A Difficult Flight

10 days ago we got a flight request to try and locate a vehicle that was missing after it had been washed into a river. Unfortunately we had to turn down the flight initially because we were still waiting for my license to be renewed by the authorities. But by the end of the day, with licence in hand, we called the organisation back and arranged to do the flight the following day. We agreed to take the families of the missing people from N'Djamena to the nearest town to where the accident had happened and then start the search. 

On the morning of the flight, N'Djamena was experiencing heavy rain and we had to delay the departure until the skies had cleared. When we arrived at the destination the weather was closing in again, making a survey flight impossible. We landed and I secured the aircraft to the ground in case the weather got worse, or we needed to stay overnight, while the families went to see the governor. 

Weather 20 minutes from destination

Locals had begun searching before we arrived and shortly after lunch we heard that the missing car had been found and, sadly, the two occupants had both lost their lives. As a search was no longer required, it was decided to return to N'Djamena that afternoon, with the family and one of the deceased men. The family acquired a coffin and we returned to the Capital. On the flight down there had been a glimmer of hope that the men would be found alive, but the wailing of the passengers saying goodbye to all who had come to see the plane off told a tale of hopelessness. Please pray for this family, especially the mother of the deceased, that she will be comforted in this difficult time.

Loading the coffin onto the plane

Flying back to N'Djamena, even a difficult day can have moments of beauty.

On a more positive note, the week also marked the start of the school year at Wellspring, and Luke's first day at school. Luke has settled into school really well and has rated it 10/10 so far, enjoying being tasked with ringing the school bell for the first week and building marble runs with his classmates.

Cake and Propeller Balancing

Last week, if you follow us on Facebook, you will have seen that I celebrated my birthday with a fantastic engineer cake. Apparently I spent much of the summer telling everyone we met that we really need an engineer here in Chad, so Matt and the children decided to make me one. 

Unfortunately Playmobil people don't qualify to get licences here, but I did also have a temporary engineer from Kenya with us for my birthday and we spent the day balancing the propeller on our Cessna Caravan (technically Vincent and the rest of the team did the balancing, I just had to keep starting and stopping the engine). How and why do you balance a propeller I can hear you all ask?!

Vincent fitted a new propeller last week and so it needed to be balanced to ensure the blades move evenly through the air when flying. To do this we first ran the engine with a propeller balancing machine fitted to the engine cowling. This machine senses any unbalance and suggests where to add the weights. Behind the propeller is a big disk with holes all around the rim and weights are added to this rim. The weights are screws and washers, which are carefully weighed, then added. The final task is to run the engine again and see if the propeller is balanced, if not the machine gives new holes to put weights in. This time it took three runs to get the balance within limits. 

Nekob, Vincent and Arsene with the balancing machine

Machine, weights and scales

Vincent adding the weights

On the compound we have been busy painting our bin lids to help separate things we can compost or recycle here from things that still need to be collected by the refuse company (mostly just plastic). Once I had got the paints out, the children were quick to join in and do their own paintings. 

Thursday was a public holiday to celebrate the country's independence. There was a flypast over the city which we caught a glimpse of, and at the compound we had a BBQ together.   

There has been rain almost every day since we have been back and last week saw some particularly heavy rain, which turned our compound into a lake!

Finally, on Saturday there was a "welcome meeting" before the start of school, for families of children who attend. It was nice to catch up with families who we haven't seen for a couple of months and meet families of children who are starting this term. Luke had a good look around his new classroom and all the children enjoyed exploring the new play equipment that has been installed during the summer break.

Back in Chad

 We have already been back in Chad for a week, it has passed so quickly! After queuing for hours to check in at Heathrow on Saturday evening and being concerned we might not make our flight, we flew through the night and made it to Chad on Sunday afternoon. I hit the ground running, needing to be in the office at 7am on Monday morning. Our temporary program manager had left the country before we arrived, and an airworthiness inspection was scheduled for our aircraft with the aviation authority. As it turns out the inspection was cancelled and rescheduled for two weeks time.

Queuing outside Heathrow - it took over an hour to even reach the door at the entrance to the airport

Both kids crashed after arriving in Cario at 4:30am

The aircraft are currently in maintenance, Vincent has come over from Kenya to help out and I've spent the week doing engine runs on our Cessna Caravan, as he does the scheduled maintenance and replaces the propeller. I've also been catching up on things that have built up in my absence. 

Nekob, Vincent and Dieudonne preparing the new propeller

On the compound Matt has started the challenge of taming the jungle that our garden has become, due to the heavy rains at this time of year. We have been enjoying watching some baby chameleons which recently hatched, and the children have been spending a lot of time playing with their friends who currently live next door.

Can you spot the baby chameleon?