Last weekend Micah and I, Becca and her girls Tara, Rissa & Jenna joined our husbands on a trip to Loki, in north west Kenya - just a few miles from from Sudan. This is a staging airport for fuel and for passangers going in and out of Kenya. They would be away all weekend, so we decided to join them and see some of what they do and something new. Here is the DC3 - they were getting ready to load. We kept waiting and waiting for them to say we could get on. We soon found out that some of the cargo they had from another mission had smuggled something that were not legal. It made for quite a situation. Kurt was surprised that we were even able to go on, but since the cargo wasn't on the plane yet - Kurt wasn't responsible. whew!
Here we are in Loki - I just couldn't resist taking this! The girls were about the same size as the DC3's wheels. This was my first time flying on it.
Here are from left to right - Kelly, Kurt and Amanda, after unloading some cargo and getting ready to head out for the day. Becca, kids and I stayed to scope out our living quarters for the weekend and hoping to find a pool - in the middle of nowhere. :)
It was quite an adventure riding in this! It just doesn't seem like it could take off and land on short air strips - but does! I was most impressed at how taxing and turning to get ready to take off have to be as much as a challenge to learn as flying it.
While we were in Loki Amanda was getting the caravan and her passengers ready for a flight.
Well, here is the first pool (of 2) that we found. It was the closest - we just walked across the road from where we were staying. Yes, a bit green - but didn't stop us from getting in. But honestly - as soon as we got back to our room - I immediately rinsed off with a lot of soap!!
We stayed at a camp where they served a different theme each night for dinner. Wow what luck that our first night - Saturday - was African! :) (joke) we were really hoping for mexican - but it was ok. Just didn't have to worry about eating too much! :)
We had been told by our husbands that we will find Loki - hot and dry - hence the longing to find a pool to hang out at! :) Well, Saturday night it started raining and well - continued to rain till the day we left. It really was quite a muddy mess.
This is the camp that AIM has a mission family staying at. They are on home assignment now - so we just went in and looked around the area.
Here is another house - a house made out of 4 containers! It has been used as well for AIM pilots.
Their were a couple of monkeys where we stayed - and lots of cats!
Ok, alas we found the second and best pool! What a wonderful sight! It was clean and even had step for the girls to play on! weehoo! The rain stopped in time for the men to join us and even for us ladies and kids to swim a bit before we left to come home on Monday.
The kids enjoyed playing with the soda bottle caps - first they used them in the pool - I'd throw them and then they'd go down and get them. (this is Tara)
Here is a phone booth just along the road (not a paved road - just sand). It really was quite hilarious! I phone booth in the middle of no where! This is little Jenna.
All in all, we enjoyed getting out of Nairobi - we were excited to see what all our husbands experience and do. Even though they had flights Saturday and Monday all day - we enjoyed spending time with them Sunday, driving around seeing what all Loki is like. It really kind of a ghost town now. It used to be quite a happening place about 18 years ago. When Kurt worked with AirServ he'd fly in and out of here often. I even got to visit here back then, so it was interesting to come back and see it now. Lots of run down places and no real grocery store - few shops and little dukas (by the road shops). Of course part of being in Africa is that things aren't always the way the way they should. We went to restaurant that wasn't with a camp - maybe the only nice one and they only had a few things on their menu. The guys said we had to go there to get a milkshake - Saturday - no ice cream and no frenchfries - Sunday - still no icecream - Monday just before we left - still no ice cream, but they said they should have it later that day! Ha - maybe next time. :) We do thank God for safety on the our trip home. We didn't leave Loki until 5:30 after a long day of flying for the guys. About half way to Nairobi smoke started coming in the cockpit from an electrical short in one of the instrument panels. But the guys were able to figure it out and stopped it. whew! Then after we landed we ended up with yet another security check and visit from the security officers from the airport - all from the situation when we had left on Saturday. Wow - africa....adventures...I think this will do me for some time now. :)
Here's another picture of the Akobo airstrip after we took off. The dust cloud is where we started our takeoff roll.
the next few pictures are in Pibor picking up the medical team. They worked almost non-stop and over the course of a week were able to see 1,200 people with quite a range of medical issues. A lot of syphillis, malaria, intestinal parasites, injuries, infections, and many more I am forgetting already. Needless to say they were VERY tired on their way out.b
It was about 110 degrees and everyone was looking for some shade to get out of the sun's fury.
Loading the team back up to leave. Notice the T shirt. We see a lot of used clothing advertising stuff from all over the U.S. It's really funny to see and sometimes the kids have no idea what is really on their shirt.
On the way back to Loki we ran into this storm. We are needing to land just on the other side of the second rainshower. We landed fine, but soon after were drenched by a half hour rainstorm. This is in the north of Kenya, where it's a desert. Seeing all this green up here is really unusual. They have had more rain than normal this year.
We had to wait 30 minutes for the rains to slow down so we could go out and fuel the airplane for our return trip to Nairobi. 
After being fueled and ready to go, this is just after takeoff. The soil just doesn't want to accept the rain in the desert. 
Then early last week I flew up to an airstrip in Eastern Sudan near the Ethiopian border for a mission group who were building a school. There wasn't anybody there to pick us up because their car had broken down so we stayed there on the airstrip for a couple of hours. In the end we left the missionaries there and made a plan to come and pick them up the next day. Flexibility to what is happening is really crucial in this kind of work. This was near a small village called Kuron. The kids who came out to the airplane were pretty primitive and as you can see in some of the pictures some of them were totally naked. (the boys at least) Most of the people in this kind of environment are wearing everything that they own.
At the other end of the small airstrip. It was a pretty narrow turn around at the other end. You can see my inside tire tracks where I turned around. Also a "dry" only airstrip for the King Air. If it would rain the airplane would definately get stuck as it was really soft ground.
Quite a few AK47's and this guy like everyone else was just looking for some shade under my wing. He kept (inadvertantly) pointing this gun at us while he was talking to his friends and we kept moving out of the way, but finally he decided to lay down and rest for a while. 
The kids love to have their pictures taken and then look at themselves in the little screen. Piercing has always been pretty popular with the girls mostly. They use either wire, or just sticks to make their holes as you can see. The scars and burn marks on their heads and shoulders are made on them when they are going through the passage ceremony. The time when they pass from childhood to adult status in their culture. 
These top 3 pictures were gifts from us and Warden and Brandon.
