PCM News: Container Base, Marromeu, Mozambique

13 November 2019

Container Base, Marromeu, Mozambique

Paul recently completed a trip that begun a week earlier with a different pilot.

Many years ago Mercy Air re-furbished some shipping containers and drove them up to Marromeu near the end of the Zambezi River in Mozambique, in order to set up a base from where we could help a local mission team work with the almost forgotten people in the Zambezi Delta region. As there are no roads this mission group used to travel three days by dug-out open canoe in order to reach the delta, a journey which now takes our helicopter only 20 minutes!

The weather and humidity had taken its toll on the five containers and they were in bad need of repair. For this reason we flew a team, tools and materials up for a week to bring the structures up to standard. They had only been there a couple of days when they got a call that the father of a missionary doctor in Beira had been taken ill and was coughing up blood - could we help? Without much delay John, Mercy Air's chief pilot, went to Beira, collected the patient and flew him and his son back to South Africa, where he spent a week in hospital. The rest of the team stayed in Marromeu working on the 'container base'.

At the end of the week Paul flew up with Andy, a maintenance guy looking at joining Mercy Air, to help with the last few issues, and obviously to fly the team back to South Africa.

I'm always amazed at the range the Kodiak has. In the shot below we had already been flying for an hour, yet could shill have cleared Madagascar to the east or Cape Town if we had turned round.

Dotted green circle - 45mins fuel left. Solid green - no fuel.

The view was similar to the range - seemingly almost limitless.

We have been flying to Marromeu for many years. Back in the day, we used to land in the middle of town, but these days that would be unwise!

Fortunately the local sugar company has built a strip out in its plantations and we can safely land there.

Short final Rwy 11

We knew it was toasty up there but weren't quite expecting 41 deg C on the ground at 1500 in the afternoon!

The container base has provided 'moderatley' comfortable accommodation, kitchen and ablution facilities for the heli crew as well as a place to store supplies, fuel and to facilitate some minor on-going maintenance for the helicopters themselves.

The containers were fitted with roofs to keep the rain off as well as to provide airflow to allow cooler conditions inside. One of the main issues was that the steel frames that supported the roofs were badly corroded and needed major work to prevent the sheets being torn off in the upcoming rainy/windy season.

Another of the issues that was fixed was the lighting for security at night.

Saying our goodbyes at the strip on the day we left.

On the way back we flew past a teddy bear who was waving at us!

The work we were able to do at the base will be effective through the next rainy season, but we will need to give it some major attention next year if they are to continue to be an asset in helping us help the communities in the delta, who's only contact with the outside world is a helicopter, or a three day dug-out open canoe journey.

Thank you

Paul and Cathy

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A short history of us

Not long after we were married we felt that God had some full time work for us overseas. This initially began with a move to Sheffield in 1992 to work for a Christian management training company. Three years later we felt the Lord's prompting that another change was imminent and this led to a move to Africa where we helped set up a youth program with the Lesotho-Durham link in the capital Maseru. An initial three year commitment turned into four after which the youth work was handed over to the nationals.

Then, after feeling God was moving us into mission flying Paul enrolled at a flying school and completed his South African commercial license with an instrument rating in December 1999.

We moved from Lesotho to White River in South Africa in June of 2003 where we now work with Mercy Air. Mercy Air was borne out of Youth with a Mission (YWAM) and is a sister, although smaller organisation to the more well known Mercy Ships. We are situated near Nelspruit and provide a service to missions and the development/aid community in the southern African region but mainly serve Mozambique.

We operate four aircraft at present - a Quest Kodiak, a Cessna 310 and two Airbus 350 helicopters which are often used for the relief flights.

When not flying Paul is responsible for flight operations and is Mercy Air's Safety Officer.

Cathy, who is a registered Nurse and Midwife works part time at Africa School of Missions which is a bible college preparing missionaries for overseas service. She teaches in their School of Health and is part of a team which visits a number of rural clinics during the week. She is also helps with the hospitality ministry that Mercy Air runs.

Matthew spent four years at Rhodes University in Grahamstown where he studied photo journalism. He has now flown the nest and is living with his wife in Durban. They have a young daughter named Isabella.