Sometimes it just sinks in...

It sinks in when you least expect it. This week I was going to the dentist and it sunk in once again. It sunk in that this is NOT a temporary trip, I am actually LIVING in Brazil. It is my new home. You see, when you're temporarily visiting another place you don't do things like go to the dentist. You have a dentist back home and (unless it is an emergency) you generally just wait until you get back to get your teeth cleaned. That's why it sunk in when I went to the dentist. I realized - I am going to the dentist here because Brazil IS now my home, this is long term. It sinks in with the small things, the everyday things, when you least expect it. I don't feel sad when I think about that since I'm glad to be here, but it really is a strange thought that takes a while to really accept and understand.

When else does it sink in?

It sinks in when you come back from the market and begin making a salad, only to find a snail on your lettuce. Yes, I really do live HERE, and not in a place the lettuce comes washed and cut in a bag. Again, we're excited to be living here, but it's just a strange thought to process.

It also sinks in when you get trapped in a bus station. Yesterday Jeyson and I were driving across town and took a little "short cut" through a big bus terminal thinking it would save time. However, the exact opposite happened. When we went to pass through to exit the station it was blocked by a HUGE crowed of protesters standing in the way of the exist with banners. No cars could leave! The police were across the street watching and doing nothing to help. The protesters were protesting that on that corner there are many car accidents and there has been nothing done by the government to give more direction to the intersection. While we agreed with the cause, we certainly didn't want to spend the evening in the bus station. After about 20 minutes stuck in the protest ,we were able to get up onto the grass to turn around and go another way. It's so different here sometimes. Once again we are excited to be here, we know we're just where God wants us now, but sometimes it just sinks in...I am really LIVING in Brazil...such a strange thought to process!


Well with that said, let's move onto the major topic today - Jeyson's flight. I have already given you a glimpse into what I do daily, so I thought I would take part of this blog to show you a little about Jeyson's world...in particular focusing on his flying.



As you probably know, the next step in Jeyson's flight progress is getting his commercial pilot's license. He already has his private pilot's license, but in order to fly with our mission doing work in the Amazon area he will need both. So here at the mission base in Anapolis he works under other missionary pilots to get all of the instruction and experience he will need for that. The next step though before even taking the written test for the licences is he needs to get 50 hours of experience doing cross-country flying. He already has a few hours and this week he went on a 4 hour flight to add to the total.



So what's involved with taking a flight?






The first step is planning. Several days before the flight Jeyson starts planning the route that he is going to take. This is VERY detailed and can take hours. Here is Jeyson busy planning on Sunday, his birthday! Fortunately it didn't take TOO long, we still had plenty of time for cake with friends. To prevent getting lost in the air, he has to plan along the route points of reference that he is going to look for every few minutes to make sure he is going the right way. This can be pretty tricky especially if he has never been there before! Thank goodness for technology like Google Earth that you can use as a tool to get a preview of the land.
Here is a devise called a flight computer that Jeyson uses to calculate specifics of the flight.
With all the planning done it is time to get the plane ready. This means an extensive check to make sure everything is safe and ready with the plane. Here Jeyson is checking the fuel for contamination.
Inside the plane he had to even pack an extra set of clothes, just in case something were to go wrong mechanically and they would stuck at another airport for the night. Asas is very strict about making sure the planes are in excellent condition to fly. As a result Asas has had only 1 accident in it's 50 year history! (The one accident was not fatal)

Here are a few more shots of checking and preparing the plane.



With the check complete Jeyson comes into the flight room and logs information about the flight.
An hour or so later it is time to take off. Well I did not go with Jeyson on the flight, so unfortunately the pictures stop here. However, when he got home around 7 pm Jeyson said the flight had gone well overall. He flew along with another missionary, Marcos, who instructed him as he flew. They flew over the border to another State in Brazil, Minas Gerais, landing two different cities and returning to Asas. Flying can be stressful since there are so many things to be thinking of and doing meticulously and Jeyson always feels he has areas to work on, but overall he felt it was a pretty good flight.

Back on the ground, another passion of Jeyson's is mechanics. You might remember that last week we were having problems with our car. Well the problems seemed to get worse this week so Jeyson had to spend the whole day Saturday taking the entire engine off the car, fixing it, and putting it back on - all by himself. It's really hard to find a good mechanic here that is affordable, so he prefers to do as much as he can himself. It was a ton of work but the car is doing great now and ready for another 40 years of life! :)
On the left is Nilson, a new missionary with Asas who is working first on learning mechanics. He is watching as Jeyson works on the engine.

Well that's about it for now, but as always send us an email or leave a comment...we'd love to hear from you!