Kabokweni/Msholozi Food Delivery

An interesting combination on a recent food drop - chickens and oranges.

Two local farms had generously donated items that we delivered at the same time.

First I had to pick the oranges up from the orchard pack house.

Then I met Chris from Sinani who had collected 200 chickens from a town in the next valley.

We then drove to a community run old age home, a disability centre and a township youth project to deliver the items.

The old age home worker with the chickens safely in her shed.

Two of the youth group with some of the 110 bags of oranges we delivered.

Thanks you

Paul and Cathy

Masoyi Food Drop II

Yesterday, Cathy and I did a return food delivery to a community where one of our farm workers lives. We were there two weeks ago and took 400kg of maize and food to families she had identified as being in particular need.

The maize we took a fortnight ago was enough to last a month, but the food needed replenishing.

While we were there we got to know some of the recipients. This was Colin, his father had died earlier this year and he is now looking after three siblings and his mentally ill mother on his own.

This lady usually sells snacks to passers by on the street but does not have a permit to work during the lock down. She was grateful to receive a food parcel for her family.

This guy couldn't wait to get stuck into an orange, he is unable to work and had no food in his house.

A mother and her daughter had waited patiently for their food box.

When we returned to Mercy Air we got busy with packing food boxes for the following days deliveries.

We also noticed that our name, or at least our tag line, seem to have changed for the time being.

Thank you

Paul and Cathy

Food Delivery

Cathy and I did a food delivery run this morning in a community about 25km away.

We asked Petunia, another one of Mercy Air's local staff, to identify the most needy people in her community and then set about obtaining, packing and delivering the supplies to them.

We have been working with Pick n' Pay, a national South African supermarket to obtain some of the supplies...

..and then combining what they bring with other essentials to make up 'food boxes' that should last a family up to two weeks.

As the Mercy Air vehicles were already out on other deliveries, Cathy and I loaded and drove our car to meet Petunia, and then into her community. We asked Petunia what the need was like and apparently one lady said that even if she 'only got a bag of salt, she would be grateful'!

It's amazing what you can get into a Nissan Qashqui...

..almost 400kg and three adults!

After some heartfelt words of thanks, the people left with their food box and bag of maize meal.

Thank you,

Paul and Cathy

Masoyi Food Drop

Following on from the last blog, Mercy Air staff have become increasingly involved in helping to supply food and other essential items to local communities, where other mission organisations have been working for many years.

Generous donations have meant that purchased food has been delivered to one of our hangars where we have sorted it into boxes that will feed a family for two weeks.

Last Friday Paul also collected 700kg of Maize Meal and took it to Masoyi Home Based Care, a community about 40km away from Mercy Air.

The ladies at Masoyi HBC make light work of the unloading.

Thank you,

Paul and Cathy

Lockdown Diaries

Currently, after six weeks of lockdown, South Africa has 6000 Covid cases and 100 deaths. Mpumalanga, the province we live in and which is almost four times the size of Wales, has 30 cases and no deaths. Compared to the likes of the UK or USA that doesn't sound too bad, but the lockdown we have been under has been one of the strictest - we have not even been allowed to exercise outside of our premises.

These restrictions have obviously affected Mercy Air's ministry as we are not allowed to fly locally, let alone into Mozambique. We have even placed our aircraft of ground cover only, to save on insurance.

Like most other people around the world Cathy and I have sorted our general filing system, gained more disk space by purging the 'my pictures' file, tidied the cupboards, cleared out the garage and attended to the garden etc. Similarly, one of the occupational hazards of living on a farm, even a moderately small one, is that there is always something that needs attention - most things waiting for that mythical day, 'when there is time to do it'. These last few weeks there has been no excuse and slowly, one by one, these odd jobs are getting ticked off. Here is a small selection:

Windsocks are out in the wind and the sun and over time become quite tatty.

Perfect time then to put new ones up at the top of the airstrip...

..and on the hangar roof.

For ages now we have wanted to extend the line of poles up the airstrip, and we now have 320m worth to keep the cars and aircraft away from each other. It was quite a big job involving 25m of white pipe, a bit of old scaffolding and a sledge hammer!

Our farm staff are at home as they are not allowed to travel to work. But grass, trees and bushes still grow and need cutting, and the off cuts need to be cleared. Time to remember how to drive the tractor and take it all to the dump.

Even though Mercy Air's aircraft are 'grounded', there is still a need to be met locally as many people  are feeling the affect of being without work and are beginning to go hungry. Mercy Air has been helping with food drops for a number of other mission organisations who work in the local rural areas.

On other occasions we have asked our farm staff to identify needs in their immediate community and have made up and delivered food parcels.

The contents

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Delivery

Some of the beneficiaries who were very grateful.

Swenky, our farm 'Induna' arranged the one drop. Afterwards he took us to his church and to be honest I was expecting something basic, but a bit more comprehensive.

Nigel and Swenky

They have been meeting here for eight years under eight poles, three corrugated roof sheets and some old shade netting. Very slowly they have been building a wall, but at R5 (21 pence) a breeze block, it is taking a long time.

Erin, one of our Mercy Air staff is making masks, it's now compulsory to wear them when out in public areas. She has already made over 100 and is making at least another 120 for Msholozi clinic! Cathy has helped with some cutting out.

Erin with some of the many masks she has made

Cathy continues to work at ASM's primary health care clinic three days a week and of course uses them there. The patients are each given a mask and distanced appropriately whilst waiting to be seen.

Here we are modeling some of the latest trendy designs.

As we said, the lockdown had been strict in south Africa and we are very fortunate to have the farm to extend into. Even though it only measures about 900m square we have taken full advantage and managed to ride most evenings.

We set ourselves little goals such as riding round all the tracks in one go. Turns out there are 11.8 km of them.

Then someone thought it'd be fun to ride between every row of macadamia trees in every field. Turns out there are 66km of those!

Thank you.

Paul and Cathy