Charles de Gaule Airport - (Saturday 05 August 2006)
I am sitting in the Air France lounge at Paris Charles de Gaule airport. By God's mercy I was able to advance my Africa-Europe trip by one day and arrived here this morning - and also to get on a direct flight from here to Montreal this afternoon. Thankfully I got some sleep on the overnight flight although not fully up to par.

I have perhaps discovered a secret about travelling on air miles: the airlines allow only a very limited number of seats for these "free" trips, at least at the time of advance booking. My original schedule (which would have had me home last week) returned from Windhoek to Johannesburg to Paris to Budapest to New York JFK to New York La Guardia via bus to Montreal. At great effort, Mary and Audrey rebooked me for Saturday/Sunday this weekend Windhoek, Johannesburg, Paris, Prague etc. This had to be done in Canada, so the paper ticket was sent back and forth.

The secret is that a lot more is possible when you are standing in front of the agent, baggage in hand, looking tired, smiling wistfully and asking politely if it might not be possible to get a seat today, direct, not tomorrow via Eastern Europe. On the actual day of travel they are more willing to give away any seats that are still available. Therefore, I spent only one night in Windhoek (about right - a good place to write up some notes and buy souvenirs), travelled last night from Johannesburg, and will be back in Montreal mid-afternoon today. This reduced my total travelling time from 40 hours to 30 hours - a big improvement!

Internet access has been interesting. Windhoek airport has WiFi and I bought a 20-minute voucher for N$10, about C$2.00. Unfortunately I was so engrossed writing up my messages that I didn't actually get around to using it - I suddenly realized with a start that the lounge had emptied and the flight was boarding. Johannesburg airport was a zoo, and there was no time to find Internet access. Here in Paris the first WiFI system I tried (EUR 6 for 30 minutes) would not allow me to authenticate with The IT Department Email system. I'm now using a different one run by the large European wireless provider Orange, which is working well - at EUR 10 (about C$20) for a 4-hour package.

Cellphone access likewise has had its quirks. Angola has no agreements with anyone so only local cellphones (or SIM chips) work there. It took me 6 visits to 3 different organizations over the course of a week and a half, before I was able to buy Angolan SIM chips for the cellphone gateway that we installed at the Evangelical Medical Center Lubango. My Canadian Fido SIM chip worked in Namibia (I hate to think at what cost for international roaming) but wouldn't let me call Angola, only Namibian numbers. An European discount SIM chip that I have didn't work in Namibia but worked in South Africa and works here. Clearly, the digital global village has a few barriers to overcome!

Windhoek, Namibia - (Friday 04 August 2006)
Time didn't permit to send out an update over the new link as promised, however, praise God, we succeeded in getting the satellite dish aimed and service activated on Wednesday evening. This was perhaps the most arduous task of my trip since it involved several hours, one of them after dark, sitting 10 feet in the air on a metal scaffold with my laptop monitoring the satellite equipment, whilst Daniel Holden physically moved the dish from his perch a further 10 feet up the scaffold! Because we are so close to the equator, dusk falls quickly and punctually - sunset almost exactly 6 PM year-round with pitch blackness only 1/2 hour later. Since the sky is also clear during the dry season, the temperature plummeted from the comfortable low-20's of the daytime to nearer 10 degrees (50 F for the Americans) which was decidedly cool. I was glad to retreat to the relative warmth of the server room for the final steps.

We were also able to get the telephone system working with two test phones - Daniel will deploy the others next week. Voice quality on the several calls that we made to Ottawa was excellent, and Internet performance was good. So at the last minute (10:30 PM) we were able to make the systems visible to The IT Department technicians back home who will continue some adjustments so that the system will be basically functional. There are several missing items, notably user training (!) and although Daniel will be able to handle some of those, I expect that a second trip will be needed within the next couple of months, during which we can also deal with the new kitchen and laundry buildings. Several small items and one larger item were lost from the shipping container - it turned out that the seal on the container at arrival was not the same one with which it left Canada, so an insurance claim is possible. These will need to be replaced but are not crucial at present.

On Tuesday Joanna Prins of Samaritan's Purse arranged for my wait-list to be magically converted to a confirmed reservation on the TAAG flight from Lubango to Windhoek yesterday. This was courtesy of the wife of the general contractor for the hospital, who works for the airline - that's how things work in Angola. So I am writing this from the comfort of a bed & breakfast in thoroughly-modern Windhoek. I am going downtown momentarily to upload it and to try to get my flight moved from tomorrow to today - I'd like to get home as soon as possible, or at least spend the extra day in Europe.

There are some lessons learned. For the next project we will make a preliminary trip for survey purposes in order to get all of the details clarified - this will ensure that we have everything needed, but not more than needed, and as such will save money and time. We won't book airline tickets for the implementation trip until all of the needed equipment has arrived at the location clear of customs, and we will ask a lot of questions about exactly how the equipment is going to get there to make sure there are no airplanes involved whose doors are too small for a satellite dish!

Next project? Pray with me as to what and where that should be. In Angola specifically, I mentioned earlier that over 20 former mission hospitals were destroyed during the civil war. One of these, the Cavango hospital built by Dr. Bob Foster in the early 1970's, is being rehabilitated as a smaller clinic initially with support from Samaritan's Purse (I think I also mentioned this earlier) and this has gone very well, with possible opening in September. It would be extremely helpful for the staff there (a doctor being unlikely) to be able to consult with the Evangelical Medical Center Lubango as well as overseas medical support staff, and we are going to approach SP for support to place a satellite dish, internet and phone system there. The Angolan Ministry of Health has also tentatively committed US$40 million to rehabilitate an additional 7 rural mission hospitals - this sounds like a lot of money but really isn't when you consider the need to rebuild roads, airstrips, and water systems, to provide electrical generating capability, buildings and equipment. Pray for Angola and its needy people, and for those that are or will be called of God to help them.

The Equipment Arrives - (Tuesday 01 August 2006)
Finally, two days before my already-rescheduled departure, the sea container arrived! When I reached the hospital site about 8:15 AM the unloading was already well underway, our equipment amongst a wild assortment of hospital beds and equipment, medical supplies, eyeglasses, braille Bibles, and a couple of pickup truck tires thrown in for good measure! Like me, the missionary couple who own the truck tires (and quite a collection of packing boxes) have been waiting much longer than expected - in fact about a week ago they actually moved permanently from Angola to a new posting in Namibia, having failed to obtain work permits here.

There are a few items missing and several boxes damaged - I was a bit dismayed to see tie-wraps scattered throughout the container knowing that they had been securely (?) packed in a small toolbox that was insided one of our boxes. So far the toolbox itself is missing although some of the contents appeared, so this is a bit of a mystery since the container arrived still sealed. There is only one significant item missing, more of an inconvenience than a disaster, and so far all of the equipment appears to be working fine, even the pieces that arrived in broken boxes, so we thank God for that! It's also possible that the missing items are actually here but were stacked away with the medical supplies, so we will initiate a search tomorrow.

To add to the day's excitement, the satellite dish was also delivered early this afternoon. The entire hospital staff including the head nurse turned out to "help" get it onto its mounting frame, 4 meters (12 feet) above ground level. Now this was no small feat considering it's 1.8 m (6 feet) in diameter and there was a steady 15-20 knot wind. Anyway by the end of the afternoon it was mounted and roughly positioned, including the electronics package - a beautiful sight to my eyes! However since I was still occupied with setting up the server room we didn't attempt the aiming process - this will be tomorrow's first task. Please pray that we will be able to complete the initial aiming in good time and to contact the satellite company (once the eastern USA wakes up) for the additional detailed steps, which are likely to take several hours. There are also several other key components that are not quite working yet and require (hopefully routine) attention. Pray that I will have the wisdom to know where to apply our efforts, since a number of things clearly will have to be deferred - I now have one more working day, leaving early Thursday morning. Thank the Lord that I now have a reservation on the flight - after the intervention of a friend of the hospital who works for the airline, my waiting list status magically became a confirmation. I then have two days in Windhoek, Namibia to cool my heels before my onward flights, expecting to arrive in Ottawa Sunday Aug. 6.

I'm not sorry to be coming home but I must say I could easily stay here longer despite the administrative nightmares, which are acquiring a certain charm - or perhaps it's the thrill of simply surviving! Leaving will be made that much harder knowing that I won't be able to get things really working well, deal with the usual minor issues, put everything in fully professional shape, or provide training. However there are some options for funding of a second trip (probably by one of my staff) so pray with me that will come together.

I expect this will be my last entry by dial-up Internet. God willing, I will send a quick update over the new satellite dish tomorrow afternoon - otherwise it will be from an internet cafe or something in Windhoek on Thursday or Friday.

A visit to Bairro Laje - (Sunday 30 July 2006)
This morning I went with Minne and Joanna Prins to the IESA church "Betel" where there were 700-800 packed onto benches and about the same number of children outdoors in the Sunday School. As the other local churches I've attended, there was lots of music, the main choir of about 100 voices accompanied by a keyboard and an electric bass, with much swaying and tapping of feet. The church has 1000 baptized members (i.e. baptized as adult believers - IESA does not baptize infants) and perhaps another 1000 who attend but are not officially members. Apparently Betel one of the smaller churches in the city with IESA, the denomination started by Swiss missionaries in the Kalukembe area several hundred kilometers north-east of Lubango. The Betel church is located in Bairro Laje a few minutes' walk from the Samaritan's Purse office/home (which is quite close to the Fosters' also).

Bairro literally means district, suburb, or neighbourhood, but Lubango it usually means slum. Its houses are made from mud brick, which can be durable if properly plastered and otherwise protected from the elements, but in this Bairro the bricks are bare and raw and will last through only a few rainy seasons. Into the 2 or 3 square kilometers that comprise Bairro Laje are crowded at least 60,000 very poor people (many children) without running electricity, sewers, or water apart from a few hand pumps serving shallow wells of questionable quality, and a few outdoor taps providing equally questionable city water. Many people carry water from taps at some distance, reminiscent of the daily trips from the villages to the river or waterhole that I remember from rural Zambia in the 1960's - although plastic jerry-cans have replaced the traditional large clay pots on the women's heads. There is a river running through the bairro that is heavily polluted both directly, and indirectly from numerous outdoor latrines - one hopes that no-one is foolish enough to use its water.

Speaking of water, Angola suffered an outbreak of cholera starting this past February which moved from Luanda south to Bengula (Lobito Bay) and to Lubango where there have been an estimated 150 deaths. Cholera is a disease spread by contaminated water that often kills children, the elderly and those otherwise weakened (for example, by HIV/AIDS) within 24 hrs through severe diahorrea and dehydration. The status of this outbreak is currently unclear: in June the Angolan government banned any further information fearing negative publicity for the Angolan soccer team's World Cup presence.

Bairro Laje has existed for only 10 or 20 years and a good number of its occupants were war refugees from the Kalukembe area where there had been a lot of fighting, destruction and atrocities. This explains the presence of the IESA denomination in particular and the fact that the church service was both in Portuguese and in Umbundu, the indigenous language of that region, rather than the Mumwila of the Lubango area. Few of these people (in particular the men) have jobs and for those that do, the maximum family income would be about US$150/month. Many of the women sell goods in the city market and there are some small shops selling cookies, pop, canned goods, etc.

I have a photo of Minne chatting after church with their friend Cathy Dias who is one of the Sunday School leaders. She is just completing her high school with top marks, 90-95% in all subjects - her age, 21, is not that unusual given that the education system was severely disrupted by the war. Cathy would like to be a doctor, in particular a pediatrician because she loves children, and Minne and Joanna are trying to find sponsorship for her to reach a Western country to work towards that goal. Her mother is a widow and the family income is from the clothes that she sews and sells in the bairro, so travelling abroad would otherwise be an impossible dream.

Bairro Laje, and quite a few others like it were tacked on to the original town of Sa da Bandeira (now Lubango). Before independence from Portugal in 1975 and the subsequent civil war, it was a beautiful and prosperous holiday resort of about 35,000 reserved for whites only, their servants being the only blacks allowed to live within the town. As I've said before, it's a place of stark contrasts.

The plan - (Thursday 27 July 2006)

According to the original plan I should have been boarding my flight from Johannesburg to Europe about now, however I delayed one week in the hope of having the main items of equipment to install! So far this hasn't happened but "maybe next week". This has given me further cause to reflect on patience, on God's perfect timing, on how His ways are not our ways - and also to reflect on the African way. It's often said that Africans have little sense of time, and this is partly true, but I realize there is a deeper issue - Fate.

When things don't go well, don't happen, take longer than planned etc. there is a sense that it's not my personal responsibility, it's outside my control - just bad luck! To the extent I am dependent on someone else to get something done, there often isn't the same pressure or insistence because, of course, whatever is going on is outside that other person's control also. Plus, it's extremely important not to cause offense - relationships are crucial.

I asked whether the destitute majority of Angolans resents the riches of the few (army generals for example) that are well off. The answer was no, there is no resentment, they just had good luck! The flip side of that attitude is that few people believe that they can improve their situation, change things for the better by being proactive or working harder - it's just fate, and fate can't be changed. This came to me as a reminder of attitudes that my parents explained to me when I was a boy in Zambia and for whatever reason, it does not yet seem to have been adequately addressed by the churches on the basis that a personal, involved, saving and guiding God is in control, One who hears and responds to our prayers - not some impersonal Fate - and furthermore that he is a God that works in and through us, and asks us to co-operate in His master plan by listening and then acting with the drive and diligence appropriate to servants of the living Lord. In my opinion, this is one of many areas in which the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only hope for the future of this suffering nation. (Another is the risk of an HIV/AIDS explosion with increased post-war mobility and economic improvement - the Minister of Health has formally requested the Association of Evangelicals of Angola to propose AIDS prevention projects based on chastity before, and faithfulness in marriage. There is an immediate US$500,000 in government funding available for this purpose. The AEA is the umbrella body including most non-Roman Catholic denominations, and is the body ultimately responsible for the Evangelical Medical Centre Lubango.)

I should hasten to add that we in the West usually err in the opposite direction, trying to control everything (without God), and riding roughshod over other people. Enough philosophizing - it turns out that the elusive satellite dish actually travelled by road, not air, from Pointe Noire in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Cabinda, Angola because it wouldn't fit on the DHL flight. We are assured that it really did arrive by air in Luanda on Monday and will come to Lubango this coming Sunday on the weekly cargo flight (which uses a large airplane). As to the sea container, it has now been in the port of Namibe for a full week whilst various customs formalities - too many to count - were completed. This is AFTER having been granted approval for an exemption of the actual customs duty. We almost got it onto a truck for the 200 km ride to Lubango today but alas, the customs broker was unable to complete payment to the government customs office (various taxes and fees which are not exempted) because the bank closed an hour earlier than usual. It seems the branch manager is getting married this weekend so he closed the bank at 1 PM... Assuming that it opens again on Monday morning, assuming that the customs broker acts on our file "first thing" as promised, assuming that the further payments to the fiscal police (for the actual physical inspection) and the port authority take place without any hitches, assuming that the inspector doesn't want the whole container unloaded for detailed examination, assuming that the truck and driver are available as planned, and assuming that it doesn't break down on the way - then we might get our container by the end of the day Monday!

As of today I'm staying with Minne and Joanna Prins, a Dutch couple who head the operations of Samaritan's Purse in Angola, including the construction of the Evangelical Medical Center Lubango. It's a bit of a change of pace from the frenzy of Fosters + students + cats, however they are delightful and have been very helpful already. It's interesting to interact with the Dutch again after such a long time since we lived in Europe and did so regularly. Last evening we had a sumptuous steak dinner at a local establishment where Audrey and I had taken Peggy Foster, Dr. Steve Collins and Prins' soon after we arrived in Angola. This time the company was Adriaan Grobler and Willie (last name?) both South Africans living in Namibia. Adriaan is the consulting engineer for the entire hospital project, and Willie is the on-site construction manager for the hospital Kitchen and Laundry blocks which are currently being erected. I had exchanged some Emails and phone calls with Adriaan and we all had pleasant fellowship. A highlight was hearing how the racial prejudices and barriers are breaking down in some of the Namibian churches as God is bringing many to follow Christ with new fire - Adriaan described it as a mini-revival.

Tomorrow will be a relatively slack day since I am down to a very short list of things that can be done without the dish and the sea container. Hopefully by Monday I will be busy aiming the dish and setting up its software - please pray that this process, not to mention setting up the firewall and telephone system when they arrrive will go smoothly!

Abandoned! - (Monday 24 July 2006)
This past weekend I was "abandoned" by Dr. Steve Foster and the three students who drove 6 hours (200 km) east to Kalukembe, a Swiss mission hospital currently without doctors. There was a large church conference there on the weekend and Steve has scheduled surgery for today and tomorrow before driving home. Initially it felt a little strange to be alone in the house - alone that is, apart from the two cats. Now I am quite allergic to cats, and perhaps my opinion of them is coloured as a result, but I think it's fair to dislike an animal that upchucks in the living room, obliging me the lonely guest of the house to clean it up before breakfast. And since I can't identify which of the two cats was responsible I dislike them both. Also, the two together are undoubtedly responsible for the bronchitis from which I am now almost recovered after ten days of antibiotics. The cats are obviously craving the human attention to which they are accustomed, and which I am neither willing nor able to give, but there remains perhaps just a tiny bit of pity in my heart, and I do go as far as kicking a toy mouse to be chased, conveniently diverting Tigger away from my bedroom door.

At the same time I was "adopted" by Dr. Steve Collins in that he took me off Saturday evening to dinner in the home of Portuguese-Angolan farmer friends, invited me to bacon-and-egg breakfast at his house Sunday, then to the mud-brick, mud-floor village church and Sunday lunch at another, substantially more upscale Portuguese-Angolan home. All of this in the village of Humpata (silent H) about 15 minutes' drive beyond the hospital site, still on the plateau to the west which ends in the magnificent 3000 foot winding drop down the "Leba" and further down towards the desert port city of Namibe.

The various meals and the drive through the back side of the village to the church were another reminder of the stark contrasts in Angola: barely-clothed children dipping water from a ditch with clothes being washed in the same ditch a score of meters beyond; the obviously hard labouring farm couple and their two sons with Cerebral Palsy; Steve's simple yet nicely appointed cottage; and the larger expanse of the second farm estate, where hired help do the manual work. Sunday lunch in particular was excellent with fresh bread, sweet potatoes, chicken, and pork ribs all cooked in a traditional beehive-shaped brick oven. Like the first meal it was a bit chaotic, about 15 children and adults sitting down as space was available at a table for 8; there was also rice and my first taste this trip of the traditional African staple, a thick, coarse cornmeal porridge. The oven is warmed all night by a charcoal fire inside, then the coals and ash are removed and the food cooked solely by the heat of the bricks.

Sunday evening I mooched dinner at Gary and Doreen Toews, the local Mission Aviation Fellowship directors, followed by an English Bible study with those of the missionaries that had not gone to the Kalukembe conference. Basically I managed to mooch my way through the whole weekend except Saturday breakfast and lunch :)

Today was a day of false hope. I did very little at the hospital pending arrival of equipment (I am conserving a few hours' worth of details that could be cleaned up, and probably will be tomorrow). I had planned to visit DHL at 8:30 to check on our satellite dish which was to have arrived on a cargo flight Sunday but Peggy's car went down several wrong streets (me driving) so I was too late to meet with the directress of the local DHL agency / Internet cafe / consulting firm. By chance she had been one of the family members at Sunday's lunch and speaks English well, having spent a lot of time in the US, Canada and Europe. (Actually "local" is a misnomer in that her and her husband's firm is active in 8 Angolan provinces). As it was, the staff assured me in the morning that yes, the dish had arrived and was on its way into town from the airport. I proceeded to have the hospital logistics manager make customs arrangements - far too complicated to describe here, but involving a US$4,000 deposit to allow the equipment to be collected prior to completion of the paperwork for duty-free entry as "humanitarian goods". That paperwork, for the air shipment and the sea container (currently stuck in customs) has consumed at least 5 full days of effort on Cesar's part including two trips to the Regional Director of Customs in Namibe, 2-1/2 hours each way over Angola's only really good road - and a day each of mine and Steve Foster's time with various visits to Customs and to DHL here in Lubango.

By afternoon, the customs arrangements were complete but it turned out the dish had not actually arrived, I had been misinformed. Rosa, the directress still wasn't in the office but after a call to the Luanda DHL office, I was warmly assured that yes, they would definitely put it on the flight for tomorrow. Sigh - this was the story all last week, so we'll see! To be fair, they seem to be having trouble getting the 2m x 2m x 25 cm box into the normal passenger aircraft's hold - but the shipment did leave Miami almost three weeks ago! Dear Lord, how much patience is enough?!

I did manage to get my ticket extended by an extra week, a story in itself in which Mary and Audrey played heroic roles. I am now planning to return to Canada arriving Aug. 6 via Prague provided that I can get out of Angola - I am currently wait-listed for the first Lubango-Windhoek leg. However, apparently the wife of the owner of the firm constructing the hospital's laundry and kitchen is well placed at the TAAG Angolan Airline office and I am being reassured it will be fixed at the last moment! Even so, your prayers will be appreciated. Even with this extension and with the optimistic scenario that both air shipment and sea shipment arrive Wednesday, I seriously doubt that I can complete the satellite and the telephone system installation before I leave. This is a disappointing prospect; although I prayed for spiritual value from this trip I had expected it to be in addition to and not instead of accomplishing the core technical task. Please pray especially that I will be able to pass on the necessary information and training to Daniel Holden, who is well skilled in IT and potentially able to complete the work.

I spent most of this morning in useful discussion with Gary Toews learning more about MAF's operation in Lubango, comparing with Zaire and Lesoto where he had been previously, and generally discussing the Angolan scene. This evening I had dinner with the Samaritan's Purse country director, Minne Prins and his wife Joanna from Holland, similarly discussing the Angolan scene especially as it affects the hospital (built primarily by SP). There certainly are some daunting challenges facing both the country and the hospital - barriers that are not obvious in the "vision" but that have to be surmounted in practical real life. One of the largest for the hospital is the lack of working capital to cover the hospital's operation until it can become, in faith, self supporting, with wealthier patients subsidizing those unable to pay much. (To give one example: there are at least 25,000 people in south-west Angola who are blind due to cataracts. The better-off currently go to Windhoek, Namibia for this type of operation at a cost of US$1700 plus airfare, accomodation etc. But the cost for the new hospital will be about US$200 of which half will be subsidized by the Christian Blind Mission. Therefore, one full-paying patient can potentially support most of the cost of 15 or 20 others' cataract operations).

The model is sound and the vision real, yet at present there is a real financial crunch in part because of unforseen delays, in part because operating funds don't have the same "donor appeal" as buildings, beds or even telephones and satellite dishes, and in part, frankly, because the vision has not yet been fully translated into practical, detailed realities. Please pray about this crucial aspect of the Evangelical Medical Center's startup.

Airports are interesting places - A report from Ottawa - (Saturday 22 July 2006)
Audrey and I (Mary) spent some quality time this afternoon at Ottawa Airport to change Norm's ticket from a July 28th departure to a departure sometime after 2 pm August 3rd to give the equipment a bit longer to arrive.

This was the conclusion of nearly nine hours of phone conversations and inperson visits to the Delta counter here in Ottawa to determine whether or not changing the flight was even possible. I now have much more respect for travel agents...

The original flights were from Namibia to South Africa to France to Hungary to the United States (with a transfer between JFK and LaGuardia airports) to Montreal. Of course this was booked on airmiles, with half of the tickets on a paper ticket and the other half electronic.

This meant that it was easy to change the electronic portion, if only there was a "skymiles" seat available. I was surprised to learn that anyone can change your electronic flight just by giving a good story - no ID required or anything!

The paper portion (required because of the lack of computer infrastructure in Africa) could only be changed with the original paper ticket, at a Delta counter, which does not exist in Africa.

Norm sent the paper ticket home with Audrey yesterday, so that we could get it changed. The next challenge will be to get the ticket back to him!

The new itinary is a little bit more condensed but just as complicated - substituting a day's layover in Budapest for 40 minutes in Prague.

Farewell to Angola (for Audrey) - (Thursday 20 July 2006)
This morning, Steve and I (and one of the medical students, Michelle from Toronto) were at the airport seeing Audrey off to Canada and Steve's wife Peggy off to Europe for their daughter's wedding. (Steve will follow next week.) The one weekly international flight from here leaves Thursday mornings for Windhoek, Namibia. We arrived as planned a bit after 7 AM, before the airport opened, to join a small crowd assembled with suitcases on the sidewalk. A few privileged individuals pushed through to the front and straight to the check-in counter; the rest of us were filtered past a customs officer who rummaged through all of the bags. We're not quite sure what they look for or why or whether they would be likely to find it.

Then to the check-in counter, equipped with not a single piece of technology other than an ancient weigh scale onto which every bag went, despite the fact that it read 12 kg when empty and didn't seem to get above 18 kg regardless of the load. Then immigration - passports and exit forms studied and stamped and recorded in a mysterious process that took about 15 minutes. But incredibly, the passengers weren't required to continue into the departure "lounge" so we stood around and visited for another half hour. Then it seemed wise for Audrey and Peggy to go in and get as close as possible to the boarding gate, since seats are not pre-assigned. And, since the Lubango TAAG airline office has no communication or co-ordination with the capital, Luanda, where this particular flight originates, there is little relationship between aircraft capacity and bookings accepted!

We intended to wait and pick up Fosters' adopted "son" Gil scheduled to arrive at 9:15 AM on a flight from the city of Luanda via the city of Huambo operated by one of Angola's several smaller airlines. However we abandoned that plan when the agent told us the flight would be an hour and a half late. In the event, the flight arrived at 6:30 PM. It seems the aircraft had been chartered by a soccer team for a flight, and - without preannouncement - the airline simply delayed the scheduled trip until the charter was completed. Poor Gil spent the whole day at Huambo airport!

On the ride to the airport I heard the story of a pastor whom Audrey had met yesterday (while I was up at the hospital site labouring)! Joachin Cassacula grew up at the Catota Mission, was a boyhood friend of my late older brother Glen and remembers my father and mother. He's apparently anxious to meet me so I hope that the opportunity will still arise.

During Angola's civil war, and especially during the early and middle years when the outcome was uncertain there was a lot of suspicion against foreigners - Canadians, let alone Americans were suspected of working for the CIA, who with South Africa more or less openly supported the UNITA party in the south versus the Cuban and Russian supported MPLA (the eventual winners, and now the governing party). Churches were also suspect - in fact during that period churches did not even have recognized legal status. This was the origin of Pastor Cassacula's troubles, for when the evangelical church here in Lubango needed to purchase a house it was necessary to register the property in an individual's name, in this case his. Although this was entirely legal and above board it led to trumped-up charges by the secret police and because his name was on the land title, he spent eleven months in prison.

An Angola prison is not a pleasant place - a dozen to a cell, filthy, and with little food. (One of the SIM missionaries spent a few days in prison last year following a fatal car accident - fortunately the warden permitted him to stay outside a cell on the prison verandah, where his family and others were able to bring him food directly and to converse with him). Pastor Cassacula's family were permitted to bring food for him, however it was never clear how much actually reached him and how much was taken by the guards. There was quite a bit of turnover amongst the prisoners, mostly ordinary criminals serving sentences, which must have been discouraging for someone who knew he was innocent, and yet didn't know how long he would be detained. How would you respond? I have a feeling I would have a lot of trouble coming to terms with that kind of situation.

When he was finally released, his family brought him to Dr. Foster because they were concerned about his health - amongst other things he had contracted typhoid fever in the jail. But Steve recounted that he could hardly get Joachin to stop talking long enough to examine him, because he was so full of excitement at what God had been able to do through him during those eleven months! He had understood from early on that this was God's place for him and accepted the hardships accordingly. After all, the churches had been consistently refused permission to work in the prisons, so this was an answer to prayer - the only way to reach prisoners obviously was to become one. And as a result of his eleven months' ordeal more than sixty (60) other prisoners were introduced to new hope and renewed lives in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour! That's cause for excitement, and the reason that Pastor Cassacula had not a word of complaint for Steve's ears.

I could spend hours recounting the adventures and travails of trying to get the equipment that I came to install. As of this morning, the DHL air shipment was here - except for the actual satellite dish. We think it will be here tomorrow (Friday) and after several trips to customs, we think we can get it out of bond the same day, with other paperwork to follow next week. We also heard that the ship containing our sea container docked this afternoon. It is unlikely we will be able to get it out of port tomorrow, but Monday is a possibility. Please keep these two items in your prayers! In addition, Mary has gone to extraordinary efforts trying to get my return trip delayed by one week - this seems possible, so please pray that the details will be completed.

Thanks again for your support and prayers!
-Norm

Another post from Audrey - (Wednesday 19 July 2006)

Today is another beautiful day-- every day has been sunny and warm, no clouds, just lots of haze over the city due to diesel smog and charcoal fires (the usual way to cook here), and over the countryside due to burning grass. After dark it gets cool quickly and you need a sweater. Steve and Peggy live on the second floor of a house overlooking a busy street in the middle of Lubango. Today I see women walking by with basins balanced on their heads, filled with bananas, another with a green leafy vegetable. There are several students going by; you can tell by their white smocks, and usually a notebook. Earlier, I saw the younger children carrying plastic chairs, if they want a seat at school (no benches). About half of the traffic that goes by are blue and white mini vans with a "taxi" sign. The 3 students and I piled into one on the way home from the large open air market, the "Plaza" last week. These "taxis" have set routes, so you just ask which one is going to a certain area. Also a pickup truck just drove by, with flags flying and music blaring, reminding people to get their children vaccinated.

Last weekend, we drove to Namibe on the coast. The road goes down through the impressive cliffs of the escarpment, zigzagging down into a valley, past baobab trees, and lush mango groves; then a rocky desert, with huge boulders and hills. In Namibe, there is a port, and nearby is an ancient fort where slaves were shipped in the 1800's-now military headquarters. The beach is beautiful sand, and we wet our feet in the waves of the Atlantic. We also drove into the Namib desert which surrounds the city, and saw some ancient welwitchia plants-can't wait to get home to look them up on the internet-it 's too slow to use much here.

No land mines were laid in this area, although on Monday, they did a proper amputation on a man who had stepped on one 13 years ago, but has been unable to use a prosthesis as it was done improperly. I've been tagging along with Steve and the students as he does consultations and operations on a wide variety of problems (in 2 clinics--one in town, and another in the country-Rio da Huila). People come from all over Angola due to his excellent reputation. It's not that conditions are ideal-it's that they know they can trust him. Usually there is no running water, and we wash in a basin of water. I've usually been a circulating nurse in the operating room, pouring solutions, getting more suture material as needed.

I had the opportunity to go to a village where one of the missionaries has been working with the family to use good farming techniques and grow natural medicines (she is a doctor as well as working with literacy). The family became Christians through the Rio da Huila medical clinic and are so willing to learn. They have a pump and are able to irrigate, which means their trees are loaded with fruit-guava, oranges, lemons and tangerines. They have a large field of onions, interspersed with the herb artemesia (used for many things, including malaria) and another with garlic (antibiotic/ immune booster) fenced with cacti. He is also starting to grow eucalyptus (for respiratory conditions). There are separate mud brick houses with grass roofs for sleeping, cooking, storage and so on, surrounded by poles. They showed us the large gourd that is used as a milk jug, with a corncob used as a cork. Because there is no refrigeration, the milk is soured, and used that way. In the storage house there a several enormous baskets, with corncob stoppers at the bottom, which are used for storing beans-which they can sell when there is no fresh fruit. They have a pit for compost. They also raise cattle and goats, and use the manure to enrich the soil. It was such an encouragement to see such a well run farm after all the garbage and crowded conditions here in the city.

The farm is about 8 km off the main road, more a path than a road-deep ruts where only a jeep can get through. Of course, the family simply walks.

That's all for today...I'm leaving tomorrow.
- Audrey

For want of a nail... - (Tuesday 18 July 2006)

Every city, every country has some basic infrastructure - things like water, electricity, roads. Unfortunately these items have been neglected for 30 years in Lubango, Angola's 3rd largest city.

As to roads, the contrasts are dramatic. Back streets, alive with people and the stench of garbage are heavily rutted dirt roads (one can only imagine these streets in rainy season). Main roads in the city are paved, but with potholes here and there that are large enough to cause serious damage, and the odd missing manhole cover. (As a result, the concept of staying on one side of the road is as mythical as that of stopping at a stop sign in LUbango.) The highway to the port of Namibe however, was rebuilt a couple of years ago and is excellent, although only two lanes. Even so, there are a few gouges where huge granite blocks in transport to the sea had fallen off the back of a truck! Now, one might think such cargo better suited to rail, and there is a railway - but unreliable and limited in service that most goods travel by road. In fact, the entire country suffers from a desperate lack of maintenance.

The water pressure is weak and although fed from good sources, the water is considered unsafe by most because the lines have had no care, with many breaches. Improvisation is the solution for those that can afford it: the pressure doesn't reach the Foster's second floor apartment where we are staying, so they installed a ground-level tank and use an electric pump to supply their water. This works pretty well except...

Lubango's electricity supply comes from a (you guessed it) 30-plus-year-old hydroelectric plant 400 km inland. However, it is reported that only one of the five turbines is in working order; they were to have been repaired, but the firm engaged is rumored to have absconded with the money. As a result, there are rolling blackouts, unpredictable but approximately 8-10 hours per day on, 14-16 hours off. The improvisation: Fosters, and many others adopt (contributing to the smog) is a diesel generator - one of hundreds or thousands in the city.

So for lack of maintenance, the whole country depends on one inefficient improvisation after another, and first thing in the morning when the city power is generally off and the generator generally not running, there are no showers at the Foster home, in fact no running water at all! Such is life in Angola. - Norm

The Lost Baggage Story - (Thursday 13 July 2006)

You already heard how one small suitcase (containing 3 relatively heavy UPS units - computer standby battery systems for the uninitiated) rejoined us in Windhoek when the agent carried it out to our flight to Lubango. Unfortunately the larger lost item - a full-sized suitcase - didn't make it. We hemmed and hawed about the best way to get it, whether by having a couple we met in Windhoek bring it up on the bus and across the border where they were to be met by a Mission Aviation Fellowship plane, or simply having the airline send it after us - which they are more or less obliged to do since it was delayed. The main concern was how best to avoid customs quirks on $2500 of donated equipment.

Eventually we decided to let the airline take care of it but, to my dismay when I called SAA in Windhoek they told me the file was closed because the bag had been delivered to the address where we had stayed overnight. Silly me for giving it to them at all! So plan B - airfreight perhaps? There was a great deal of to and fro involving at least 6 people in Windhoek and in Lubango from Samaritan's Purse, MAF, and SIM. Half of the problem of "African time" here is just a matter of communicating, following through, assigning and taking responsibility, etc. But I digress.

Having basically decided on air freight (certainly a customs-sensitive route, but reliable) I made a last call yesterday to SAA and was pleased that they agreed, since I had left Windhoek before they delivered the suitcase, if someone would return it to them at the airport then they would get it sent on today's plane to Lubango. Unfortunately this didn't get communicated to the (Angolan) SIM representative in Windhoek who had spent a number of hours at the SAA downtown office. This morning (Thursday) he went to the guesthouse where the suitcase was supposed to be. Problem: it wasn't - ensued a series of calls back and forth to SAA (who insisted it had definitely been delivered, but it would take a day to retrieve the receipt and see who signed) and to various guesthouse staff (none of whom had seen the case). We had MAF call their aircraft in flight and check with the couple whom we had met - they were definitive that the suitcase never arrived.

Finally, the SAA agent agreed to have a look around, and a bit before the Lubango flight was to leave he found it in the "lost property office" at Windhoek airport. He put it on the flight.

Retrieving it was a different matter. When we originally came into Angola there were first lengthy immigration formalities (forms to fill, passports taken into a back room, retrieved on request 1/2 hour later) then baggage delivery (each tag number called out from inside a cage, for the person to come forward with the corresponding stub) and finally customs (open the bag, in our case only one, for a cursory rummage, after which we were waved through).

So Dr. Collins - an old hand in Angola, and well known - drove me to the airport only to find we had overestimated the time it would take the (long delayed) flight to clear - all extra bags had been taken to the TAAG Airline office. So we trooped downtown to find 4 clerks sitting in a row at the counter with nothing to do. The person responsible for baggage led us to the back, which was even more depressing than the front. After walking past the rankest latrine I have ever encountered, we entered the baggage locker in time to see a huge rat scamper out of sight - but my suitcase was also there, apparently intact! We removed it to the front office but, he was adamant that he had to call customs before letting us take it away or he would be thrown in prison. Unfortunately the airline office had no telephone in addition to no computers! Fortunately I had been loaned a cellphone, so we called customs and settled down to wait. Only 1/2 hour later, our baggage man insisted that we return the suitcase to the back room since the customs agent was waiting out back and expected to see it there! She entered the back room with two policemen, and - to make a long story short - Dr. Collins greeted, joked with, and chatted up all three, the agent had a cursory look inside the cover of the suitcase, and we left - suitcase complete, delivered to Angola free of charge, and without customs hassles. Basically 70 pounds of electronics for the hospital with a pillow and a few clothes on top... all of which was outside my baggage limit, and would have taken a week to clear customs properly. - Norm

No wonder it is hard to get TAAG flights! - (Tuesday 11 July 2006)

Sea container now estimated in port only on July 20 (good news is that customs is getting lined up so that clearance should be quick); no word yet on the air shipment; suitcase hopefully coming Thursday but not 100% clear how! The re-trenching is done (they punctured a water main in the process) so we now have less than 75m between the building and the satellite pad. There are now forms for pouring the concrete for the pad, and they have purchased the mounting mast so that's progress. Hopefully it can be poured tomorrow since it needs a number of days to set before it can take the dish. But everything moves at a glacial pace, partly because there is poor communication of who is doing what and when, and partly because people don't seem to have any sense of priority. I include the missionaries - there is a syndrome of "everything takes forever in Angola" that in part becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is a bit discouraging at the moment perhaps in part because I'm coming down with a cold :( However I do have 3 excellent Dr.'s (Dr. Bob and Dr. Steve Foster and Dr. Steve Collins) and an excellent nurse (Audrey!) And, we have heard some amazing stories of God's intervention with Fosters and with others during the war years and (from Dr. Bob) since 1947.

We went to the TAAG airline office this AM to reconfirm flights for Audrey and me (although I may still try to change) and some other people. Not a computer in sight - no communications with Luanda - the list of who is confirmed for the flight is literally a handwritten, paper list... Apparently part of the reason it's so hard to book TAAG flights from outside the country is that a number of years ago they got so far in arrears with their dues to IATA that they were suspended and lost all ties with other airlines(!) Dr. Bob told us that when he flew in 6 weeks ago, they were overbooked by 5 pax, and had people sitting 3 for 2, in the washrooms, and - I'm not kidding - one person on a folding chair in the aisle. They used the entire runway at Windhoek on takeoff. But as Dr. Bob also said, we are immortal until God calls us - and he has plenty of experience to back that up also!

A Post From Audrey (Happy Birthday!) - (Saturday 08 July 2006)

Our 24 hr stay in Windhoek, Namibia:
Arriving on the flight I sat beside a German/ Afrikaans man who is 4th generation in Namibia, and shops for the main supermarket chain there--on his way home from buying pots in China. He said that they live "like kings" there--"īt's the little things like having someone do your dishes, clean your house". He said they sold gluten free bread - 100% rye(!). The country is very dry, on the edge of the Kalahari desert. On the way into town we saw baboons playing in a dry river bed, and several guinea fowl ran across the road. A lengthy notice in the women's washroom in the airport admonished us to:

Please keep the toilet clean.
Hygiene is the name of each toilet.
Do not misuse the toilet.
Do not spit out your saliva on the ground.
N.B. Please show your humanity.

We went to the Cattle Baron restaurant for a great steak, while a young man guarded our rented vehicle. Apparently Namiba has a reputation for crime.

The Rio de Huila clinic has several buildings, surrounded by a community, including a large group of mud brick homes for people with TB. They are required to stay there for 6 months to ensure that they complete the full treatment. There is no running water, though they have a well a few hundred metres away where they fill cans, put them on their heads, and walk back to the community. The sink is kept full of water, so that the surgeon can wash his hands. We saw some patients with cataracts, and the doctors saw those who were operated on yesterday. We drove by two rivers where women were washing clothes. One back road we drove on was like a roller coaster with waves more than 1 meter, other parts were very uneven and washed out. We stopped by a stream that is a waterfall in the rainy season, and picked and crushed the fragrant leaves of a euculyptus tree.

Back in Lubango, we walked through a chaotic open air market with hundreds of stalls, selling everything from generators, trussed live chickens, bubblegum, and vegetables to plump fried caterpillars. When we returned home the power was had come back on in time for supper after being off since the small hours of the morning - it's usually on about half the time, rotating around the city.

Filling in the blanks - Windhoek, Namibia - (Friday 07 July 2006)

I've got a few minutes before my pickup to add a bit more long and boring detail (!) about our trip through Windhoek, Namibia. After I arrived I hung around the arrival area until Audrey arrived an hour later - that wasn't a problem since we had managed to meet up for 1/2 hour in Johannesburg so I knew she had actually arrived there and was checked in for her Windhoek flight. We spent quite a bit of time at the airport wondering whether to wait for the next flight from JNB in hope of missing suitcases: It couldn't be merely coincidence that Audrey and I, each travelling on different airlines, each had one of our two bags delayed, and specifically the very heavy ones containing electronic equipment for the hospital! In the end we decided the bags could better stay at the airport overnight anyway, if they arrived.

The Windhoek airport is almost 40km from town, surprising since there is basically nothing in between. After checking cab fare (about $100 each way) we rented a car instead (more specifically a Toyota double-cab diesel pickup). Driving on the other side of the road wasn't a big problem even after 15+ years out of practice except - I kept hitting the wipers (on the left of the steering column) instead of the turn signals. Audrey laughed - repeatedly... :( The scenery was striking, very dry grass, low thorn bushes, and old, purplish-grey low mountains/hills on the horizon. We stopped to photograph a clan of baboons in a dry riverbed - apparently there are only two rivers in the country that have water year-round. Actually Windhoek is in the mountains and is quite a hilly town. We stayed at the SIM mission guesthouse in a lovely 3-bedroom apartment and met there a couple from Chicago (Moody Church) who as it turned out had been on Audrey's flights from London to Jo'burg and Windhoek. They come to Namibia and Angola every year to work with Angolan refugees and Mike is also leading a Bible teaching conference in Angola next week for 800 church pastors. They are going to come up by road - there is a good paved road from Windhoek to the border, about 700 km, an easy 6-8 hours, but then the 300 km from there to Lubango requires about 10 hours due to a much worse road. I'm told that crossing the border, which would have taken hours and hours in the past, is now a 15-minute affair.

We did a bit of grocery shopping for breakfast, met a local Angolan friend of Dr. Foster who delivered my airline ticket for Lubango (whew!) and then went out and enjoyed a very good steak dinner. We crashed without setting an alarm but fortunately woke a bit after 7, since we needed to be back at the airport around 9AM.

Checking in was moderately chaotic - a bit of uncertainty about which of the 8 counters they were going to open, and confusion around the masses of baggage of the 16-odd members of the Angolan national basketball team, all sporting gold medals from a southern Africa regional tournament. The agent insisted on checking in what Audrey had planned as a carry-on and I narrowly prevented it being tagged to Luanda and probable oblivion, instead of to Lubango. Then waiting... the flight was about an hour and a half late for no apparent reason, but in the meantime one of the missing suitcases was delivered direct to the plane - no weigh-in and no Namibian customs :) The slightly-creaky Boeing 737 was almost full and I was glad it wasn't a long flight, 1 hour 20 minutes. The scenery became markedly greener as we crossed into Angola.

Lubango airport was something else - a rather decrepit adobe brick structure. I'd have loved to take pictures but that would be unwise at an airport - they are considered sensistive installations from a national security perspective. We were pleased to see Peggy Foster waving at us from an upper balcony as we walked in from the aircraft. Fortunately only a couple of dozen passengers disembarked there, because we were herded into a small 8x10 area where we were given immigration forms to fill out in duplicate and hand in with our passports. They were all listed on a paper and then the passports disappeared through a grille into a back room whilst we advanced to the baggage claim area. This was about a 10x15 L-shaped room with a grille along the inside edge of the L forming a sort of cage. After a long time a truck appeared into which all the Lubango baggage had come off the plane. The baggage agent inside the cage called out tag numbers in portuguese and people were supposed to come forward with the corresponding claim stub. Fortunately I was able to see and point at each of our bags and this all passed without incident. After a decent interval I went back to claim our passports and made sure they had been duly stamped.

In the next smallish room was customs inspection - in our case Audrey's large suitcase went up first, with an electrician's fish tape sitting on top of her clothes - didn't appear to attract any attention, and after a quick grope he waved us through with the rest of our bags untouched. I was thankful to the Lord not to have to answer questions about the three UPS's and a few other pieces of electronics that we had. Finally - an hour after landing - we met Peggy and got everything into the car.

Time to head up to the hospital site - more to follow later about our first night in Lubango, Angola.

Arrived "undamaged" in Lubango! - (Thursday 06 July 2006)
I'm on Steve's dialup for now at 0.25/min so will keep short. Arrived "undamaged" in Lubango! So did some of our stuff, God delayed the two suitcases with electronics no doubt so we wouldn't have weight hassles. One caught up in WDH and we have it here, the other is in WDH and will follow next week either by car with other missionaries or next Thurs flight. Don't know yet about the dish coming by air. Heard today the sea container is delayed to July 15 or 16, very bad news. Pray about both of these shipments.

Overall the trip was pretty good, it was a brilliant idea to have a night's rest in London and we had a great time with Beth and Phil and also dinner with them and with Nigel and Angie Roberts.

Saw Janet (Foster) Holden just now, she's a University friend of Mom's and was a kid at Mukinge with me in the 60's. Jim and Janet have lived here for years, through much of the war. Her son Daniel, brought up in Angola is a computer guy and keen to help me so that's a prayer answer, seems he likely knows enough to provide real help, in English, and maybe longterm support for the hospital.

Minne Prins of Sam Purse will pick me up 9AM to go to the hospital site and survey things.

So far so good... - (Wednesday 05 July 2006)
I'm writing from Johannesburg airport, arrived without incident so far including about 90 kg of luggage checked through to Windhoek. I even got most of a night's sleep, not great but acceptable.

Interesting God thing: I delayed after my own checkin in London to help get Audrey checked in for her later flight. By the time I arrived at the lounge they said they were waiting for me, there was a message for me. But when they followed up on it they came back and said, "no problem, something about your baggage, but they sorted it out". I wonder what the discussion might have been over the approx. 50 kg that I checked in - by one interpretation there should have been a 30 kg limit with excess charges of C$63/kg.

Audrey's flight just landed, so hopefully we will have about an hour together before taking our separate flights to Windhoek.

First flight down! - (Monday 03 July 2006)
Well we each had some sleep - not much - but were feeling reasonably alert until a short while ago - Audrey just headed up for a "nap" which made me sleepy. Her fault mostly, but it's also pretty warm, 30+ with sunshine.

From the how-not-to-get-things-done-clean-and-simple-department: We needed 3 more standalone European-voltage UPS's, but it takes a long time to get them in Canada - special order. So, I got our friend Angie to order them by mail from a Web seller in Leipzig (and in fact she paid for them also). But Angie had a lot of trouble communicating with them after the order was placed. Looks like a "2 boys and a dog" type of operation. However, finally just today, Angie got them to send the DHL tracking number. From that we were able to learn that the UPS's were delivered last week (27th) - but not to Beth! Further research revealed that our UPS's were sent to a random IT support company south of Reading, England. They received them but were wondering why!

I am now in the process of explaining to a company in Reading, England that I run a company in Canada with a project in Angola, for which a German-speaking friend of mine in England ordered UPS's from a company in Leipzig over the Web, that I need them by tomorrow noon to take to Angola, but the Leipzig company sent the goods to the wrong customer, and therefore I need them couriered overnight from Reading to London, and yes of course we'll pay them for their courier charges, but it's tricky to do that in advance because we are a company in Canada, not set up for UK bank transfers, and did I mention we need them by noon tomorrow... oh nevermind. And we're not even in Africa yet...

Flights were uneventful, no questions nor problems with the baggage so far. I had short stops at the Air France lounges in Dorval and Paris - both had WiFi but neither seemed to work very well. After arriving in London, we (rather I) managed to miss Beth at the airport, so we spent a couple of hours finding each other between Terminal 2 and Terminal 4. You get back and forth by walking a mile and then taking a 4-minute train ride and walking another few hundred yards - I did this route 3 times this morning. Anyway it ended well and we're now at Beth and Phil's for the afternoon vegggggzzzzz....