Guest Blog: by John Butterworth: On cloud nine when I became a ‘co-pilot’ with MAF

On cloud nine when I became a ‘co-pilot’ with MAF   

Long-time MAF supporters John and Jan Butterworth spent two weeks in Uganda in August this year. They went to see Andrew and Liz Parker and their children Esther, Ben and Joel whom they have supported when they were in South Sudan and now in Kampala. In the first of three blogs John tells of a big surprise on their third day of their holiday.

It is every boy’s dream to sit in the front seat of a plane next to the pilot.

I had to wait until I was 65 years old but I was still as excited as any youngster as I put on my headset when I was invited to join MAF pilot Eivind in the cockpit of the 17-seater Cessna 208 Caravan.

We had arrived only on the Sunday to see the mission society’s work at first hand and on the Monday we were told there were two free seats on the plane the next day. Were we interested?

We were not going to miss that chance of a lifetime and we were ready for the 6.30am lift to the Kajansi airfield between Kampala and Entebbe.

After a safety briefing, and the other six passengers and luggage safely onboard, we then had clearance for take-off for the first of our three stops, Kotido in remote North Eastern Uganda, home of the Karamojong people.

With my headset on it gave me a fascinating glimpse of the two-way communication between the control tower and the pilot.

On the right wavelength – ‘Co-pilot’ John Butterworth

Ten minutes after take-off I was slightly unnerved to see heavy rain and lightning on the left side of the plane.

It was also a little worrying to see Eivind looking out of the window and steering his way through a gap in clouds as he explained the plane was not built to go through heavy rain clouds, particularly if there were hail stones.

But he reassured me that was normal procedure and the rain soon stopped. As the sun came out we enjoyed the spectacular scenery of crossing the River Nile and looking down on the new hydro-electric dam being built hundreds of feet below.

The headset gave me the chance to chat one-to-one with Eivind as he explained how he had joined MAF and how he had grown up partly in Norway and partly in Ethiopia where both his parents and grandparents had been missionaries.

I was also impressed to hear that he had traced his family tree back to the 9^th century. I am still struggling back in the 19^th century tracing my ancestors.

Soon it was the first landing of the day in Kotido. I looked in vain for the grass strip runway as we flew over sparsely populated areas with tribal settlements and small flocks of sheep and goats.

A view of some of the settlements from the air

There was no one to be seen as we made a fairly smooth landing in a scrubland clearing.

As the plane came to a stop, out of nowhere appeared villagers in colourful tribal dress to greet us. I had seen that type of picture in many missionary magazines but now those pages came to life.

A tribal welcome as we land in Moroto

I thought about Liz Parker’s mum who had spent some time there as a teacher with the Church Missionary Society and how she was able to revisit the Kotido airstrip near to her old school thanks to MAF in August last year. (See blog post: Monday, 28 August 2017  “MAF Makes a Dream Come True” )

 Then on the horizon there was a cloud of smoke as a vehicle came towards the grass track and two English grandparents boarded our plane after saying tearful farewells to their grandchildren and their two parents working as Christian doctors in remote Uganda.

It would probably be a couple of years before the family would be reunited again.

But what an itinerary for Gran and Grandpa: Kotido – Moroto – Soroti – Kajjansi – Entebbe – Dubai – London Heathrow. No other passengers on Emirates Airlines would be able to match that.

We were soon taking off again, this time for the short hop to Moroto to drop off and pick up more passengers before flying on to Soroti where I changed places with my wife Jan and she put on the headset for the return journey sitting next to the pilot.

Back at the MAF base we had lunch with some of the other MAF pilots, including Andrew Parker who had flown in a smaller Cessna 206 plane to north-west Uganda that morning.

After a tour of the hangar and the engineering/ repair centre we were taken back to our Kampala hotel after an amazing day.

Although I had been an MAF supporter all my life it was amazing to hear at first hand some of the vital work that MAF does all over the world:

- transporting sick patients to hospital

- taking Christian workers to remote outposts

- bringing important relief to people in Uganda and South Sudan.

I was privileged to be a ‘co-pilot’ and to have such a bird’s eye view of Christian work on this flying visit that few have the chance to see.

A Few Spots of Bother

It's been over 2 months since I sat at my blog and wrote an update. Too long! It's funny how busy life can become.

June rushed past, as we prepared for our MAF "Home Assignment" back in our passport-country of England. A country where I am the only member of my family with long-term roots. My husband is South African and my children have grown up across 5 African countries, feeling more like "home" is within Africa rather than England.

Despite this fact, England always welcomes us warmly and we are made to feel loved and "at home" for the few weeks we spend there. We are ever grateful for the kindness and support of family, friends, church families and MAF supporters. We had a special and wonderful time in the UK, for which we are very grateful.

We arrived back in Uganda on August 14th, Harry was overjoyed to have his family back, bouncing energetically from one Parker to the next.

 Even the cat deigned to acknowledge our return with a swift rub around each pair of ankles!

Since our arrival back in our Kampala home, life has been FULL ON!

Two days after our arrival, the new academic year was due to begin...

In a flurry of  preparation, it was straight down to "Garden City" shopping centre the day after landing. In Kampala. the children's school requires us to buy all of their books and stationery. A new school year means stocking up on pencils, pens, paint, exercise books, folders files... etc.

The fuel in our newly-serviced car was low and the traffic was more chaotic than I had remembered! The trip took longer than I had budgeted for, which often seems to happen when I return from the order of the UK to unpredictable Africa, but happily our children had their school resources all ready for the first day of school.

(photo credit: clipart)

Back at school, the children were delighted to rediscover Kampala friends, to find their new classrooms and teachers. After an exceptionally looooooong school holiday, the children would finally get back into a routine- or so we thought!

The children had just 2 days of school- a Friday and then a Monday. On Tuesday, a public holiday was proclaimed for Eid! School was shut and we had an unexpected day at home. Esther had a friend to visit, but by the end of the afternoon, Esther was looking poorly. Her sunny disposition was muted and she was running a low-grade temperature.

"Oh, she's just over-tired with the journey and getting back into Kampala life", we told ourselves.

 Esther started to feel quite dizzy and her temperature was persistent. We kept her at home on Wednesday - another day without routine.

On Thursday, Esther presented herself in the kitchen at a late 8:45am, one and a half hours after her brothers had left for school. To her and my horror, she was COVERED in bright red spots! Her head hurt, her fever was still present. She described feeling like she was moving around in a dream.


An hour later, we arrived at the doctor's surgery, to be told that Esther had rubella (German Measles). Without a doubt, she had picked up the virus in England and unwittingly brought it back to Kampala! She was tearful. And her mother was tearful. How could I have missed her vaccination for rubella? Did that mean I had neglected my duty as her Mum and miss a booster or in fact both MMR vaccinations?

The doctor and I examined Esther's records of vaccination and could find NO mention of MMR ever being administered. The records were hard to decipher- one set of records was from South Africa, where all of her inoculations had been recorded in Afrikaans! Neither myself nor the Ugandan doctor could fathom what they all meant! But MMR was not among those written.

Next, we examined her English medical records. Next to the gap marked "MMR" there was only a tick- no date and no doctor's signature. What did the tick mean? Had I ticked that gap to remind myself to get this inoculation or had I ticked it when it was administered? It was a mystery to me-  I simply could not remember what I had meant when I ticked that box 10 years ago!

Next, we looked for some records of her medical history through her time in Tanzania, Kenya and South Sudan, but all we could find were her tropical vaccination record. Thankfully, I had been scrupulous in keeping up to date with her tropical diseases immunisation schedule- but not so organised with her general childhood illnesses. I felt terrible. I looked guiltily at the doctor. He smiled warmly at me.

"Don't worry", he said, "she will get over this and then we can arrange a new schedule to get her vaccines up to date."

His kindness stilled my tears; but I still felt bad for Esther.

On Friday evening, she rested in darkness in her bed, cloistered in her room while 10  pre-invited guests joined us for a BBQ at home. The visiting children communicated through the lattice window and mosquito netting. Poor Esther. She was too unwell to care about what was happening outside and she certainly did not feel like eating any BBQ chicken kebabs, but still- it's never pleasant to miss out. :-(

My little girl lay mostly in bed Thursday and Friday, finally emerging on Saturday mid-morning. Headache, chills, fever, vomiting and sensitive eyes, not to mention the unsightly rash, were hopefully on their way out. That afternoon an American doctor friend kindly came to examine her and reassured us that she was doing well. She suddenly seemed brighter and more energetic. That evening, her spots started to fade before our very eyes!

With the nasty spots fading, the worst was over. Today, she returned to school. Horray!

I drove her and 6 other MAF kids to school this morning, with a little drama on the way... I managed to get our enormous car stuck in a tight spot down a narrow mud road! With tears of frustration and panic, I had to reverse my vehicle uphill and over slippery mud as the wheels lost their grip and spun in protest at my manoeuvres. The tight corners and mud were challenging for reversing, not to mention the 10 minutes I wasted trying to get back on to a better route to school!!! Grrrrrrr! A little bother- but we still got to school on time (just!!).

Trouble with German measles has not been the only disturbance of Kampala life over the past week. Political unrest has resulted in riots in town and security restrictions on our movement around town, interfering with our everyday life. See this BBC link:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-45257309


As often happens in life, the trouble happened to coincide with visitors arrving! Two lovely, wonderful MAF UK supporters are visiting us here in Uganda for 2 weeks. Jan and John said they wanted, " to just see your everyday life". Well, they've definitely seen a bit of reality here in our Ugandan life!

They've had their city tour cancelled because of riots. They sat in my car as I did a hasty U-turn on a main road where security concerns necessitated a swift change of plan. The street we were driving had become too dangerous to drive down.

They spent a day at the doctor's with Esther and I last Thursday- and what a comfort they were to this upset MAF wife and her measley daughter! Such a blessing to have them with us.

They have done emergency babysitting of my poorly daughter when I had to rush out and collect other kids from school and was not allowed to take my contagious Esther in the car with me.

They have seen our Kampala life, in all its unpredictability and chaos... as well as the joy of our community, the thrill of a MAF flight and a visit to the beautiful Speke resort. But that is another blog post!

Until then, I am glad we have got over the most recent spots of bother and I look forward to a  more settled period ahead!

Kampala Grub

Our garden is brimming with life again! It is amazing to be able to get fresh produce from our garden for our daily food!

I have a few lemons in the fridge from our lemon tree:

Bananas ripening up nicely from our small banana plantation:

Chillis galore on our chilli bush:

I took special care chopping these chillis for our curry on Monday evning! They are firey, fiesty chillis!!!! I would not want to get a single seed accidentally burning my skin!!

We also found some tomatoes that we weren't aware had been planted! The Kampala soil is fertile and it seems that if a seed falls, a plant will grow! The boys enjoyed harvesting these tomatoes:

  

Our papaya tree is flourishing! Joel surprised me when he demonstrated his prowess as tree climber extraordinaire! He shinned up those tall papaya trunks to fetch the ripe fruits:

Meanwhile, down in Kampala market, food of very differnt variety, but also 100% natural, is being prepared:

These ladies are busy ripping the legs and wings off live grasshoppers! The grasshoppers are collected in sackfuls and delivered to Owino market. where they meet their fate. A fate that I can only imagine to be searingly painful for the tiny beasts!

Once the wings and legs are off, the writhing bodies of the grasshoppers, with their heads still attached, are piled into small mounds:

These piles of living, but mangled, bodies are destined for the frying pan...

Fried grasshoppers are a much-enjoyed delicacy of Kampala cuisine. Although seasonal, depending on when grasshoopers are most in evidence, they are readily available when the time is right! They are sold in paper bags- much like a bag of chips in the UK!

They are fried in salt and garlic. This is a bag of ready-fried grasshoppers:

Last week, Esther's friend bought a bag from a seller on the side of the road as we were stuck in Kampala traffic. She kindly offered us all a taste of fried grubs:

Esther had a taste, but needed much persuasion! She was not convinced about the flavour, nor the texture of fried insect!!

I also had a try... and it was actually quite tasty! I imagine that I would not have enjoyed it without the salty, garlic flavour! And there was something a little odd in the texture- a few stray hairs, or a slightly fuzzy aftermath. It was difficult to define! Anway, this is a local snack to be aware of in the back of my mind, in case we get desperately hungry in another traffic jam!

A grub of  different nature can finish off this blog post for me. The other evening I came home to find this striking creature outside our back door. I can say with certainty that he is not edible grub, but he was so handsome that I will leave you with his photo so that you can marvel at the rich and incredible insect life of God's creation in Uganda!

Racing for Refugees

On Saturday, the Parker family ran a 7 kilometre obstacle race, set up to raise money for outreach to refugees in Uganda and raise awareness of their plight. You may remember Esther, Ben and I doing this annual race last year.

This year, Ben, Joel, Andrew and I ran as one team- the "Parker Panthers".

Esther was keen to be in a faster team, so she joined the team made up of other MAF friends- the "MAFIA" ( "M.A.F. International Africa"!! ).

Our MAF representatives, making up 2 teams: Team MAFIA and Team Parker Panthers.

We had signed up to run to raise money for Kampala's Centre of Refuge and Hope. Their staff T-shirt spells out what this centre stands for- a commendable goal to empower and enable refugees in Uganda to gain new skills, helping them to a more independent life. 

Their vision rests on Psalm 46, verse 1, emblazoned on the T-shirt around the world map:

"God is our refuge and strength,

    an ever-present help in trouble."

The centre reaches out to those affected by war and conflict and aims to provide a place of hope and a place for them to build a new start. Refugees can enrol as students in the classes and learn English or vocational skills such as baking, sewing, hairdressing, mechanical skills and agriculture. All to equip the refugees with employable and transferable skills.

What a great cause to run for.

Along the way, we the runners were presented with many obstacles and challenges- all with the intention of making us feel a tiny part of the frustration and powerlessness refugees may face when they flee to a foreign land.

Once again, like last year, we found oursleves beiing told to build a shelter for our family. Our building materials were woefully inadequate: some banana leaves, a scrap of tarpaulin, a few canes of bamboo. As soon as we clambered inside, a deluge of "rain" was thrown over us. Wet and indignant we clambered out, wringing water out of our clothes. However, we knew we could dry off as we ran the rest of the race in the Kampala sunshine and that we could later get showered and changed at home. And we knew our own homes have plenty of space abd can shelper us from the local tropical rain-storms, Refugess don't have this luxury. It highlighted the differences in our lives that we often take for granted and is a call for us to have more compassion- and take more action- to care about and for the vulnerable.

Later in the race, there was a "mud-slide" we needed to cross. A terrifying challnege for some. A wonderful opportunity for others... like my boys, who were thrilled wth the propsect of being actuvely encouraged by their parents to get muddy- a rare occurence!

   

Throughout the race, each team received information slips on the completion of various challenges. The facts are disturbing:

It took our team of 4 just over 3 hours to complete the course. Esther's team finsihed a good while ahead of us and came in 3rd place, which made us proud and Esther very happy! The children were rewarded with toffee apples at the finish line.... before we loaded them in to the back of our boot to go home. They were far too muddy to sit on the car seats!!

  

A Right Royal Afternoon

We may be far away from England, but last Saturday, on the day of the Royal Wedding in Windsor, a number of patriotic Brits-in-Uganda gathered together and watched the royal events unfold, coutesy of BBC T.V.  Far away, but determined not to miss out!

To mark the occasion, we donned fancy fascinators and dressed in patriotic colours or dresses (as appropriate!) and enjoyed the fun from far off! Being 2 hours ahead of British time, we were treated to afternoon tea-and-cake at  Kampala's Makindye Country Club. It was all good fun!

Two large screens and plenty of seating were set up so that we could feel part of events in our homeland:

And here are a few pictures of the celebratory participants:

Alive and Wise!

I have just completed a 2-week, intensive course. The course is named, "Living Wisdom". Many MAF staff before me have taken this course and highly recommended it. It kept me out of mischief for 2 weeks, with daily lessons from 8:30 every monring until it was time to fetch the children from school and then home-work every evening!

Here's the proof that I completed the course, as I pose with course facilitator Joan and my certificate:

The course can be used as a stepping stone into counselling for those interested in this field but it is also so much more. This is a comprehensive and in-depth course delving into the reasons for our attitudes and behaviours and how to improve on them: looking at ways to live in good mental health . This is the blurb from the course handbook to help explain a little more:

"This course is... a way to explore what a sound mind looks like.... learning how to understand ourselves through a Christ-centered Psychology. Teaching our minds to be our friend, regardless of the circumstances we find ourselves in...."

For those interested in finding out more, there are various websites and this is one of them:

https://www.livingwisdom.co.nz/

Although we studied for 2 weeks, myself and the 26 other students from my class know that there was alot to take in, so we now have much to consider and "digest"  in order to get the most out of the course. It will be a work in progress to allow the material to be useful.

It was a fascinating course, giving me lots to think over and much to learn- and hopefully helping me to be wiser for my day to day life! :-)

Glorious

The Rainy Season seems to be coming to an end. As it does so, some of the sunrises viewed from our back garden have been breath-takingly wonderful.

Since they're so lovely, I thought I'd share a few with you!

 It really cheers me up to start the day with such beauty!

Lakeside view:

City-scape:

The sun sparkles through our patio lamp:

Our garden as the sun wakes it up with the first burst of light (around 6:45am):