The Homecoming

On October 23rd, Andrew left Dodoma and flew off into the African skies to spend 2 and a half weeks in Uganda. He arrived safely in Kampala, ready to undertake his training to fly the larger MAF aircraft, the Cessna 208 caravan. This is the aeroplane he will need to fly in South Sudan when we move there next year.

On Thursday this week we heard that Andrew had passed the necessary flight tests, after his intensive training course. I am now married to a "caravan" pilot!

Today, Andrew came home to Dodoma. Two and a half weeks felt like a long time without having Andrew around, but today we celebrated his return and we celebrated the successful completion of his course!

The children were very excited as we prepared for Andrew's arrival this morning! They worked hard to create a posh place for Andrew as we laid the table for a family breakfast:

At 8am, after preparing the breakfast pancake mixture and gathering the flowers from our garden, we started getting ready to cycle around the corner to the main airport. It's not very far! Although Dodoma airport is officially an international airport and the only airport of Tanzania's capital city, it is no Heathrow. It is hardly a melting pot of the nations, but rather a pleasant, quiet little spot. We cycled straight in to the airport through a side gate and up to the main building. It was peaceful and calm, especially so early on a Saturday morning:

We convened outside the door, ready to walk straight through onto the airport's tarmac where we could watch the skies directly above the runway, ready for Andrew's arrival. Three eager little faces beamed at the camera as we parked our bikes outside (no bike locks necessary :-)- the relaxed nature of Dodoma is definitely something we will miss when we leave):

After greeting many familiar faces of the airport staff, who are always so welcoming to MAF people and after chatting a while with some pilots who were having their business jet refuelled on the tarmac in front of us, we saw the "Flightlink" plane arrive from Dar es Salaam. This plane was bringing Andrew as one of the passengers:

There was a happy reunion and then it was time to climb back onto bikes and head home, round the corner and up the road, for that yummy breakfast, with the newly qualified MAF caravan pilot!