Friday, June 8, 2012

Mmmm - it would be June now... and when was our last post... oh yes, AUGUST last year!
I had high hopes that I could devote a bit more time to posting at least once a month...looks like that didn't work out (yet!).
OK - So what's been happening since the last post - well, quite a lot actually:

  • December - my last flight of last year was around Karamoja, and with it being so close to Christmas, I donned my "Santa's little helper" hat and flew around the North East of Uganda looking like ... well, fill in your own word. People had a good laugh!
  • This was actually my last flight as a MAF pilot! For the last few years I have felt that God has been calling me more into the IT side of my job. I have been the part time IT Manager for about the last 8 years - but because I was forever switching between flying and IT, it was difficult to get any projects completed. 
  • It was a really hard choice to make - it wasn't one that was forced on me by anyone, I chose to stop flying. And even now, 6 months on, there are days (like today when the weather is beautiful) when I miss heading out into the great blue yonder. However, we have recently had a couple of new pilots Greg and Dallas and their families join us in Uganda. This has meant that the workload for pilots is now manageable without my help too. 
  • I haven't entirely ruled out going back to flying, but for now I believe God has called me this direction for a reason.
  • So, since January 1st 2012 I am now the full-time IT manager with MAF Uganda. 
It has really helped having lots of time to concentrate on the various IT jobs that I have been postponing for lack of time - so far this year some of what we have done (I include my fellow helpers as I could not do this job alone!):

  1. Put up a new antenna mast at the office - the previous one broke as we were trying to put it up - God was amazing in providing a new antenna (actually two of them) via a Texan guy here who happened to have 2 for sale and one of them was available for us to pick up just down the hill from the MAF Office. And even better, it was one of the antennas that can be lowered and raised. It took a little longer than anticipated to simply change out the little antenna at the top of the mast, but we managed in one day to do it - Thanks Steve, Mark, Greg, and Kees. Since then - our signal on the wireless network has been excellent - places that couldn't pick it up can now do so easily.
  2. Rewired the server room - tidied up the connections (still some way to go there)
  3. Built up a server cabinet to house our office servers
  4. At the hangar in Kajjansi:
  • Moved the hangar IT equipment from the old hangar to the new one
  • installed a new server there
  • set up a reliable internet connection (as reliable as they can be here)
  • Connected up the terminal and the new hangar with a solid wireless connection
And much more.... (I could see your eyes glazing over.....!)
More thoughts to come on not flying and other projects and how God fits into all this - or should it be how I fit into God's plans?