Just to recap the events leading up to the ride: I heard about an area called Malingapansi where apparently they had not received any food aid. This are was completely cut off, and only accessible by canoe, or helicopter. Thru some contacts at the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), a helicopter was arranged to take myself and an official from the Mozambican Disaster Management Agency (INGC) to make an assessment of the area. It would be my FIRST ever trip in a helicopter and I was very excited (and totally flabbergasted that it had actually been arranged and was going to happen!)
So the morning dawned bright and clear... I would know, I was awake. Not by choice believe me, that is just when the village wakes up! Miguel, my translator was going with me - I can speak Portuguese, but I'm not fluent enough to speak to government officials - and it is his first time to ever fly. So he was really excited too.
We had to meet at the 'White House'; a large white tent set up to be the Air Ops command centre, at 9am. It is staffed by South African Air Force personnel, and we sat and waited while they sorted out the paperwork for the flight. Our pilot asked me to point out Malingapansi on the map. Slight problem... I had NO idea where it was. No one actually knows exactly where is was, except the government administrator in Marromeu who had contacted us about the place! There was a slight uproar as the pilot tried to figure out in which direction we should fly!
When Colonel Fringe, the INGC representative arrived he solved the problem quickly: "We will fly to Marromeu and get directions there". Simple as pie!
They called the helicopter 'Augusta', I thought that was weird until I realized that was cos it was an 'Augusta'!
~Augusta MH68 Helicopter~
The rotor blades started spinning and we had lift-off. It felt like I was in a car, except for the fact that I was hovering above the ground. That was until the pilot suddenly made a mad dash for the fueling station just a 100m away, then it stopped feeing like a car and started feeling very much like I thought a helicopter should! After we had re-fueled we headed to Marromeu, skimming along quite close to the water, following the twists of the Zambezi river. We saw hippopotami!! And there were many canoes in the water, the people fishing - they looked up and waved, some jumping up and down excitedly (the people in the canoes wernt jumping up and down... these bouncy people where on sand banks in the middle of the river). We were flying so low, so they could see us wave back at them! :-)
It seriously felt like I was travelling in a car! We arrived in Marromeu, circled and landed in an open field next to the road. Within seconds we had what felt like half the town lining the roads on all sides, and the Deputy administrator arrived on his bicycle 2 minutes later. The Administrator who had told us about Malingapansi was not in town today, but the Deputy was able to give us directions to get there:
"Just go straight towards that tree, and then after a while you will see big flat plains. Go across them. Then you will get to a bend in the river, and you must turn right, then you will see some buildings. That is Malingapansi."
The pilot wasn't impressed to say the least, and he went to fetch a map, hoping that the Deputy would at least be able to point out on the map which grid block Malingapansi was in.
There was some 'oooing and aaaing' as they tried to figure out which way was north, but finally the deputy pointed at a block on the map and said, 'There'. So now we had a general direction that was a bit more specific than the directions we'd been given!
The kids who had dared come closer to 'Augusta' scattered as the blades started moving. We were strapped in and ready to go. After a few minutes in the air we crossed the plains, and finally we saw some buildings. The pilot circled twice trying to find a field big enough to land in, and by the time we had landed the WHOLE village was there! The doors opened and the village chief ran forward. Colonel Fringe asked the vital question, "Is this Malingapansi?". "YES", came the reply.
We had made it - the chief led us down the main road (the only road) towards the brick administration office.
~The Main Road in Malingapansi~
There was a flag pole in front of it, proudly flying the Mozambican flag. I won't go into detail about what our assessment was, You can read about the that here.
By the time the meeting was done, all the chiefs of the 10 other villages had arrived, and all had huge toothless grins, everyone wanting to shake our hands, and each asking "How do you do?" (in Portuguese of course). This was a HUGE honor for them! The meeting over, we were lead back to the helicopter, our entourage of the whole village following us back. The now 'back to nearly normal level' Zambezi River was quite running close to the road, and I imagine that this whole area had been underwater during the worst of the flooding.
The engine on, the crowd scattered, and we lifted off for the last time.
~Lift off from Malingapansi~
The pilots set the course home and we flew high above the earth, the trees specks against the green of the grassy plains. It seemed like the trip back was faster than the flight out, and in no time we could see Caia in the distance (its quite a large town actually!).
~A small part of Caia from the Air~
Back on the ground we got out quickly, the engine still running, and by the time we got to the edge of the runway only a few steps away and turned around, 'Augusta' had disapeared; off to go refuel and go on another mission.
It was fun, quite an experience - Not something that I ever imagined I'd do when I signed up for the Flood Relief, but really cool!
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