Adelsbergers on Safari

We had a great day in Chobe National Park in Botswana.  I cannot adequately express the wonder and emotions that seeing these animals in the wild has on me. I also cannot share all the 400+ pictures we took over the day.  These are just a few of the animals we saw:

 Kudu 

 Lilac breasted roller

 Cape Buffalo

 monitor lizard

Leopard

Hannah our budding photographer took most if not all of these pictures.

Thanks for your continued prayers, we start our flight back to america tomorrow!

Josh

He is risen!

Just wanted to wish all a very blessed Easter Sunday. 

 Our sunrise service.

We miss you all, 

This is why we need mission planes!

We had been waiting for the perfect day to visit the source of the Zambezi River.  Wednesday arrived with blue skies a light breeze and general dry conditions as it had not rained in days.  Nathan and I got the mission vehicle out and did some routine maintenance as well as a good washing.  After lunch 8 of us loaded up into the truck and we headed out on a 1+ hour drive to the source.

 The "roads" in our area are in a generally poor to near unpassable condition right now.  The 5 mile drive to the next town over is a 30 minute drive, if you make it!  As we were making our way down the "road" we would cross wet patches where a small stream crosses the "road".  We had traversed serveral of these wet spots with one portion actually having the small river flowing down the middle of the "road" for most of 100 yards.  Soon we approached another wet spot, we slowed, shifted into 4x4 and proceeded with care trying to stay on the high areas.   With a sudden lurch to the side we grounded to a halt.

 We got out to examine the situation we were in and found ourselves high centered in a rut around 30" deep.  The wheels were completely submerged and mud and water were 8" up the door.

 We pushed, we pulled, we pried and we dug but to no avail, we were stuck good.  Many locals came to watch, help and give advice, in Lunda, pointing and jabbering like I could understand them.  We made a few calls but most of the help was a good ways off and would be hours before arriving.  In the end I don't think that another truck could have pulled us out, we were that stuck!  

Thankfully God had a plan of his own, after thrashing in the mud for nearly an hour a back hoe came up the road, imagine that.  The driver said they were on there way to where we were stuck to fix that part of the road.  My guess is that a large truck used for shipping over the road got stuck here overnight, created the giant ruts and holes and left.  The back hoe pulled us out with ease (for a fee).

 We scrapped the mud off of our legs, feet, hair and faces and talked about whether we should go on or not. It was firmly decided by all no to let this little distraction keep us from our goal.  45 minutes later we arrived at the source.

I'll save those pictures for another entry...

Thanks for praying, we head home next week.  Josh

Our last week at Kalene

We started out our last week here at Kalene mission with a hike up the hill.  Alot of rain had fallen between our first trip up and now and the grass has grown in proportion to the rain.  The picture below is of Luke following just a few feet behind me on the trail to the top.  It was not this bad the whole way but it was this bad a good bit of it.  The grass is swallow you up thick and able to block out the sun at near 10ft high.  

 Kristi, Hannah and Luke continue to volunteer at the hospital.  Those stamps Noah was working on two blogs ago are now in production.  Kristi reports a better than 150% improvement in productivity.

 This is the same stamp Noah was holding previously.

 Everyone is busy at the hospital.  Today Kristi and the kids stamped blankets, towels and  90 pillowcases,  after they were done they were told there were no pillows for the pillowcases.  So I guess that whenever the pillows arrive they will be ready.  The staff so liked the stamps that there was talk of stamping shirts to sell.

 Yesterday ended with a bit of a surprise bonus to a flight.  A visiting orthopedic surgeon had hired the plane for a few days to fly him to a few outlying hospitals where he helps and advises on difficult cases.  About the time were getting ready to leave a very sick little baby need a ride down to the nearest city with specialized care.  We loaded up mommy, baby, a doctor, hospital equipment, luggage, passengers and pilot and off the flew to an awaiting ambulance more than an hour away by air.

God's timing is always perfect as we thought we had another day before the plane was needed.  We had been doing some heavy maintenance the last few days and had just finished the ground run to return it to service, early we thought.  No, that afternoon it was needed, God provided.

We hope to finish this week with work and a trip to the source of the mighty Zambezi River and a local game farm.  Next Monday we fly out for Livingstone to see Victoria falls and go on an overnight safari in Botswana.  We then will fly to Lusaka on Wednesday and leave for the US on Thursday night arriving in Ohio Friday evening.

Thanks for your prayers and thoughts, Josh

Another busy week

It is the start of the dry season here and we have never seen so much rain.  We are on our 9th day in a row of rain and have gotten over 8" of rain in that time.  The hydro-electric plant flooded and we are now running on back up generators.  We are told that the hydro should be back online in the next day or two.  The locals are saying that the crops are ruined and that their will be a starving time ahead.  That is something that can be prayed about.

 If you have been following our animal adventures this is our newest installment.  I found this monitor lizard on the road home this week.  They live in holes in the yard and eat mice, rats and snakes, so we leave them alone.  They are good lizards.

 Last Sat. the hospital had a clean up morning, 30 or so volunteers showed up to help clean walls, beds and tables.  Our kids spent the morning helping in the children's ward.

  

 One of the projects Kristi and the kids are working on for the hospital is labeling the sheets, towels and cloths.  They were originally using stencils but it was going very slow, so we decided to try making some stamps.  Noah has spent many hours carving stamps out of wood blocks. Some of the blocks are KMH (Kalene Mission Hospital), XR (x-ray), MW (mens ward), FW, OPD, CON, ADM, FW and I don't know what else.  They will be using the stamps for the first time on Monday, I should be able to show them in action in the next post.

When there is a break in the flight schedule the airplanes need tended to.  Maintenance, cleaning and prepping for the next flight.  John has a full schedule of flying over the next three weeks, including our flight to Livingstone and Lusaka.  So we looked after a few squawks and set about cleaning up the airplane for the busy season ahead.

Thanks for checking in and praying, Josh

More misc. pictures

Our days here are growing short and as I look around I can only see all the things I will not have time to get to.  MFS could use an IT guy, an accountant, more maintenance people, a pilot, the list could go on.  Whether or not these people are need full time or not is up to MFS but I know that they would appreciate any short term help they could get.  So maybe instead of a trip to the beach this year....

 I know that it is a little difficult to know what you are looking at in this picture.  It is a column of ants, not the little ants we have at home these get up to 3/4" long and have jaws to match!  These ants emerge from their colony in search of something to eat.  On a recent walk we stopped and watched a column that must have been return from a termite mount.  Every ant was carrying a termite or larva, some as big as themselves.  If you have the displease of disturbing the column the ants scatter and begin attacking anything they can get their pincers on.  At night you need to be very careful walking around because they are out then as well.  One night I was walking with my flashlight off, staring at the stars enjoying a warm African night, until.  Until I stepped into a column of ants.  They were on my legs and feet before you knew it and there jaws are strong enough that once they get ahold you cannot just brush them off.  So running, swatting, brushing and hopping I dashed back to my flat and the privacy necessary to remove all the ants!

 This group of children enjoy watching Noah and the kids at work on the runway.  Whether mowing or edging, painting or walking these children show up.  I do not see what is so entertaining but the come anyway.

 We have a family movie night twice a week, pop up some popcorn, plug in a movie and settle in for he evening.  With the families here at the mission being from every corner of the globe we need a universal dvd player to play the borrowed dvd's.  Did you know that without a universal dvd player a person in the US cannot play a DVD he bought in Europe or Africa?   Their are 4 or 5 such zones.

Hannah and Luke were helping out in the hangar this week.  Sweeping seems like a never ending chore.  The soil is very sandy here and with all the rain it sticks to your shoes and wheels.  They have also been working on the runway on days it is not raining.  Along the edges of the runway are concrete boundary markers about 2x6 feet in size.  The kids have been edging around them and getting them ready for painting.  We'll get a before and after picture from the air when they are finished.

Thanks again for the prayer and words of encouragement.  Josh

This week...

We had a rare beautiful morning here this week in Kalene.  Most days have heavy clouds which is the norm in the rainy season but once in a while you are surprised with sunshine in the morning.  On those days everything moves outside, including school.  For history class the kids enjoy listening to a series of books on the local history written by the missionaries who lived it.  The stories are amazing to say the least.  People sailing for a month from England to Africa then walking for 3 months overland to reach the Kalene area.  Stories of man eating lions, 12 ft long black mambas, rivers filled with hungry crocodiles, slave traders, warring tribes and witch doctors.  But the faithful kept coming in spite of the hardships and deaths.  

 This week biology seemed to be on the menu, the kids found two chameleons, we kept them for a few days and watched them up close.  We then took them into the yard and released them onto our ant hill.  We watched them change colors to better match their surroundings in order to hide from their pray.  When the first chameleon was caught our house helper, an African lady, was terrified and could not believe that we would touch it.  She said that if it bit us that "we" would change colors.  Most of the locals kill the chameleons on sight, for some reason they think they are bad and poisonous.  They think the same thing about the frogs and lizards as well.

 Today was the first of many busy flying days for MFS.  The boarding schools have let out and the flight service will be flying from sun up to sun down.  Here is what the 5:30am pre-flight briefing looked like. John was hoping o be wheels up by 6 but rain gave us a slight delay.  I think that John will be flying around 25-30 hours over the next few days.  We are praying for good weather and clear skies but it is the rainy season.

Thank you for your prays, they are working!  Kristi almost stepped on a puff adder on Sunday.  The puff adder alone is responsible for 32,000 deaths a year in Africa!  Noah went out and killed the snake later on. You can read the full story on Kristi's facebook page.  Please keep praying!

Josh

Random photos

I normally try to get the update done on Tuesdays but this week I was a bit preoccupied.  Tuesday was our 19th anniversary.  It was certainly one of the more memorable ones we have had.  Our plans were to take the day together, sitting pool side, talking about the past and making plans for the future.  But, it rained and rained.  We spent the day inside together, talking about the past and making plans for the future.  God has certainly done a work in our lives, we can see that.  

 While cleaning out a shipping container I found a good sized length of rope that was plenty thick.  It took some doing to get it tied up in the tree but once done it has provided hours of entertainment for all.

 Noah still spends most of his work time on the mower but on rainy days or when we run out of fuel we have to find other work for him.  I recently installed a new GPS in the 207, after testing and calibration it needed to be programmed.  Noah is inputting the coordinates of all the places MFS flies on a regular basis.  Three pages worth.  He has ran the battery dead once, so before he gets back to it we need to work out a ground power supply.
While mowing yesterday he killed a 3-4 foot snake.  It had fangs but was not a mamba or a puff adder so it must have been some sort of cobra.  We continually pray for his safety while mowing because of all the snakes in the tall grass.  He wears safety glasses all the time to protect his eyes from the spitting cobras.  He has not been spit at yet but 3 people have been since we have been here.

 We were able to combine a maintenance trip and a shopping trip this week.  A neighboring friend to MFS called for a little maintenance support.  Luckily he lives pretty close to a small town where some supplies could be bought.  While I stayed behind to fix the plane John, Karen and Kristi went shopping.  It had been raining recently and the roads looked like a plowed field, almost impassable. While it rains the roads turn into rivers sometimes a foot or more deep and the hills turn into waterfalls.  The waterfalls would be quite beautiful if it was not for the fact you have to try to drive up them.  We were told that sometimes the locals purposely make the roads worse in front of there houses  so you get stuck.  Then they come out and for a price, offer to help get you unstuck.

Like the rope swing I am always looking for things to keep the kids entertained.  The last two bow and arrow sets showed up this week.  The kids have spent a good deal of time practicing in the yard this week.  It would be very dangerous for any wild milk jugs to wander into our yard.  The bows are real, not toys or fakes.  They are the same ones the night guard walks around with or the men wander into Angola to hunt monkey with.

We will be back in the states 6 weeks from today.  Please keep praying for us, our health and our safety.
Josh

Antenna repairs

 I set about this week to cross another item  off the master to do list.  Behind a storage building 3 or 4 mangled pieces of an antenna tower were stacked.  The tower had collapsed in Lusaka at the guest house.  It was disassemble and brought to Kalene.  The piece I started with was the one undamaged piece in the bunch.  After inspecting the welds it was easy to see why the tower had failed.  Most of the braces were just tacked into place.

  I started the repair by cleaning, inspecting and repairing each joint on the tower.  I should be finished with this piece of tower today and I will have the kids paint the tower with some black rustolium.  I am also using the opportunity to teach Nathan how to stick weld.

 One of Kristi favorite things to do is to take a walk in the orchard in the evening.  Today we picked some guava, an orange, a lemon, a pomelo and some kumquats.  With a fresh picked pineapple we bought, they will make a nice fruit salad.

 This is just a shot of our anti-malarial meds.  The two bottles sit on a cabinet by the table.  The meds are taken daily with lunch by each of us.  The reason the picture is here is because represents how much time we have left.  We are officially just over the half way point.

Without any ambient light from cities, on a moonless night with cloud cover, the night is very, very dark!  We are walking to mid week prayer service.  The darkness hides roots, snakes and hunting ants.

Thanks for checking in and for praying.  Josh

Sakaji School

We have almost reached the half way point on our stay here in Zambia. I am really pleases with what we have gotten done so far.  The kids are all active in the work here and will be able to remember the contributions they have made.  In the hangar we are preparing for the next round of inspections on the two airplanes.

John is flying to Lusaka today for mission business and we are re-leaved.  The closest grocery store in 200+ miles away and while there is some food available locally we really needed a trip to town.  Staples like butter, cheese and ground beef are not available locally.  The list we put together is quite large because it has to last us for the next two months.  Imagine trying to do all your shopping at once for two months and anything you forget you will most likely have to do without.

 Noah gets more sun than all of us because he spends several hours a day on the mower.  While on the mower he has seen and killed several snakes including the very deadly puff adder and a cobra that had hooded up and was striking at the mower as he passed.  Just this week a boy on the compound was spit at by a cobra, it hit him in one eye and the cheek.  He never saw the snake but went right home and got medical attention, he was fine by the next day.  I know it sounds weird but thank God they snake spit as a warning before it bit or it could have been alot worse.  Because of spitting cobras Noah wears sunglasses all the time while he is mowing.

 We visited CMML's boarding school at Sakaji about a 40 minute drive from the hangar.   It was raining on the drive over, the roads were a river, muddy and treacherous.  We had to cross moving water more than a foot deep and 30 to 40 feet long.  There was a long steep uphill section that was like trying to drive up a stair case made out of mud with a waterfall flowing down it.  The jostling and bumping and bouncing just about beat you to death.  We all had muscle aches the next day.

As we neared the school the rain stopped and the clouds lightened up a bit and it was nice the rest of the day.  We had a very nice tour and met some of the 80 students 1st-8th grade and teachers.  The school is very beautiful, lots of flowers nicely cut grass and brick buildings.  A snack was served in the new dining hall and kitchen.

The trip home was not as bad, no rain but the roads were still slippery.  Most of the standing water was gone and it is easier to drive down a staircase than up.  We arrived home just as it was getting dark, popped some popcorn and settled in to watch a movie.

Josh

Taxiway repair

Many thanks to Bruce, who figured out the problem I was having with Blogger.  

I have spent most of this week making repairs to the taxi way.  The vast majority of the problem is from erosion.  The rains that they get here are amazing, dumping rain like we have never seen.  The roads turn to rivers and any low spot into a pond.

 We started by digging ditches to channel the water that was crossing the taxiway off to the side.  Then we started to fill the eroded areas first with fill dirt.  The dirt was dug in in one area, loaded onto a trailer pulled by "Big Red" out to the taxiway.  Offloaded by hand and repeated, and repeated and repeated.  Three of us have put in three full days, mostly just moving dirt.

 Then the top soil was brought in by the same method and then hand leveled and packed with the Bobcat.

 Today we spread grass seed and have been raking dried grass off of the runway and hauling it up to the taxiway. Hoping that the cut grass will give the young sprouts some cover from the intense african sun.

I did manage to spend part of one day working on an airplane.  I had previously installed a new gps and antenna in the 207 and Wednesday was the day to do the programming.  I scheduled an appointment with a friend back at MMS who regularly installs and programs gps's.  Over skype he walked us thru, step by step until we were done.  It took an hour with help, I don't think I could have done it by myself, thanks Mike!

Thanks for checking in, Josh