Flying

"Eechoo oochoo manituba terra?"

- Can you make me a plane? -

Definitely, one of my most useful Didinga phrases!

Too windy to fly, or maybe, just too windy to land.

Africa Inland Mission considers our short, doglegged airstrip to be one of the worst in Eastern Africa. Coincidentally, they decided this past February to discontinue caravan flights into Didinga and we decided to fly with a different mission aviation group.

The winds were pretty fierce that first time we attempted to land in Sudan with our new pilot. Most of us on board that day spent the flight concentrating on keeping our lunch down. We circled the airstrip once, as we always do, and flying MUCH faster than usual and at what seemed to be a strange, straight up and down angle, approached the airstrip. Tightening my seat belt (because that would really help) and thinking that these new pilots were quite the serious crew, I strained to look out the front window - wanting to see all the "action" in case we were to land less than gracefully. Kind of morbid, now that I think about it!

Thankfully, our pilot pulled up at what looked to be the very last moment. We attempted to land three more times, however the mountain winds were just too strong. Rather than returning to Loki, we were dropped at the neighboring airstrip in Nagishot. We spent the night there and hiked the ten miles home to Didinga the next day.

As the winds continue to blow in the Hills, we rest here in Kenya. Half of our group is staying at the local resort. The rest of us are sleeping in a house that used to be a metal storage container. It's actually really nice... and free.