A day with
Helimission
The hangar next door
to MAF belongs to Helimission, a Swiss company that uses helicopters to reach
people in remote and inaccessible places. Like MAF, they support
local missionaries and pastors and bring medical assistance in the
form of personnel, supplies and evacuations. One of the pilots, Chris
Niederhäuser offered me
the chance to come with him into the bush, so I offloaded
Bethan to the first willing person, which happened to be her mum, and
gratefully accepted the invitation.
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| Bethan spent the day "helping" in the MAF office |
I was joining a
flight to Androrangavola-tsienta (a small village near Marolambo, in amongst the rainforest) with a lady called Leonie who
was visiting her team of bible translators and bringing them some
food supplies and instruction for their work. It was expected that we
would fly in, have lunch (if they could provide it) and fly back
after an hour or two. Leonie first came to Madagascar in 1996 and
first visited this village in 2006. She recruited the local pastor
and other elders in the community to start translating the bible into
the local language and Leonie herself, spent a lot of time in the
village. After a while, Leonie felt uncomfortable about the pastor and his
family moving out so she could stay in their house (wooden hut) each
time she visited, so she built her own house in the village!
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| Androrangavola-tsienta |
I was kindly given
the front seat in the helicopter and given a few safety tips in the
case of an emergency. Although I knew that helicopters take off
vertically, it still took me by surprise as we lifted up into the air.
I scanned all the dials and watched Chris expertly fly it, with
worst-case scenarios of me having to take over flashing through my
mind. I'm not a nervous flyer but the helicopter didn't look like it
would glide very well so an engine failure would surely cause it to
drop out the sky like a very heavy stone. Perhaps Chris is good at
mind reading but once we were clear of Tana he reduced the altitude
and showed us what would happen if the engine did fail. I was very
impressed as he chose a nearby field and did a controlled (near)
landing in front of some very surprised villagers. We flew over the
edge of the “high plateau”, which covers a large portion of
central Madagascar, after which the landscape changed from undulating
red-brown barren land to dense rainforest and impressive waterfalls.
50 minutes after leaving Tana, we reached our destination and Chris
landed the helicopter in front of the excited crowd of villagers.
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| Flying over the edge of the "high central plateau" |
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| Local people watching the helicopter land |
Leonie went to greet
the people that know her so well and she was quickly made aware of
the people who needed medical care. A lady with a very swollen
abdomen (looked heavily pregnant but wasn't), a grandmother who had
been unwell for a while and is caring for her young grandchild (her
mother died in childbirth) and a young baby whose head was twice the
size as you would expect, for her body size. Chris went off in search
of high ground to try and phone MAF to arrange picking up these
people from nearby Marolambo on their next visit. Leonie was very
concerned about the baby so she, along with her parents would be
accompanying us back to Tana later in the day.
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| Leonie and Chris speaking to the villagers |
Leonie and I were
made very welcome in the home of the pastor of the village and were
joined by the men (identified by their smart but oversized suits)
leading the team of translators. As we drank coffee, they discussed
(in Malagasy) the bible translations that they had done and would do next and
problems that had arisen.For lunch we sat on the floor of
the hut and shared rice, a tasty but unidentified green sauce and an
omelette/pancake. Chris had told me that he really likes the Malagasy
food that he eats when staying out in the bush and I can see why.
Leonie gave out the food supplies that she had brought from Tana and
we returned to the helicopter. As we
came with Leonie, who they know and respect, the people here know
that “we” want to help them but I wondered how people in other
remote villages feel when foreigners arrive in their strange flying
machine!
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| Flying out of the village |
At the helicopter Chris had employed some bouncers to keep the
crowds away during take-off after a scary previous experience of
children running under the helicopter just as it lifted off the
ground. We got away safely and flew back to Tana with the sick child and her parents and an extra teenager who
needed a lift! Apparently, extra journeys and extra
passengers are all in a day's work for a Helimission pilot. It was a
privilege to witness the great work that Leonie and Helimission were
able to accomplish together for the people in this isolated place.
And of course, it was great fun to ride in the helicopter!
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| Passengers squeezed into the back of the helicopter, going to Tana |
