day that I did the big air-to-air shoot. If you want to see more Kodiak pics go here.

Over the next few weeks I'll be training hard in the Kodiak with my Program Manager, David H., as instructor. I'll be practicing every type of emergency, all types of special takeoffs and landings, all kinds of air work and MAF-required maneuvers, and general operations to our interior strips. In a few weeks I'll be heading over to Papua, Indonesia to take a Kodiak check ride with another one of our MAF pilots over there to meet the requirements for an Indonesian type rating in the Kodiak. Then, hopefully around the end of May I'll be ready to fly without the instructor on board--but I'll still have another Kodiak "observer pilot" flying with me for another few weeks. Finally, around mid-June, if all goes well, I'll be able to take the Kodiak out solo to those strips that I've flown in and out of so many times in the Cessna 206 over the past couple of years, only now I'll be carrying nearly twice the load!

Two weeks ago we enjoyed our annual MAF Kalimantan staff conference in Balikpapan at the Le Grandeur Hotel. It was a great time of Spiritual renewal and encouragement. After conference we took a few extra days of vacation. Our family had not been off "the island" (as we affectionately call our home place in Tarakan), together in a year--since last years conference! Sure we've gone on plenty of trips to villages and took some vacation here in Tarakan, but to truly get the batteries re-charged, you have to get "away" for a bit. But since we have seven people in our family, it's quite expensive just to get to the closest large city, that being Balikpapan. Soooo, since MAF already covers our transportation costs to/from our annual conference, we always stay for a few days of family vacation afterwards. :)

It's the simple things that get us all excited in Balikpapan. First, the nice air-conditioned hotel with awesome buffet breakfasts! Second, the exciting food options! We usually eat a big breakfast, skip lunch (or eat PB&J) and then eat the evening meal at one of two places, either Pizza Hut (above) or the brand new McDonalds (below).

It's not quite the same as a Pizza Hut or McDonalds in the U.S., but it's a special treat none-the-less. Last year they opened a new mall, that also has a movie theatre and even a Starbucks. This time there was a kids movie showing in 3D, so one day we chose to skip dinner, and instead took the kids to a movie. They had a blast! If you're curious, it cost about $3.50 per ticket to get into the 3D movie on a weekday. Although this killed our budget for the day, all things considered I think that's super cheap compared to what it would cost in the U.S. for a family of seven to go to a 3D movie these days. I actually have no idea what it costs now in America--does anyone know?

During the week of conference, the hotel we always stay at was experiencing a string of problems with their swimming pool. By the fifth and final day of conference the kids had only been able to swim two days, which was a bummer since that's one of the things they most look forward to. As I mentioned, we had reservations to stay a few extra days, but on that last day we looked out and saw that the pool was actually empty--as in no water! After talking to the staff, we found out that there was a leak, and they said it would take up to four days to fix it.

There's one other nice hotel with a pool in Balikpapan, but we've never stayed there b/c it's a bit out of our price range. But I went over and talked with them and worked out a deal so that we could move over there for the remainder of our time. It was just what we needed! Here's the view of the swimming pool (that we pretty much lived at for a few days) from our 8th story hotel window. In the distance is the Ocean.

I'll confess, it's been pretty exhausting since I returned from the U.S., and I haven't had any time to take my camera out of the closet, let alone do good, regular blog posts. I hope you understand. To give you just a brief idea, here's a few of the things we've been dealing with in addition to the normal stresses of life over here: while I was gone our bedroom A/C unit condenser went out. Joy arranged for a new one to be ordered from Jakarta ($160), and a guy came and "fixed"it just after I got back. Two days later it broke again and they had to order another one (they didn't charge us for the second one, but that meant another week or two of no a/c in the bedroom.)

Meanwhile, the sink was clogged and when I tried to drain it the pipe broke right out of the wall (those that have lived in a third-world-country understand the nightmares related to plumbing challenges over here! It took several days, skinned knuckles, extra pipe and a lot of marine epoxy to finally repair it, but meanwhile the bathroom towel racks fell out of the wall. When repairing that, the bracket that holds the towel bar broke in two. Meanwhile, our clothes dryer quit working the day before conference and there's no repairman that will fix it anywhere in Tarakan. Looks like we'll have to buy another one (nearly $600). The day we were leaving for conference, our transformer that converts 240 volts to 120 volts for Joy's kitchen appliances from the U.S. decided to quit working as well. In addition, we had wiring issues in the office and other typical problems of doors jamming and locks broken throughout the house--a result of the walls shifting and sagging.

Oh, and that was just during the one week between the time that I returned from the U.S. and the time that we left for conference. AND, in the meantime Joy was trying to sort out a million details related to conference planning, and I was trying to catch up on desk work, while also working full-time on the Kodiak inspection, and trying to get the upper hand on stuff breaking around the house (to no avail).

We put it all out of our minds as best we could while we were on vacation, but of course, it was all waiting for us as soon as we got back here--all the stuff to fix and deal with. And now I'm putting a lot of energy into the Kodiak checkout. So again, forgive me if the blog updates are a little sparse over the next few weeks or so. There's a good reason. :)

Home Again

2011-03-19T21:13:00.000-04:00

After a very busy time in Spokane, followed by a whirlwind trip through Pennsylvania, I finally made it back home to Tarakan, nearly a month after leaving. Obviously it's great to be back with my family again!!!

Despite very tight connections on two of my international flights, including the one through Tokyo, Japan, the entire trip went off without a hitch. In fact, I enjoyed flights that were half empty, (normally these flights are totally full), no doubt due to many canceling or changing flights due to concerns related to the situation in Japan.

After three days of traveling, I arrived back in Tarakan on Wednesday evening, spent most of the day Thursday unpacking, catching up on desk work and MAF-related stuff, and then had to report to the hangar first thing Friday morning--albeit still tired and a bit "out of it" from the exhausting past month and long trip home . I spent the day riding along with my buddy Paul, observing Kodiak operations from the right seat (co-pilot's side).

On Monday the Kodiak will come in for a routine inspection, so I'll be helping with that this week. At the end of this week, our entire team flies down to Balikpapan (the closest big city to ours, through which every large commercial flight that leaves Tarakan usually transits) for our annual staff conference. Joy is one of the conference planners this year, so she has been very, very busy with the many details related to that. She will be leaving two days earlier to go down to the hotel and make sure everything comes together as planned. The kids and I, along with the rest of the team, will then come down on Saturday for a week of spiritual, physical and emotional re-charge.

Finally, after we return from conference, I will begin my program Kodiak checkout. In the meantime, I'm sure I'll keep you updated with a few pics and bits of news from Tarakan and/or our conference in Balikpapan, but right now I'm still trying to catch up on stuff from being gone for a month--so strangely, for me, no pictures this time.

Again, thanks for keeping my family and me in your prayers during the time that I was at training in America. We really appreciate you!

Studying in Spokane

2011-03-05T19:34:00.002-05:00

Obviously this is not a picture from Indonesia! The past two weeks have seen me studying at STC (Spokane Turbine Center) to learn all about the Quest Kodiak aircraft. The first week was specifically about the PT6A Turbine engine that the Kodiak uses. It was an intense week of learning--like drinking from a fire hose of small turbine engine theory, line maintenance, and operation. Unfortunately, the temperatures were also intensely COLD! We did several run-ups on the engine stand outside, where the temperature was about 7 degrees, and the windchill was...well, VERY COLD!!! But the training was excellent and well worth it, despite the frigid temps.

The second week we dove head-first into aircraft systems classes as well as specific classes on the Garmin G-1000 integrated avionics system that's found in the Kodiak. For someone who's never flown a glass panel aircraft, this is like learning a whole new technical language and culture. I don't typically think of myself as an "old-school" pilot, but technology has dramatically advanced the look and feel of modern-day aircraft cockpits and the Kodiak is a great example. If you know how to operate this stuff--which buttons to push and when, how to read some of the new styles of instruments, etc., the glass panels can be an awesome tool! Of course, if you don't know what you're doing you can quickly get overwhelmed by all of the digital beauty, hence the reason for the in-depth classes. STC has awesome classrooms for both flight and maintenance training. This is the G-1000 classroom, with each desk sporting a two-panel G-1000 simulator so that each student can practice in real-time as the instructor demonstrates the maneuvers or processes on the large screens at the front.

I've also been flying the full-motion AATD Kodiak, which is an actual Kodiak cockpit that has been made into a 3-axis-motion "simulator." That is an intense and challenging but rewarding experience! On Friday we flew up to the Quest Aircraft Company just north of here in beautiful Sandpoint, ID (below). It was great to be able to see first-hand where and how these planes are made and to meet some of the great folks that have a hand in creating each new Kodiak.

Today (Saturday) I spent the morning flying the AATD again (below I'm on short final into LAX - Los Angeles International Airport at dawn) with my roommate David Garcia. The AATD can be placed anywhere in the world, so I also did some flying and an instrument approach into my home airport in Tarakan, Indonesia. Only wish I could have landed and seen my wife and kids as I obviously miss them a bunch! (Photo below taken by David Garcia)

Well, this week will continue to be busy as I finish up training here at STC with multiple flights in the simulator, no doubt getting the opportunity to deal with every conceivable type of emergency that a pilot hopes to never face in real life! At the end of the week I'll be flying to PA for a few brief days before returning to Indonesia.

On Sunday morning, March 13th, I'll be sharing at Greencastle Calvary Bible Church at 10:50am in the multipurpose room. There will be coffee and doughnuts served prior to that at 10:15. I'd love to see you there if you're able to make it. For additional information or directions, feel free to e-mail me, contact my parents, or the church.

Kodiak Training.

2011-02-18T06:45:00.000-05:00

In about eight hours I'll be leaving Tarakan, bound for the good ol' U.S. of A! I'm already beginning to shiver, thinking about all that snow and wind and cold! I'll be spending about two and a half weeks in Spokane, WA at STC (Spokane Turbine Center) learning all about the Quest Kodiak.

After that, I'll be swinging through PA on my way back to Indonesia. On Sunday morning, March 13th, I'll be sharing at Calvary Bible Church in Greencastle, PA on the first day of their annual missions conference. I'd love to see you there! I'll post more on the details as we get closer to the date.

In the meantime, please keep my family and me in your prayers. I'll be gone almost a month all together! Joy and the kids will be holding the fort down in Tarakan...no small task! Thanks so much, we really appreciate each one of you!

Family Trip to Lalut Birai (Part 3 of 3)

2011-02-16T09:01:00.000-05:00

Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny, though much of that sunshine never makes it to the jungle floor! Flowing right through the middle of the Lalut Birai research station is a small babbling brook, perfect for frogs, insects and kids to play in.

Here's a view of the part of the Enggeng River where the kids enjoyed swimming.

Tanner loves wearing his cammo hat!

Butterflies and moths were commonly "caught" inside the screened-in building where we ate our meals. A light bulb, which got it's "juice" from a battery (charged by a solar panel in the central clearing), stayed on all night there, proving irresistible to passing moths. After looking at them, the kids (and Joy) always set them free.

Of course, there are millions of ants in the jungle. Everywhere you look there are ants of all varieties. Some ants are over an inch long, but don't seem interested in biting (thankfully)! Others, like the fire ants will latch on and not let go, delivering a very painful, bee-sting-like bit! Some travel in groups by the thousands--probably even millions--going from somewhere to somewhere else, but always in a a continuously moving, snaking, line five to 20 rows wide. In front of our cabin was a herd (what do you call a huge group of moving ants???) of tiny little ants that were moving continuously for over two days. In fact, they were still going when we left, and for all I know the line may still be moving past that same spot now! They were very small, only about 1/8 inch, but fascinating to watch. Many were carrying stuff in their jaws...though that was barely visible without the aid of the macro lens.

We also discovered a fuzzy, wuzzy caterpillar right near our cabin. Any caterpillar that's this colorful and especially this hairy is usually NOT a good one to touch!

Remember I said that the kids weren't the only ones that liked to swing on the vine? Well, I wasn't kidding. Joy and I had our turns too...but fortunately I was the one with the camera. :) Those fashionable shoes are the jungle STANDARD footwear attire in this part of Borneo. They cost about $2.00 and are made out of floppy, molded one-piece rubber. There's no arch support or cushioning are anything, but on the bottom are softish, rubber cleats (think soccer shoes) that grip onto everything. They wear out fast, but hey, they're cheap and indispensable on the slippery jungle trails!

Hudson also has a cammo hat!

On our way back to the airstrip, we stopped at the estuary of the Enggeng River, where it feeds into the much larger Bahau River, and my friend, the village Elder, Bapak Anyi Apui, gave Britton (known locally as "Laweh") a lesson on shooting a locally-made slingshot.

It was a great trip, thanks to the help of many of our friends from Long Alango! When we took the group shot, several of them had already left, so aren't pictured. In truth, I think it would have only taken a few people to help us out, but hey, it was an opportunity for all of us to hang out and visit and relax bersama (together) in God's beautiful creation--an opportunity to strengthen some existing friendships and build some new ones!

But all that relaxing and friendship-making takes a real toll! Hey, somebody's gotta do it! At least one person in the plane is still awake, can you guess who?

Hope you enjoyed the re-telling of our adventure at Lalut Birai. Perhaps if you come visit us sometime, we could arrange for you to experience the jungle there as well. You wouldn't be disappointed!

Family Trip to Lalut Birai (Part 2 of 3)

2011-02-14T04:57:00.000-05:00

Just below the research station is the Sungai Enggeng (Sungai River). As you can see, it's more of a large creek, a great place for the kids to play and swim! That tree hanging out over the river is huge! There's a picture from our last trip in 2009, where Britton and I are about 15' up in the roots, and it really gives you a size perspective. Everything in this photo looks smaller and flattened out because of the ultra-wide lens I'm using. (And if you look closely, you can see the vine hanging down that we like to swing on.)

About mid-morning Saturday we took a hike through the jungle, this time on a much smaller, slipperier and steeper trail.

Check out the size of that leaf! Oh, and before you start making fun of the jungle fashion--socks pulled up high over the pants--remember the voracious leeches that love to suck the blood of white-skinned foreigners! You might think it's a bit silly, until you've spent five minutes on a wet trail in the jungles of Borneo, and then you'd be looking for the thickest, tallest socks you could find! :)

Thank goodness for our friends and guides! They carried Tyler most of the time and helped Hudson and Hannah through the steeper areas. Tanner rode on my shoulders.

We wound up arriving at a HUGE tree that stretched far above the rest of the jungle canopy, with a fragile looking bamboo ladder clinging precariously to it's side and ascending into the very tippy-top, till it was barely visible. These bamboo "spikes" are hammered into the outer bit of bark (only about an inch deep as the wood is very hard), and then lashed together on the outside with a vine to a bamboo pole. That's it. There's no rope or vine tying it all the way around the tree. No safety mechanisms. Nothing else.

Our reaction was instant and simultaneous! WOOOOWWWWW!!! It stretched probably 200' high, and then went even further out to the end of one of those branches at the very top! Why? Because there's honey up there! And honey is very valuable here. They can sell honey in town for the equivalent of about $10-$12 per liter. And so far they've retrieved about 300 liters from this tree! I've flown a lot of honey over the past couple years from several different villages, but I've never seen a tree like this where they've gotten it from. It was pretty shocking to see the effort and lengths that they go to, in order to get that oh-so-sweet, pure, organic, jungle honey. And I can testify to it's unique and wonderful taste, as I've often been given a little honey as a "thank you" after a medevac flight or church flying. I think now I'll appreciate it even more! By the way, one of the other prime places for honeybees to make their hives/honey here, is in the holes and cracks high up in the vertical face of rock cliffs. Oh, and they always retrieve the honey at night, when it's totally dark--an exciting prospect!

Later that day we found some time to do some fishing. Congrats to Joy and Hudson, who caught the only fish! Last time we were here the guides yanked out a bunch of big fish, AND a huge eel! (Check out the posts from 2009 to see pics). But I guess like fishing anywhere else in the world, it's always hit or miss! And this time it was mostly a miss. But we had fun anyway. It probably didn't help that we had five kids jumping and splashing around in the water.

And of course, there was the vine to swing on! Nothing makes memories like swinging on a jungle vine in the heart of Borneo!

The kids loved the vine! But they weren't the only ones, as you'll see in the next post. :)

The water right down below the research station is shallow and clear, perfect for the little kids. They stayed busy for hours playing here.

It was a great day--certainly one that the kids won't soon forget!

Check back soon for the final post on our trip to the Lalut Birai research station.

Family Trip to Lalut Birai (Part 1 of 3)

2011-02-12T06:53:00.001-05:00

In case you're wondering, Tanner's lip is doing much better now.

Two weeks ago our whole family (yes, including Joy and the younger ones) spent the weekend at Lalut Birai, the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) research station deep in the jungle, downriver from Long Alango. You may remember way back in early 2009, when Britton and I and a couple other guys from MAF spent a few nights there. I did four blog posts about that trip which you can checkout here (part 1), here (part 2), here (part 3), and here (part 4).

It's a fantastic and beautiful place where, back in it's hay-day, scientists from Indonesia and around the world spent quite a few years living here, studying and researching the plethora of flora and fauna that led to the creation of the vast Kayan Mentarang National Park. Today the research station is abandoned, but the good folks in Long Alango are always more than excited to help arrange for an enjoyable jungle get-a-way for the adventurous tourist!

Of course, being a pilot with MAF, I know most of these folks, and consider many of them good friends. So perhaps that puts us in a bit of a different category than the "average tourist." Indeed, no less than about 30 people from Long Alango came along to make sure we were well taken care of, and had plenty of friends and fellowship. That's how they do it here! :)

Well, after flying into the village airstrip, taking a 10 minute boat ride downriver to the village and stopping for coffee, and then another 25 minutes downriver, we arrived at the mouth of the little Enggeng River.

From there we began the hike into the research station, first by crossing the suspension bridge.

Of all the places I've hiked in the jungles of Borneo (and I've covered a lot of miles), this is by far the nicest trail. It reminds me of the Appalachian trail, only with more leeches!

After a 45 minute hike we arrived at the old research station. This is the little building that our family slept in, overlooking the little Enggeng river out the back, and the rest of the property out the front.

Like the last time we were there, this time we also brought along a jug of butterfly bait...which is basically rotting bananas, sugar, molasses and a few other "special" ingredients. And sure enough, we drew in a bunch of ants, bees and moths that evening. Here's a few.

Oh, and I have a special UV flashlight, which works great for hunting scorpions (you can see a picture of that in one of the posts from 2009). But this time I used it to shine on a white towel, b/c apparently moths like the intensity of UV light better than regular incandescent light. To the human eye, it just has a bluish-purplish look as seen below. (If you do this at home, be careful! UV light is harmful to your eyeballs!)

Switching from UV light to regular flashlight, here's the exact same moth, sporting it's pretty green color.

Well, there's a whole lot more to show and tell, but I'll save some for the next time. Check back in a few days to see what else we saw and did.

Tanner Knievel

2011-02-01T08:12:00.005-05:00

So yesterday Tanner decided it would be cool to try to ride his tricycle down the stairs in our back yard. These aren't just your average stairs mind you. They're quite steep and made out of hard, dense wood with sharp edges, and concrete at the bottom. So how did it turn out? Well, he sliced a nice 3/4 inch gap clean through the top side of his upper lip. That section of lip was sort of hanging free and required stitches on the outside and the inside. I'm thinking we could make this into the next verse on the veggie tales song about the lips--you know the one. Well, o.k, maybe you don't, but I know Peter and Carrie know it. :)

Anyway, poor little Tanner has been taking it easy since then, unable to eat much food or talk, or give us his big toothy smile. But the little guy is tougher than woodpecker lips! He never cried even once (didn't even flinch for that matter) during the whole traumatic process at the local emergency room. The doctor thought we drugged him, but he's always that way--tries hard not to cry. Even when he's not feeling well he's cute, don't you think?

I would never have done something like that--trying to ride my tricycle down stairs--when I was a kid. :) Where in the world does he get ideas like that from? Mom, keep your comments to yourself. :)

Here's what he looked like just a few days ago, with that big, toothy smile BEFORE his big debut on the stunt scene.

Macro Life 2

2011-01-30T02:40:00.001-05:00

Here's a few more pics from my little camera walk in Long Alango and Long Pujungan last week.

Macro Life 1

2011-01-26T08:51:00.001-05:00

Boo!

Last week I was in Long Pujungan and Long Alango waiting for some passengers. I happened to have my camera along, AND my 100mm f2.8L IS USM Macro Lens. So, my new-found little Indonesian buddies and I (there's always a group of kids following me around everywhere, especially when I have the camera) decided to look for some "macro life." Those little guys were a great help, finding and pointing out all kinds of insects and flowers right there near my airplane. We had a blast!

I'll do a couple of posts giving you a "snapshot" of just a few of the things we saw, all within a few hundred feet of the parked airplane and during a fairly short time span. Isn't God amazing?!

Bupati Elections

2011-01-20T08:45:00.000-05:00

Here's a random shot I took last week as I was waiting for some government folks to finish their business in Long Alango. Notice the fancy, typical Dayak paintings on the walls of the gudang.

The last few weeks we've been flying lots of flights for the upcoming Bupati elections in the Apokayan region. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the current Bupati has reached his term-limit and so a new one will have to be elected. It's a high and respected government position, just below the governor, and they take it pretty serious. I've flown all of the leading contenders, often to the same villages on the same day, or within a day of each other, as they campaign. Here I am in Long Pujungan with Pak Yansen, one of the candidates.

And here, a few days later, also in Long Pujungan with Pak Djalung, another leading contender.

Here's a few random shots from Long Pujungan that I snapped while going to/from the rally.

Joy's Birthday was on January 9th. The kids and I made brownies (from a mix--thanks Beth), and ice cream for her, since I don't know how to make a cake. The other MAF gals on the program had done some nice stuff for Joy, so we kept it simple on her birthday.

One of the "blessings" of living here are the rats. Lots of rats! I've probably trapped and/or shot a few dozen since we've moved here. We've had one in our kitchen (shot that one). We've had many running across our ceiling when we're trying to sleep...often being chased by a tomcat. This usually lasts for 15 to 30 minutes--running, thumping, scratching sounds, before ending with a loud agonizing squeal. But one thing we haven't had yet is a rat in the toilet. Our friends, Chris and Sarah, did just last week. In fact, it played peek-a-boo with them for several days causing them much consternation and annoyance before coming to an exciting end. (After we finally got it to come out of the toilet I caught it with my gloved hand. 20 minutes after this picture was taken it was in the belly of Britton's pet Python!

To read more about "The rat Saga", you can check out Chris's facebook story here, or get Sarah's initial reactions at her blog here. I'm sure they didn't think it was funny at the time (probably still don't.) But it's actually a pretty hilarious story--as long as it doesn't happen to us! :)

New Years in the Villages

2011-01-07T18:39:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned, we spent three days over New Years in two villages in the Krayan region of Kalimantan. It's always fun to get the family out of Tarakan and into the country! Below, some water buffalo wallow in the muddy water in the foreground, while beyond, rice fields stand ready for harvest.

On New Years Eve we went into the village of PaUpan (below). There were three families and a single guy that made up our little (actually rather large) MAF team this time. We took two airplanes, a Cessna Turbo 206 and the Grand Caravan.

The next day we flew over to Buduk Kubul (pictured below, but on a different occasion). The Caravan can not land here--it's way to short and marginal, so I had to fly my family there and drop them off in the 206, and then make two shuttle runs to Long Bawan where they parked the caravan, (five minutes away by air) to bring the rest of the MAF folks into the village.

This time I brought my RC airplane along. It was a HUGE hit with everyone. They've never seen anything like it...an airplane flying aerobatics and doing wild landings--even crash-landings. We even had a little guy with a parachute that I could drop from way up above. It's a good thing I don't fly the real plane like I fly this one. But the kids absolutely loved it! All the parents and older folks were also watching from their houses. It was a lot of fun!

Of course, it rained, and rained, and rained and then it really started to rain! When was the last time you or your kids played in the rain at 6:00 pm on New Years Eve?

Of course, there's no running water in the villages...well, let me say that differently. There is water continually running from the mountain springs (freezing cold) that fills buckets or drums--but it's not what we would define as "running water". To get all that mud off, you simply use the dipper and dump it all over yourself. It's seriously freezing cold--especially for the kiddos. They're used to the hot temperatures and warm water in Tarakan, but this is up in the mountains where it's a lot cooler. It feels like ice water!

One of the things we seemingly do non-stop in the villages is EAT! These dear people have so little and yet give so generously. They never just put out one or two bowls or plates of anything. It's always laid out in a big spread, and we always seem to gain a few pounds while we're there. Here, Hannah was hanging out with the Ibus in the kitchen where they were cooking. They can't seem to get enough of her.

And this is how they cook. Everything is prepared over fires, on baked-clay ovens that they make themselves. It's amazing how much work it is, but they're so good at it!

Of course, one of the main reasons we went in there was to encourage the Indonesian pastors and the folks in the local village church in each location. They had multiple church services in each village to maximize the opportunities to have the MAF pilots be involved. Unfortunately, my video projector went belly-up after seven years of use, flying around the world three times, being driven around the U.S over a combined nearly 20,000 miles, and going into numerous jungle villages in Borneo (I guess it did pretty well considering.) But I was able to borrow a projector so I could show films in the evenings. That is always a HUGE event, with everyone in the village showing up--and a great opportunity for me to share some words.

Joy and the other two wives did a Sunday School class with all the kids in Buduk Kubul on Sunday morning (the parachute is part of that), and then our program manager preached in the morning service. Afterwards, they killed yet another pig and gave each of us a HUGE slab of solid pig fat--the "best" part, in a show of appreciation.

Did I mention it was cold? I haven't seen long sleeves or pants on any of my kids since we left the U.S. to return here a year ago. But Tanner and Tyler were freezing (to keep it in perspective, we're talking temperatures probably in the 60's and 70's--maybe not cold to you, but...) so they were loving the little hooded sweatshirts we almost left in America.

As usual, it was an overwhelming and exhausting time, but very good all the same. The people are so appreciative of the ministry of MAF, and absolutely love it when we take the time to come in and stay with them overnight. We usually talk and eat and drink and have church services seemingly non-stop, but it's a huge encouragement to the local pastors and their families and the communities.

The airstrip in Buduk Kubul (below) is very scenic. But it can also be quite intimidating on landing. It goes straight into the face of a steep mountain. Behind the one that you can see below, is another one that rises several thousand feet. When you're out there on mid-final, you're committed to land, b/c there's no way you could turn or climb to avoid the mountains. And as you can see, they have a lot of water buffalo roaming around there.

Finally, here's a picture of the rice, ready to harvest in Buduk Kubul. They're known for having some of the best rice in Asia--probably the world. And I just thought you might like to see what it looks like right before it's cut. Can you find the grasshopper-looking bug thing?

This week, among MANY other things, I also flew 400 baby chickens to a far-away village as a future meat source, four different national pastors to locations of their ministry, a government entourage campaigning for an upcoming election, numerous school children of all ages from their home villages to larger villages that have a school, and six medevac patients. Twice this week I had to pick up two patients in the same load, because no one else was available to fly and they were too critical to wait for me to return (we have a lot of planes down for maintenance right now.)

For example, yesterday I had two young men, both laying down in the plane, very week and unable to walk, both with IV's, and each one had a family member along. It was a full planeload! All of these medical flights were critical, with some being the result of motorcycle accidents, another the result of continual bleeding from the mouth and nose for four days, another suffering from severe, unknown stomach issues, and on and on. Without MAF, most of these patients probably would have died! Right now, they're all being treated in the Tarakan hospital, and at least stand a good chance of recovering. Isn't it awesome to be a part of something like this?!

Winter in the Tropics - Part III

2010-12-28T23:22:00.000-05:00

This is the third and last in my little three part series, "Winter in the Tropics". This last post features a few random shots of the beauty that is to be found in the reef itself--mostly the plants and corals. If you didn't get a chance yet, make sure to check out the first and second posts in this series.

The dazzling colors and seemingly infinite variations are always mesmerizing to me. It's like floating, nearly weightless, above and through a royal garden, only from a different world.

These last three shots feature Christmas Tree Worms, or Spirobranchus giganteus, growing in coral. They come in a myriad colors. The part you see sticking out always sports two, fan-like, Christmas tree-shaped structures that serve as both part of the respiration system and food collection utensil. The worm itself is inside the coral and never comes out. When you approach too close to the "Christmas trees" they suddenly disappear into the coral. If you wait patiently, several minutes later they will cautiously reappear. It's rather tough to get close enough to take a nice picture, because their so jittery.

Well, that's all for this edition of "Winter in the Tropics." Hope you enjoyed it. This weekend the family and I, along with two other MAF families are going into two villages in the Krayan region of Northeast Kalimantan, right along the Malaysian border. I'll be showing films and sharing a bit, and the others will be involved in various aspects of New Years / Christmas services. Stay tuned, I'm sure I'll post something about that trip upon our return.

Winter in the Tropics - Part II

2010-12-28T01:24:00.000-05:00

Here's a few pictures of some of the fish and critters we found both above and below water. If you missed the first post in this mini-series, go here, or just keep scrolling down till you get to the previous post.

Crabs everywhere! This one had a nice, purplish color.

Blood-thirsty shark? Not yet. But big, toothy Moray eel...yeah, we see a few of those each time. So far they've proved to be rather nice, but we haven't tried to catch one yet. I don't think I'd want to, having seen the size and sharpness of their teeth! This one was probably about four feet long and as big around as my upper arm. We've seen them bigger.

A little pipefish about seven inches long, anchored by his/her curly tail in the bed of sea grass. In some ways it resembles a seahorse, and is in the same general family. Speaking of the grass, this is what the turtles come to graze on. There are always a lot of turtles around Derawan, mostly Green Sea Turtles, but sometimes Hawksbill Turtles as well. They can be found lazily drifting around these grassy areas, munching away.

Turtles are like salmon, in that they return to their birthing place to lay eggs (except that they don't die afterwards--at least they don't plan to die.) Many of the sea turtle species are now endangered, so it's pretty cool to get a chance to see so many. This time, at Sangalaki and Derawan, we got to see some brand new hatchlings. In both locations there some men who jaga (watch) over the turtles to protect them from those who may want to eat the eggs (a delicious food that has other "health and wellness" properties according to many Indonesians), or the turtles themselves. Britton got to help a few of the hatchlings out of their sand hole and release them on the beach where they made a wild dash for the sea.

An adult turtle swimming back out to sea after grazing in the grassy areas around Derawan.

Nemo and his daddy! Actually, there are many different variations of anemonefish, but this is probably the most striking in my opinion, and of course the one made famous by the movie, "Finding Nemo." The males are the brightly colored ones that we all know so well. This happens to be a False Clown Anemonefish.

And peaking out from behind this gorgeous, giant purplish-blue sea anemone, is a Pink Anemonefish. This was about 15 or 20 feet down, but the color was still just stunning. I've never seen an anemone quite like this one.

Of course, there are many different types of star fish as well. Here are two.

One of our favorites, a nudibranch. They come in hundreds of different colors, patterns and shapes--but are almost always vividly bright and attractive. They tend to be about one and a half to two inches long, and move very slowly. Think slug...except really, really pretty. What's unique about nudibranchs, is that they carry their gills on the outside of their body.

When you see a brightly colored or striped fish, that's about six to 12 inches long, and it's NOT afraid of you...well, that probably means that you SHOULD be afraid of it! This is called a Red Firefish, also known as the Volitans lionfish, part of the Scorpionfish family. Their fins and spines are venomous. They tend to hang out in pairs (male and female) under large corals during the day, and become active at night when they hunt and eat other fish. This particular coral bloom is home to two large pairs, which I visit almost every time I go to Derawan.

Here's another variation that was almost totally black and white. I've seen only one other that was colored like this. It's very striking! But again, any fish that does not run away, especially when you approach it probably knows something that you don't. :)

One of our favorite things to do is night snorkeling. If you're the kind of person who gets that weird creepy-crawly feeling when you're out in the ocean, or a river or lake, because you feel like something is going to come up and chomp on you--well, then night snorkeling is probably not for you. You know how your car headlights illuminate a narrow beam of light on a foggy night, well, imagine swimming in near total darkness, right on the edge of the reef where it drops away into complete inky black nothingness, with the only illumination being a solid, narrow beam from your dive light.

But seriously, it's a lot of fun. Really! The entire reef changes scenes. Many fish come out to hunt (like the lion fish, which we've seen often and have to be wary of) and seek food, while others go to sleep. We've seen squid, giant see slugs, sting rays, lobsters, cuttlefish, and even a large octopus, not to mention many, many types of fish out hunting and being hunted. This time we saw a bunch of parrot fish sleeping in the coral. It was really funny looking, as they were straight up and down, and totally out of it. This one is about a foot long. You could go right up to them and poke them, and it would take three or four seconds before the fish would wake up and then groggily swim out before suddenly freaking and darting away. Call it the snorkeling version of cow-tipping.

There were tons and tons more fish and "critters", but it's hard to take underwater pictures, especially fast ones, so most never make it onto "film". But you get the idea. Check back soon for the third and final post related to our recent island trip.