Hi again! Another week scratched off the calendar. As far as this week goes it was pretty normal as normal can be here. Hugo has been fabricating more much needed test equipment, such as test cables for autopilot systems and break out boxes to check avionics equipment in the aircraft. By doing this the technician can better determine which components are failing. This will save MAF shipping and testing costs. He also installed a new ELT in one of the aircraft being checked. This aircraft is undergoing a major check which means a new engine, new windshield, and new interior. This aircraft will also recieve a new radio stack which includes the GNS 430 which is a GPS/comm/nav reciever. With this installed the aircraft can become an IFR (Instrument Flight Regulations) rated aircraft. Meaning that it could then fly in conditions where the pilot has little or no visual contact. Bad weather can come up suddenly here so pilots are always on the lookout and if there is bad weather they often have to turn around. Having IFR will allow them to fly through clouds instead of spending a lot of time and gas looking for holes. It is very busy in the hangar. As soon as one aircraft is finished another one comes in. All aircraft need to have some servicing after every 50 hours of flight. There are also some other things that need to be checked after more hours have accumulated. The aircraft here are always busy flying. They are having to turn people down for flights as there just isn't enough time or planes available. MAF pilots fly a lot of people but they also fly live animals. For the people of the interior this is their money. They do not have cash money, but they have live animals. Pigs in particular are very valuable. Many families from the interior have children studying at high school or seminary or college in the bigger towns or cities. As they can't just send them a cheque in the mail for their expenses, they send a live pig - or sometimes a dead one. A live pig is considered much more valuable than a dead one, but costs a lot more to transport. Often the pilots are flying with live pigs on board. These pigs are tied up with jungle twine and bark and pieces of wood. It is quite the sight to see! If a pig is going to be killed before transport, it is done about 10 minutes before the plane arrives. Therefore, when the pig reaches its final destination the pod under the aircraft is rather bloody. Yummy! There are rules regarding airstrips and how they must be treated. If a pig walks across the runway it must be either killed on the spot and given to the pilot or the owner must pay a 1 million rupiah fine. If a person walks across the runway the strip is closed until a 500,000 rupiah fine is paid. If the person is walking across the runway while the plane is taking off then the fine can be as high as 1,000,000 rupiah. This sounds harsh, but if there are no stringent rules then people would be milling all over the runway which is incredibly dangerous. There are no exceptions to the rules here. When Hugo went flying last week to Boma, they made a stop at a remote airstrip. After picking up their passengers and beginning to takeoff, a man walked right across the runway. The pilot immediately aborted takeoff and gave the man a 1,000,000 Rup fine. They will not return to the strip until the fine is paid. Right now 1,000,000 Rups is $164 Cad. So it is a costly error to make. On Saturday we went with Justin and Corinne Koens to a restaurant in Lake Sentani. Well, part of it is in the lake on stilts. We lathered on the bug repellent and enjoyed a nice dinner. Corinne and Hugo ate Sago with fish soup. Sago is a staple of the diet of the people of the interior. It is like our potato. Sago is made from a tree which they shave finely after squeezing all the juice or sap out. Then they boil it and it becomes like a paste. It looks like glue and you serve it using two big wooden fork-like devices that you use to twirl the sago around and then somehow scrape it onto your plate. You can't really chew it, you have to cut it into bite-size pieces and swallow it whole. It has no taste of its own, therefore the fish soup. Justin and Erica stuck to good old chicken steak - as they call it here. It was the entire breast of a chicken, bone and all cooked in a very nice sweet and sour type sauce. It is served with a few fries and a few beans and carrots. After that we went to Abe to hit the bank machine and pick up a few groceries, flour in particular as the store in town hasn't had flour for about a week. Normally we have gone to Abe on a Saturday morning. Wow, Saturday night everyone is out on the town. It was wall-to-wall people. It reminded us of going to the fireworks in Vancouver, only this is a normal Saturday night thing. There were policemen everywhere waving their lighted batons directing traffic. Their uniforms are something to behold. They look like they are in the old Italian army or something. Tight brown pants with silver stripes down the side, a light brown shirt with badges all over it, and the silver belt with another strip going across the chest and then the official hat to top it off. Very impressive. The kids are doing fine. Mikah can now count to 10 in Indonesian. A couple times a week an Indonesian teacher comes to her class to teach them some words. Aidan has picked up on it and can sometimes be heard trying to count in Indonesian. Very cute. The boys are still enjoying their mornings together. They love to ride their bikes and pretend to fix them just like Daddy. So that was our week. What was yours like? We will close off by saying, "Selamat hari Minggu." Which translated literally means, happy Sunday. In His Service, Hugo and Erica and Kids