Cement...Cement...Cement...

Cement is a basic part of construction - and it is a costly commodity - both in terms of purchase and in transport costs... and with the new building coming up, we need a lot of cement... fortunately, thanks to some good friends and the associated kind donation of transport, and now we have cement... 517 bags to be precise.... by going the bulk route we have saved considerably per bag, and without the cost of local pick up and delivery, have made substantial savings in time, thus reducing delays, and that will allow us to move forwards rapidly on the B3/4 'accommodation and basic clinic/training centre'. It is only by working like this that we are able to achieve the things that we do - so please know that every dollar you send to MoM, MoM makes it work ... and work more than once!!!

I have to say, that this size truck arriving had us all on our toes, and making sure that the crew did not wander into hangars was an added burden... but it all went off OK... and on Monday slab laying will commence, hopefully to be complete before the seasonal break... Special thanks go especially to JVC for the kind donation of their truck and to VLTC for the use of their allocation towards our projects.

Partnership is the key to development; it is partnership that has gotten us this far, and this new building will enable so much partnership with the local people - and a much needed solution for training, primary and secondary care for many.

We are still hunting donations to complete this project.... Roofing is our next big expense... wood and roofing sheets will come in at around $7,000.... then the finishing ($6000) and then the 'fitting out' ($8000).... we are probably around $20,000+ short of what we really need to enter this programme into service.... and we want to achieve that in the next 12 weeks...

If you have a local contact for aluminium roofing sheets (cut to size), wood (legal, not 'illegal wood' please), tiles (floor and wall), a medical couch, medical cabinets, etc.... please please put us together....

Cheerful ambition has never been in short supply around here... join us, it is the only way to move forwards! :-)

The challenges aren't always obvious

As usual a trip to the city involves a 'little chat' with some 'nice' policemen. Yesterday we went in using a taxi. The truck was busy moving blocks and water, and through the kindness of one of the student pilots we were going to pick up our first 4x4 vehicle for MoM. The taxi driver was pulled over and the policeman pulled open the car door shouting 'you are not wearing shoes, get out of the car'. Of course, if you are not used to such things it can make your heart beat faster. Ofori, the driver quickly got down to show that he was wearing shoes (it is a new 'policy' that you cannot drive bare foot or in sandles), and we were 'released'. Whether some small coloured piece of paper changed hands or not, I cannot tell! The policeman did not notice that there were no seatbelts in the back of the vehicle - another legal requirement!

All the same we got to the city and collected the Mitsubishi Pajero that has been made available to MoM through kindnesses of several people and organisations. IT is not new, it needs some work and it does have 156000 on the clock. But it will make a great deal of difference to what Ben and Michaela can achieve in 2012. We went into the Department of Social Welfare to renew our NGO certificate and were received well, including thank you's for what we do. Then it was 'back on the road' to get out of the city.... and guess what... another kindly policeman... This time we were accused of doing U turn (behind ten other vehicles) where we should not have done so. I pointed out that there was not a sign saying 'No U Turn', but was told that the fact that there was not a sign saying 'U turn' made it illegal. Pleading ignorance, and accepting my 'education session', I was then asked to provide some 'porridge' in return for my lesson, it was done nicely, but I did not like it. In all of my years here I have NEVER paid for such 'a release' (it has cost me a lot of time). I then explained that 'it was not a correct thing to do.... and before we could enter into too much 'negotiation' got back in the car to drive away!

I hate going to the city - as much as anything the four or five police stops that will punctuate the day are enough to put anybody off. I don't mind being stopped if there is a reason... but the checking of my driving licence twice in a few kilometers is not fun - but it is a part of life here, and we get used to it.... somehow!

The Pajero will need some work and we are going out for quotes in the new year.... if you would like to help, please click on the paypal link!

Coming to an airfield far far from you......Accommodations and a Clinic!!!!!!!

Pillars are now set on their starters and the concrete foundation beam laid in B3/4 also known as the 'Mini-Clinic Building'. This name is rather a big one, the building will be the new HQ for MoM. It will include quarters for Ben and Michaela, an office for MoM (currently MoM uses others facilities), two rooms with 6 beds in (each room is 4m x 4m - or 13' x 13'), bathrooms, and most most most importantly a treatment room/clinic room. That room has been needed so much here - it will have all of the necessary to treat wounds and do dressings as well as a large whiteboard for teaching purposes - for it will also be the place to teach and train on first aid and advanced first aid. The accommodation rooms will be used to bring people in to undertake residential training courses on Community Health, providing a solution that is low cost and high impact. It will also double up as crew accommodation for the rounds of teams that are expected to come to assist in the coming ETCHE and INSCI programmes around the lake. This building will soon be complete - or so we keep on telling ourselves... and the piles of stones and sand already set down are being eaten by the masons in an effort to achieve some very very tight targets - even by European or American standards - let alone African time-line standards...

Off the grid ingenuity, it's a way of life

Power systems are improving at the airfield and we hope that by the end of the year the connections to and from the new genset will be complete.... but what happens when the genset is not working? We INVERT... for pilots that is cool - and we all know that Melissa Pemberton is amazing and Inverted flight, but we are inverting the power... we charge a couple of car batteries during the genset running (basically storing excess power for nearly-free) and get a few hours of inverted low amperage but mains voltage power for the evenings - enough for power saving lights and a laptop or two - but NO big power items! One of the aims is to be able to connect a small air-conditioner to one of the new accommodation units and then, if a visitor would like air-conditioning (I hear you Sid!), they can pay to run the big gen-set overnight to run the Air Con.... so, but mid 2012, for an extra $25/night visitors who are concerned about the heat can enjoy aircon... we hope that will enable more visitors to come and participate without additing to the cost of our operations, but adding to the benefits to the people and the visitors! (if you would like to help with that, the AC unit will cost about $1200 installed.... and if you make the donation, you can have your first stay at a discounted rate!)

Flying with .... Friends?

With the Harmattan, the Cattle Egret are back - these white birds love the airfield, in fact this morning the little white dots are are all around the fuel depot - at least they can fly in the harmattan... sadly, they also add to opertional challenges for they are the dumbest of birds when it comes to flying.... chasing them off the runway and being ready to initiate a go-around because they see the plane as a buddy to fly along with on land is part of the procedure until the dry season is past!

You can't fly if you can't see

Harmattan has bitten so hard we are grounded. On Sunday we could not even see the hangars at 200m.... since Sunday morning we have only had ten minutes of legally flyable viability - and we did go up - only to come back to earth as we could see another wall of sand filled air approaching the field like a blanket being laid gently onto a baby's cot. The mountain at the end of our runway is jsut 3km from the threshold - and when we cannot distinguish the rocks on the face of that mountain, we CANNOT fly.., not just because of the lack of visibility by also due to the amount of sandy dust that enters the mouth of the crew and the engine of the plane... this looks like it has set in for the next few weeks at least.

Power and a boat!!

Submitted by: Capt Yaw

December bites with a massive bush fire to warm our faces and burn the hairs off of our arms - and that has been our day! In fact the last two days we have been grounded at times due to smoke and ash in the air. It will (we hope) soon be a relief to have water on the field ... some when in the near-ish future, but the good news is that we do now have a decent power solution (which may open up the possibility of a bore hole....), which has been supported by the Vitol Charitable Foundation. Their assistance and encouragement has been an essential part of the early installation works of our long awaited building programme 'The MoM Multi-Purpose Building - including a Simple clinic and treatment room with integrated accommodation' - which we refer to as B3/4 (meaning Building 3 and 4 - because it was once designed to be two buildings, but has been integrated to one...) , we extend our heartfelt thanks to all at Vitol and the Foundation for their interest and support of this project.

In true MoM style we work hard to make our impact sustainable, and therefore the AvTech girls were the 'electrical installers' - including running cables from the truck. We could not afford a 4 core cable, so purchased over 1000m of 4 x wire 25mm2 and had the girls hand pull it in 2inch pipe, setting it in the trenches, concreted over where necessary and buried in sand where possible. Lydia made good use of both arms in this project, for the first time she did so naturally... The active involvement of the girls in the installations is expanding their knowledge and also empowering them to maintain and upgrade the systems in future years. How many people do you know who can explain a three phase power installation and have basic concepts of balancing the loads? Well, they do!

The footings for for B/4 are all dug, the steel pillar columns manufactured on site, and the starter pads (also made on site) ready to drop in. Making on site is cost effective and also allows us to 'strategise' the use of materials more carefully than outsourcing... and it is more timely!.... We also have 20m3 of stones and 18m3 of sand sitting next to the foundations with 2000 5inch blocks - ready for the arrival of long awaited (and costly) cement in the coming days... Having power on hand to assist with the building will speed up many aspects of the construction, including flood lights to allow us to work longer hours in order to meet our looming deadlines. We expect the building to be at slab level before the year end, weather, materials and support permitting... we hope part of it will enter to service in early Feb.... that is a a tall order in these parts!

As you all know, MoM is supported extensively by WAASPS, the social entrepreneurship that is synonymous with MoM. One of WAASPS clients, the Volta Lake Transport Company, recently requested some repairs to a small boat. Those repairs have been overseen and led by MoM volunteer Tony, an experienced 'repair man'. He has taught the girls fibre-glass work (they have since made a fairing for the wind-shield of the MoM CH701 aircraft) and Juliet and Emmanuella have participated a great deal in the resin and fibre works. Lydia is not able to do all of the jobs due to her disability, but was selected to train in the spraying work - that transformation from off white to BRIGHT orange... she also painted some smiley faces in the spraying booth - to demonstrate her circular control of the gun, I am told.

The work on this boat has helped WAASPS to move forwards with the stones and sand mentioned above, as well as to bring in an extra mason to speed up build... but better still, this boat will be made available as possible to MoM for its work on the lake... so, HEV 1 will be a loan boat... thanks to all at the VLTC!

We are told time and time again that we should not start projects until we have all the things in place to complete them. That is really good advice, but we are ever conscience that If we took that approach we would never have achieved anything - prices jump 20% overnight so we need to 'put down' materials as we can, carefully choosing the steps we do - and often working multiple projects simultaneously - which may give the outside an impression of chaos - but hopefully 'organised, planned and carefully executed chaos!'. As we step out in the quest to achieve the impossible, we are constantly amazed at how a grant here, an extra job there, a loan of equipment for this or that, , support for a vehicle and some technical advice that is out of our own set of skills, all seem to come together.... it is not without its moments of heart stopping and a little stress... but one thing it has surely made us, is a lean operation where every cent of every dollar is used many times over.

Thanks to all who have, are and soon will support these and other projects at MoM!