TANZANIA By Mark Liprini
HIGH ALTITUDES, HIGHER PURPOSE MAF SA’s missionary pilot, Mark Liprini, shares a day from his logbook.
IT WAS THE USUAL QUIET MORNING IN THE OFFICE.
“This was a call for a medevac from Haydom Hospital. Two mothers with new-born babies with severe birth defects need to get to the paediatric I was in the process of demolishing a delightful surgeon in Moshi as soon as possible.” hot chapati, to accompany the fresh coffee. My logbooks had just been written up from the “How new-born are they, and what sort of flying earlier in the week, and I was busy working defects?” I asked, mentally calculating flight times, through emails while planning the next few days. distances, refuelling, and drop-off times, thinking about the weather and the payloads, and glancing Across the way from me, I heard our Ops Manager at the office clock to see if we could still pull it Emanual (Emma) taking a call. He takes lots of off that day. them each day, but something in his tone of voice alerted me. Slowly he pushed back his chair. “Both were born yesterday, and they have part of their intestines protruding through their stomach wall; well, that is how the nurse has just described it to me,” Emma replied. “I’m busy gathering more information on their weights, who needs to accompany them, and how we get them to Moshi from Kilimanjaro airport,” he continued. “Wait, is Moshi still closed? The Notams* say that the repair work has been completed”. 8
