As roving photographers and videographers for MAF, my husband and I have had the chance to ride along on many MAF flights to document the work of the ministry. Emergency flights to transport patients, planes full of building materials, motorcycles, and even live pigs, and plenty of “regular” flights to take people from point A to point B.
Recently, as we were preparing for our final week serving with MAF, we decided to calculate just how many flights we had been on in the past two years. “Maybe 70 or so?” I thought to myself. Mark added it up and it was 99! We were in Haiti at our final MAF program before coming home and we knew we had one flight to go before we left.
Our 100th flight with MAF was very unique… it was the first flight where we got to be real passengers for a change. We spent our last week in Haiti traveling around with some good friends, and needed to get from one city to another. The hardest part about traveling in Haiti is, well, traveling! The roads connecting the major cities are rough, and local buses are the most common way to get around.
It would take at least a day and a half of bumpy, sweaty bus travel from the city of Jacmel to Cap Haitien, but luckily for us, MAF was able to help cut our travel time down to about an hour. It was fun to finally experience MAF through the eyes of a passenger.
We asked David Carwell, the pilot that came to pick us up, how many flights he’s been on in the many years he’s served as an MAF pilot. He told us that he’s made nearly 10,000 landings! Sure puts our 100 flights into perspective.
Even though this wasn’t a life-saving flight, and it certainly wouldn’t make the cover of FlightWatch, it still meant a lot to us. Thank you MAF for 100 amazing flights!
