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| Pictures from Nairobi and JubaHere are a few more photos of Juba and our last month in Nairobi. One of the new things for me this year was that I started running again and I got to take part in 2 different 10K runs in Nairobi. It was a challenge but I really enjoyed it! Here I am with my running partner Jill after the fundraiser run for Bible Translation and Literacy. 
Before we left Nairobi our small group from church had a farewell party for us. They even brought a cake and then insisted that we feed it to each other (because we hadn't done that at our wedding!). We really miss this group and look forward to reconnecting with them when we visit Nairobi. 
Now for some Juba pictures. Here is a group of ladies that visited a local tailor shop (behind us in the photo). This tailor is well-known for his good stitching and he’s quite reasonable, too (especially considering the ridiculously high prices for everything else here in Juba!). 
Here are a couple pictures from around our neighborhood. This street is just outside our compound, and this shop is at the end of that street. The shopkeeper here doesn’t speak any English, so we are working on our Juba Arabic! 
 Last weekend we climbed the Jebel (which means “hill”) just outside Juba. It was beautiful. That's Juba in the background--it's actually pretty big. 
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| Juba!We've arrived! Two years later than expected but here we are. We touched down on Sudanese soil the on Tuesday morning after spending the night in Loki. We've had a busy first week - Kristen finishing up some papers for her Minnesota teaching license, while I was flying every day. It was sad to say goodbye to so many friends in Nairobi but we are really glad to finally be here. 
Crossing the Nile just before landing in Juba. 
Ethiopian with our MAF colleagues the night before we left 
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| One of Kristen's French students thought he recognized her last name. Then he remembered that he had done a report on MAF a few years ago and had mentioned me within the paper. He gave the paper to Kristen who brought it home to share with me. I read through the paper, learning all about MAF's achievements and various programs worldwide. It was well done. It made me proud to be flying with MAF. Then I got to the last page...
After a compliment like that what can you do but take the guy flying! It finally worked out this Saturday for Daniel to come along on a flight up the Rift to Lodwar. Daniel is now in 11th grade and has already started training for his PPL. He hopes to finish this summer. He grew up in Tanzania and often flew with MAF there, which sparked his interest in aviation. After highschool he plans to finish is CPL and gain experience in the airline industry and maybe one day also fly with MAF.
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| Changes, May 10 2009Today marks the beginning of change for us. We’ve been putting it off long enough, but after I made the suggestion this afternoon that maybe we should start packing it wasn’t long before our living room was a mess of boxes and suitcases. Our move to Juba is scheduled for June 8. We’ll try and send a bit of stuff up every week on regular MAF flights starting this Monday when I fly up to spend the week assisting the Juba base. Somehow deciding what to send and when to send it is more challenging than it feels it should be.
Every weekend this last month we’ve been out of the city cramming in as much of Kenya as we can. We’ll certainly miss living here – our friends, our church, delicious fresh fruit, beautiful landscapes, Snoopy…not so much the chaotic traffic and waking up 6 am on Saturday’s to haul water because there isn’t enough pressure to reach our inner tank.
I hitched a ride a few weeks back in MAF’s pressurized PC12. Leaving flight level 270 for descent into Nairobi, Kilimanjaro appeared crystal clear above the clouds and was covered in snow. This is fairly uncommon these days. Kili has lost massive amounts of snow over the last few decades. Seeing it so full of snow now we decided it would be a good time to go camping in Amboseli, a game park just north of the mountain. So last weekend we did. Some friends from Rosslyn joined us and of course I was explaining numerous times how much snow there would be and how awesome the views were going to be. We were only in the park a few hours before the clouds cleared giving us our first sight of the highest mountain in Africa. Except there was no snow! I was mildly embarrassed. It seems it was just the lighting on the mountain when I saw it from the air that gave it the appearance of being snow-covered. Even without the snow we were still able to enjoy the abundance of wildlife in the park.
- Looks like snow to me...I saw it twice like this in a month
But really there ain't so much.
You always hear about monkeys and bananas but I wouldn't have thought they would really prefer them over any other kind of fruit. After seeing how this monkey reacted I think differently. She (I know that because of a distinctive lack of fluorescent blue) caught sight of them from 30 meters away, ran straight on to our hood, and starting pawing at the windshield. I lowered my window just a crack and she ran to my side and stuck her arm through as far as she could. Quite entertaining but they're really quite a nuisance around the campsite.
This is at a place called Old Fangak. Jill Seaman is a doctor from Alaska and has been here for around 20 years I think. We fly meds, staff, patients in and out supporting the hospital.
I don't know the story of this Hawker-Siddeley 748 but it makes for a great playground. There's another one sitting a hundred meters off the end of the strip. That one went off the end thinking he was at a different strip than he was. There are quite a few airstrips in this swampy section near the Nile and the one he thought he was at is a few hundred meters longer - which he found out the hard way. More fun for the kids I guess...
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| And the answer is.....Thanks for those who responded. Most thought the plane was taking off because: 1.) The plane does not have landing flaps down and 2.) I left Graeme on the ground in Pagak and therefore he could only have taken a picture when taking off.
In response to that I'd say in this picture and at this angle it's pretty difficult to distinguish between 20 and 30 degrees flaps. I reread the article and I see it was a bit ambiguous as to what happened to Graeme after I dropped him off in Pagak. I actually did go back and pick him up, so he did catch me on takeoff and landing as you can see below.
The most significant difference, as Mathias suggested, is the dust, which you don't find when the plane is landing. So congratulations Mathias. Now who are you?
Continuing on the same theme I pose my next question: In this picture, is Snoopy taking off or landing?
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