Helicopter Days

"We already had our name on the schedule for Dec 5th. Let's just fly out the hardware then."

She laughs. "I need to know what you're taking."

"64 sheets of roofing iron. Gutters, PVC pipe, lots of nails."

"We'll need to know how much that weighs to know how many shuttles you need."

"I need two shuttles…"

(fade out)

"Do we have a helicopter booked yet?"

"No. You never told me your weights. I need to know your weights before I can talk to the helicopter people."

(fade out)

"Here are all my weights."

"Great. I'll contact them and you need to contact the shuttle point. Here's a phone number."

(fade out)

None of the phone numbers work. We send Jacob down to talk to the Archdiocese to get a number for the property. Neither of those numbers work either.

(fade out)

A meeting about helicopter day:

"None of the cars we have will be able to haul that much cargo to the shuttle point."

"Someone would have to drive it up the day before."

"Where would they spend the night?"

"We'd have to hire a car."

"Might be cheaper to just shuttle from the airport."

"That will never be the "cheaper" option."

"Cost isn't just about money."

(fade out)

"He can't get you in the schedule until after Christmas."

"There's already question about finishing the house by February and I can't even get them nails until after Christmas?!"

"He wants to know how desperate you are."

(fade out)

"He fit you in. December 9th."

(fade out)

"Elizabeth is point person. You have a question, you ask her. She's the point person. There can't be any confusion about that."

(fade out)

"I hope I wasn't too stern about you being the point person."

"It's just that… I don't know anything."

"You will. You'll learn. And then you'll know."

(fade out)

Dec 8, we load up the roofing iron and leave it at the hangar overnight.

(fade out)

"Hey, it's the pilot. Your helicopter time moved from 10:45 to 8:30."

"Ok, I'll get it sorted."

"Whoops. Did the math again. 7:30am."

(fade out)

"The land cruiser won't be back by then."

"We'll have to take the hilux."

"Will everything fit?"

"Too easy to steal out of overnight."

"We'll have to pack it in the morning."

"6:30 am."

"6:30 am."

(fade out)

We woke at 5:30am that morning and got home at 10:30am.

Everything went as smoothly as it could have.

And then I crashed. And took a very long nap.

My village papa called to say everything arrived well.

Another translator called to say everything arrived well and cell signal was back in the area.

The posts have been cut for our house, they just need to be brought in from the jungle.

Work will start full force on Monday, Dec 12.

And then I took another long nap.