September 14, 1997

Subject: Sept. Newsletter
Date: Sun, 14 Sep 97 08:37:57 UTC
From: MPilert@yahoo.com


Greetings to all:

As usual the time has flown by here, just as I am sure the summer has flown by for all of you. of course it is winter here. I am based back in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique now, and being quite far south (about the same latitude as Johannesburg, 26 degrees south) the nights have been quite cool. However, winter is drawing to a close, and it is starting to warm up. Before long it will be stinkin' hot again. Up north in Quelimane it is already heating up.

I have been missing the usual summer activities back home. But I must say that the 4th of July here in Maputo was the most American experience I've had here. The U. S. Embassy put on a big party and barbecue complete with apple pie! With all the relief an development agencies here there are quite a number of Americans around town.

In the past month I've been bouncing back and forth between Quelimane and Maputo taking care of business at both bases. It is nice to get out of the city and live back up in Quelimane for a week or so.

A couple of weeks ago I went up to Quelimane to stay for ten days because Bob our base manager was on vacation. I flew the King Air up there, and then went on a training flight with Roland, our new pilot from Germany. I got a call on the radio and was immediately dispatched on a medivac trip to Johannesburg. I came in and landed the Cessna switched to the King Air, and set course for South Africa. A child of the World Vision director had a serious case of malaria. I spent the night in Jo'burg, and it sure was a treat to stay in a real hotel, and get a good steak dinner. I was up the next morning well before dawn for the return to Quelimane to resume training Roland.

We've had some really nice trips. I've been up to the little town of Marrupa with the Irish Embassy. The Irish are doing quite a bit of developmental work in the northern part or the country. On trips with them we almost always get to spend some time in the districts, and see the projects, often spending a night or two in some of the smaller towns. In Marrupa the school is being rebuilt, as well as other reconstruction projects.

I had another similar trip with IBIS, a Danish organization up to the mountain villages of Lugela, Nammaroi, and Alto Molocue. We also visited schools, and water well projects. This area really has some beautiful mountain valleys. Some of the airstrips up there are kind of short and rough.

This month we are booked up solid with the King Air schedule. U.S.A.I.D. has a lot of extra trips. I'll be working really hard until the 25th of Sept. then I'll get almost tree weeks of vacation, I need it.

This week I celebrate the completion of my first year here in Mozambique. It has been quite an experience, and I look forward to new experiences, and meeting more new friends in the next year ahead of me.

Last month I had a visit from Daryl Galloway from Colorado It was just great to see an old friend from home. "Froggy" and Vicky have been traveling for quite some time all over Africa. We had a good week together, and were able to get out on the week end and visit some of the country and farms in the area. We met some South African farmers who settled in a remote area south of Maputo recently. They were having a Sunday afternoon barbecue on their farm. We were driving by, and got invited in for the meal. We were the first Americans to visit their project, and got a warm reception. These folks really laid out the hospitality. We all had a great time. It is a rough life for these settlers. These folks are real pioneers. The family has been there working hard for the past two years. The man's wife died of malaria the first year.

In the past month the national airline here has had a rash of problems. They have had so many mechanical problems, and canceled so many of their flights that it has made it very difficult to get around in this country. Our fleet of four planes has been extra busy servicing our agencies, who also rely on the airline to move some of their key people up and down this country. It looks like we will continue to be busy.

A few weeks ago I was up in Tete, and Songo with some U.S Embassy, and U.S.A.I.D. people. We visited the Cahora Bassa dam and power generating project on the Zambezi river. This is a huge facility, and supplies power to parts of South Africa. I had to do a medivac flight for a German man who had both his legs broken (Compound fractures both bones, both legs). The circumstances were very mysterious, but the German Embassy requested we do the flight. We never did get the true story of what happened, but I'm telling you there was something shady going on.

This past week I've been flying a delegation from U.S.A.I.D., World Bank, and Mozambican government officials. They are working on developing more business opportunities for the private sector. This country cannot continue to survive on international aid. Things are getting better here. Last year Mozambique was the poorest country in the world, now the rating is upgraded to second poorest.

So long for now. Keep that e mail rolling in. I love hearing from all of you. Cheers,

Mike Pilert

July 2, 1997

Subject: Belated news
Date: Wed, 02 Jul 97 22:09:40 UTC
From: MPilert@MAF.Org


Greetings to all of you! Things have been busy the past few weeks, and I finally have some time to sit down and fill you in on what has been happening out here in Mozambique.

I have moved from up north in Quelimane back down to Maputo, the capital city. I'll be taking over the position of chief pilot for the country of Mozambique. Our main office is down here. Things have been quite hectic in this transition period. We've had new pilots to train and install in Quelimane, and I've had a lot to learn about my new position. I will be flying the King Air more now, (it is based here in Maputo) I'll still be flying the Cessnas, but it will be mostly instruction, check rides, and fill in for vacations, etc.

My last weeks in Quelimane were good. The dry season is upon us, and the weather had been cooler, and the increased visibility made the flying really enjoyable. I've had some especially nice trips up to the mountains.

Lichinga is a pretty little spot in the mountains near the Malawi border. A few weeks ago I flew over there from Tete, the route took me over Malawi, and right over Lake Malawi. We crossed at Monkey Bay, and I could look back up the coast to Salima, and some of the spots that I has visited on my road trip in 1991 with Steve Church. The lake is crystal clear, and one of the largest lakes in Africa. Everyone had a good time on that flight.

I go to Lichinga mostly for Halo Trust, a non profit de-mining organization. Halo has a base in Lichinga, and they serve a large area from there. Sometimes I stay in Lichinga for a few days at a time, flying out to various smaller villages from there. One day we went up to Cobue a gorgeous village right on the shores of Lake Malawi. The Halo crew has been working on the strip there, and nobody had used the place for 20 years. The crew had done a fine job on the strip. There is a big minefield right across the road from the school in Cobue.

Once a had a whole day off in Lichinga. Bob back in Quelimane had told me that if I asked around I could find some good goat cheese. I found out that I'd have to walk a few kilometers in the woods to the goat ranch. I had the day off, so it was a nice to have a mission. The trail through the trees in the mountains was beautiful, and when I arrived at the cabin, I was surprised to find it was a log cabin just like you would find in the mountains of Colorado. It made me kind of homesick. Got some really good cheese, which is really hard to find in Quelimane.

Walking around the wide well laid out streets, I wonder what this place was like in the colonial days when it was functioning, and brand new. Just outside of town there is a dam, and hydroelectric plant that wan blown up during the war. South African farmers are beginning to move in and start some organized farming, growing wheat, corn, and several other crops. I met one South African woman, who had some undeveloped land in the bush, and forest. She had a lot of wild life, elephants, zebra, lion. She had plans to develop a game reserve. I hope that is possible. Mozambique could use more people like her, a very interesting woman.

I was surprised to find the remains of a crashed DC-3 in the town park in town. They had hauled it in for kids to play on I guess. I tried to find out where and when it went down, but nobody seemed to know. My Portuguese is not so good. Knowing some Spanish helps, but only to a point. Sometimes it seems that I really haven't learned much Portuguese, and have forever ruined my Spanish, I suppose that it will get better.

We took one trip to pick up my neighbor Nick who heads up the Halo operation. We flew up to a very short strip an Namaroi up in the mountains. Nick was loading up his stuff, and asked if he could bring back a land mine that his team had brought in. He showed me that the detonator was removed. We told him that as long as he put it under his seat it would be O. K. We all laughed and back to Quelimane we flew with the mine under Nick's seat, really no hazard with the detonator removed.

So now I have an apartment in the Capital where I can get all kinds of good food. A good variety of fruits and vegetables, that just aren't available up country. Easy duty for now.

Thanks for all your letters. I'll try to be more prompt in the future.

Mike

April 7, 1997

Subject: Moz News April 7th
Date: Mon, 07 Apr 97 21:58:06 UTC
From: MPilert@yahoo.com


These past two weeks have been kind of tame compared with the flights I had last month. I just got in from Pebane this morning, and I have to leave in the morning for Beira to base out of there for a week.

Pebane was fun today. I flew in the International director, and the Mozambique program manager of Action-Aid, a British NGO that has quite an extensive aid program in Pebane, a small fishing town 80 miles north of Quelimane. The locals there must really appreciate the Action Aid program. When we landed on the short sand airstrip, there was quite a crowd there to greet the plane. There was singing, dancing, and drumming. It was a nice display of local culture. I still haven't had a chance to get off the airstrip and see the town, but today I got to meet many of the locals, and the dancing was great. All the dancers were women, and they did one dance where each girl in turn danced while skipping rope. Two of the other women handled the rope while the other girls lined up and took their turn.

Luckily there were not many insects to dampen this fiesta. This month has been the worst one for bugs so far. The mosquitoes have been bad. Quelimane is one of the worst areas for malaria. The town is surrounded by swamp. All over the districts there have been a lot of big flies that really bite, and take a chunk of meat right through your shirt. I have some insect repellent that is quite strong. a few weeks ago I had it packed in my bag and it leaked on my plastic alarm clock. It melted the face of the clock! Last week I was working on some things around the house, and I needed some paint remover. I tried the insect repellent: no problem, it took the paint right off. I can't believe I put that stuff on my skin!

Last Sunday (Easter) I had some time in the afternoon, so I took our Yamaha trail bike, and rode down to Madal, a beach about 20 km. from Quelimane. The road was washed out at one stream and I had to walk the bike on a log over the water. I had a great ride through some small villages, and when I got to the beach I had it mostly to myself.

It was a good day to be out on my own, and out of town. Quelimane is a country town, but it is densely populated. The day was warm and sunny, and the ocean was cool and refreshing. I felt like I just blended in with the scenery. I waited until I had just enough daylight to ride back into town. Went back home and had a good fish dinner, I was refreshed and ready to face Monday morning, and another weeks work.

March 23, 1997

Subject: Mozmambique Newsletter
Date: Sun, 23 Mar 97 23:41:02 UTC
From: mpilert@yahoo.com


Greetings from Quelimane!

The last couple of weeks have been hectic, as the flood waters continue to overflow the Zambezi, and it's tributaries, making travel by road to many destinations impossible. I've been flying all over the northern half of this country.

I went to the village of Chinde, at the mouth of the Zambezi. I was working with my friend Eric from the British NGO, Mariners. Mariners is helping the Mozambicans to build a shallow draft steel barge to service villages along the Zambezi. I have mentioned before the dangers of the crocodiles and hippos on the river, but until now I've never heard of river sharks. According to Eric, there is a variety of shark that has adapted to fresh water. They are not only found at Chinde at the river mouth, but have been sighted as far upstream as Caia (80 miles). I haven't seen one yet, but Eric has a video of one, I'm looking forward to seeing. Just as the salt water croc in Australia has adapted to life in salt water, so has the river shark adapted to fresh water.

Speaking of animals, we now have two monkeys living in our yard as pets. Their names are Amanda, and Mitchell. Monkeys are easy to feed. our bananas always go bad before we can eat then all. Amanda and Mitchell love them extra ripe. They are omnivores, so we can throw almost anything at them.

Has anyone seen the comet: Hale-Bopp? Sounds more like a dance than a celestial body. As a matter of fact that's just what I was doing the other night, when I decided to try to find it. I'd been out to the Bar Africa, a little local spot out in the Barrios of Quelimane. It is real dark around there, so it's real good for star gazing. The only trouble was, I had no information on when or where to look, so I thought I'd just try looking up. I walked outside the bar, the sky was clear, and as I turned my head upward to gaze upon the heavens, a small crowd gathered around me. They all started looking up. Somebody asked me what I was looking at. In my best fractured Portuguese I told them I was looking for a "special Star". Well that got them going. The crowd grew larger, everyone with their neck bend skyward, trying to get a glimpse of the estrella especial that the crazy white man claimed had come just for this month, never to be seen again for 4000 years. This went on for 10 or 15 minutes. Someone asked me where I was from. I continued to look up, and replied calmly: "you see that bright star there to the left?......." We never did see that comet, but a good time was had by all.

Those folks out there in the barrios all live in mud huts, no water or other amenities. Most of them get enough to eat, but the poverty here is staggering. The diet is mostly masa, a corn meal porridge. Medical care is very limited. Mozambique is the poorest country in the world. When you live and work here day after day, you get used to it. Some days I hardly even notice it, I've learned to live with it so well. Other days the sight sound and smell of poverty hits so hard that there is no way around it. Some days it seems that I have the weight of the whole world on my shoulders here. One evening you may see a man going through your garbage, which is not so very strange (nothing is wasted in Mozambique), but when the next morning you find that man dead on the street, it really makes you think.

This week I'm off to Tete on the upper Zambezi to do some work for the World Vision Agricultural, and Flood relief programs. There will be a feeding program soon for those hardest hit by the flooding. Some food airlifts have been in progress for a month.

That's it for this week -- Mike

October 3, 2003

West Africa Newsletter Oct. 3, 2003
From: MPilert@yahoo.com


Greetings,

A month has flown by since my last news. The biggest change here has been in the weather. The dry season is coming on and we are not getting nearly as much rain as in the past couple of months. It still rains almost every day, but just one or two thunder showers, not continous rain as before. Of all the places in Africa that I have been, I have never seen a rainy season like they have here, I am glad that it is over. Now I can dry out! This makes the flying much easier, and also gives me an opportunity to actually see some of this region from the air. Until now all I had seen of West Africa was clouds and then the airstrips when I break out on the instrument approaches at about 500 feet above the ground, on a three mile final approach, most of the time.

There is some beautiful country here. Of course everything is lush and green with all the rain that we have had. Kissidougou is one small town that I fly to about twice a week. "Kissi" is very near the Headwaters of the Niger River. There are many rivers and waterfalls. The town is a short distance from the tri-country borders where Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea all meet. There is a large refugee camp near there. Because I fly for the U. N. High Commission on Refugees, this destination is a busy one. Kissi has a dirt runway that got so muddy and soft a few weeks ago that we almost had to stop using it. There is usually jet fuel there in 200 liter drums.

Nzerekore is another dirt strip further to the Southeast. It is very near the tri-country borders where Ivory Coast, Liberia and Guinea all meet. The Jungle is very dense around Nzerekore. Lots of mountains there as well. There is of course another large refugee camp near Nzerekore. We use company devised GPS instrument approaches to land in bad weather at all the little airfields that we go to.

Our flights are mostly passengers and light cargo. In addition to UNHCR, UNICEF, and the UN World Food Program, we also have people from various NGOs that have related projects. These organizations include: World Relief, Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, World Vision, and a host of others.

This past Sunday I had some free time and we were able to take our Toyota Land Cruiser, which is provided by UNHCR, up into the mountains. Perfect weather for a drive, and we found a beautiful waterfall, with a nice pool for swimming.

I am getting a bit more time to get out now since I have completed training our new pilot here. I'll be busy again next week when I take over as program director for Bob. He will take a 6 week vacation. This means that I will be doing a lot more office work and less flying. I'll have to go to planning and security meetings at the UN. I will be finished with my work here, when Bob returns on Nov. 11th. Then I will take 12 days to travel in Gambia and Senegal before returning to the States for Thanksgiving.

The city of Conakry, where I live, is not exactly the garden spot of West Africa, although it is on the Atlantic coast. The ocean is filthy here, and I would not even consider swimming here in town. Everyone in town uses the ocean as a garbage dump. The water is brown. I do have a pool at my apartment complex, which I am getting to use more now. There is an Island just off shore that is supposed to have a nicer beach. I hope to go there soon.

Conakry is a city of refugees. Mostly people from Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Ivory Coast. Our maids here are all Liberian Refugees, and good workers. They make about $60 a month each. The really good thing about them is that they speak English. English is the national language of Liberia. French is spoken in Guinea, and there are few English speakers here. My French is pretty bad. You should see the traffic here in town. Total Jungle rules! Always traffic jams.

Although the security situation in Monrovia, Liberia is better now, the interior of the country is still in turmoil, and there is still some fighting going on even with an official cease fire agreement. A multi national force of peace keeping troops from Nigeria, Pakistan, and several other nations are just beginning to venture into the interior. It will take months to have total peace in Liberia. Even then there will not be an end to the unrest. Although the peace negotiations with the rebel groups and existing government are political, there are underlying tribal differences, and rivalries that are not easily solved, as is the case in many African countries.

This past month there was a coup in Guinea-Bissau, the next country north of here. The military overthrew the president, and seized power. So far it seems to be a fairly peaceful turnover. This region in quite unstable. Guinea itself has been fairly stable, that is why the UN has based their regional operations here.

Conakry also has a large Lebanese population, a couple of nights ago, I ate at a Lebanese-Mexican restaurant. The burritos were not bad! The Lebanese run many of the shops and restaurants. Best Mexican food on this side of the planet!

I am home from flying in Conakry almost every night, but now and then I spend the night in another country. I've spent two nights in Accra, Ghana, and I like the town. It is almost first world, especially compared to Conakry.

I'll try to send some pictures in my next newsletter. E mail in this part of Africa is just a little more difficult than in other places.

Drop me a line and let me know some news of your part of the world.

Mike