Flying for Life - Limpopo Dental Team

Paul recently flew another MAF/Flying for Life trip to Tshikondeni in the Limpopo province. On this occasion, the plane was full and one of the passengers was Jeremy Boddington, a retired Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm helicopter pilot who, together with his wife, are looking at joining Mercy Air soon. I will let him tell the story of the day:

"Recently arrived from the UK, my wife, Janet, and I are starting as short-term volunteers with Mercy Air.

What better way to get a feel for the work, than to accompany Paul Middleton on a flight to the dry and arid Limpopo region of northern South Africa, taking a team of dentists to a village day clinic?  

We left before sunrise, using torches to pre-flight the Kodiak in the dark. As Paul powered the aircraft down the Mercy Air strip, I wondered whether we were going to miss the trees at the end of the runway and how many Mercy Air staff had been woken from their slumbers. The Kodiak however has excellent short field performance and we were airborne about half way down the 600m long strip.

Loading passengers and supplies in Jhb

We arrived into Johannesburg at 06:30 to collect the dentistry team and then flew another 1h45 on to Limpopo, landing on a bumpy dirt strip before 9am.

Tshikondeni is an old coal mine airstrip that we can still use

This saved the team a six hour drive that in reality could easily have taken nearer eight - each way!

Google Maps depiction of the journey by road

From the airstrip there followed a one hour rickety minibus ride, with frequent stops for the driver to release smoking seized brakes. On arrival at the clinic, a mobile dentistry van and a number of patients awaited us, sitting in a line on the concrete step.

They seemed most grateful to see us as, over the next few hours, pain and aches were removed. 

Dentistry done, we moved on to a day centre for disabled adults, started by a local Christian lady some years ago. Delivering new shoes, food and other supplies, we enjoyed a time of talking and hearing about some of the ‘students’ and how the centre freed up caring families to get out to work to earn a living. After a time of fellowship, singing and prayer, we said our goodbyes, hugs and some tears in evidence.

At the dissability centre

The return journey was quieter (our exhausted passengers were asleep), and after dropping them off in Jo'burg, we made it back to our short unlit grass airstrip with about 10 minutes of light to spare. Night falls fast in Africa."

Thank you

Paul and Cathy (and Jeremy)