You are helping a Haitian ministry transform a remote community.
“It’s long enough, but it will never happen,” said MAF pilot John Munsell as he surveyed an area for a possible airstrip.
It seemed unlikely that this patch of land could ever be more than the impossible wall of thorn bushes confronting him. But the people were […]
On a recent flight to the small village of Long Sule, MAF pilot Steve Persenaire told me a little bit about the people who live there. Unlike most of the villages in Kalimantan, in Long Sule the women do much of the hard labor. Whenever a plane comes in, ladies are there waiting to help […]
Badly Airstrip
On the corner near the MAF headquarters, there’s a firehouse with a reader board out front that says, Plan your Fire Escape. It’s a good reminder to be ready for the unexpected. As MAF flight trainers, we train our pilots for the “expected” but to also plan for the “unexpected.” We train […]
I loved flying Ecuadorian jungle kids. They reveled in life, not yet acquiring their elders’ stoicism. At the village airstrips, girls moved in tight, giggling knots. Boys ganged, separated, then ganged again at each new wonder. They spoke whisper soft, peering, pointing, touching tentatively, watching me for any sign. In the midst of adult conversations, […]
Continued from an earlier post…
Working on the Lebakeng airstrip. Photo by Matt Monson.
Despite our best efforts to alert government entities, healthcare workers, and the villagers about the possible airstrip closure if someone didn’t take ownership and fix it, nothing had been done—that is, until now.
On April 24, 80 community members, several clinicians, […]
In talking with one of our aviation maintenance instructors here at MAF headquarters, I discovered that some tips could be applied to life as well. Here are four things I’ve learned about life via plane maintenance.
#1 The Tootsie Roll Theory. Talk to the guys in the maintenance or safety divisions here at MAF headquarters […]