A man from Steinbach says it was quite touching to watch a video of planes landing on a runway in Angola, Africa. That is because earlier this year, Randy Reimer helped build that runway, in the remote village of Cavango, which is home to a mission hospital.

Reimer says it was back in April of 2022 when Ed Voth showed up in his office. Voth, who is a representative for Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), handed Reimer a brochure that highlighted this runway project. Construction actually started back in 2015 already, before being shut down by the government. Voth said they were hoping to restart that project and his purpose for being in Reimer's office was to try and recruit him to do the work.

Reimer, along with Bob Giesbrecht from Steinbach expressed interest in going. Nine months later, in January of this year, Reimer received an email, asking if he could be in Africa in two weeks. With little time to spare, Reimer and Giesbrecht were able to get all of their necessary shots and then finalized the arrangements for their three week trip.

What awaited them in Africa, were a few pieces of equipment, including a Cat D4 dozer, skid steer and a truck. As mentioned, the runway had been started but Reimer says there was still a lot of dirt work that needed to be done. He notes they have a red, sandy clay there, which is very good soil to work with. Once it is levelled off and packed down, Reimer says it becomes quite hard. He notes they do not really have access to gravel, but after a few rains, it hardens to become a really nice airstrip. 

According to Reimer, the runway spans a distance of about 3,300 feet, which he says is a little longer than the one in Steinbach. Their work involved moving dirt and grading it in order to get the runway smooth enough to land planes. 

"We were operating a D4 dozer and a Bobcat and with those two pieces of equipment we were able to finish off that airstrip," he explains. "And they needed some extra room on the sides, and we were able to give them a buffer zone."

And, because they had no access to a grader, the men found a large I-beam to pull behind their equipment, acting as a drag to level the ground. 

Reimer says when they left Africa there was still a little bit of work to be done, but that was finished off by another volunteer that came after. 

Reimer says a mission hospital is run out of this village. With a couple of doctors and a couple of nurses working there, people from surrounding villages will walk up to four days to get help. Reimer says prior to now, patients were being transported to an airstrip about 30 kilometres away. From there they could take the two-hour flight to a very good surgical hospital in Lubango.

But Reimer says driving those 30 kilometres can take up to two and a half hours because of the state of roads there. He says it is horrendous to drive because of the ruts and water holes. On one occasion, Reimer was asked to transport a patient down that road using a Land Rover. He admits to having some apprehensions, especially because of the different villages they would be travelling through and not knowing how safe it would be. Reimer says they made it, but on the way back started hearing a noise in the vehicle. They soon stopped and after doing a quick inspection noticed that the nuts on one of the tires were all loose. 

"We just about came close to losing a wheel there on that road too," he says. 

The runway is now finished and in early June, an official opening took place to mark the occasion. Reimer was sent a video of the first landing and admits it is touching to see how excited the village is to have access to planes. 

And, when his travelling companion Bob Giesbrecht watched the video, Reimer says he had to stop what he was doing because it brought tears to his eyes. 

In the video, you can see villagers lining the runway in anticipation. Reimer says these people do not have an easy life. He notes they live in mud huts without running water. Reimer says they do not have the kind of washrooms or access to food that we enjoy here. For them to have a medical facility, Reimer says is very important because of all the infections they get from water that is not clean, or from the environmental conditions they live in. 

"It's just a real blessing for them I think to be able to know that they can get the help that they need and the supplies that they need in the village there," he adds. 

Reimer admits he had a lot of reservations before heading to Africa, noting he could have come up with 20 reasons why he should rather stay home. Those apprehensions included heading to a communist country where travel is not recommended, receiving a live vaccine at an age where there can be more complications, and of course, snakes.

"I'm not a big fan of snakes," he admits. "And we wound up killing a snake on the runway there, which we found out later was a Green Mamba, a pretty deadly snake."

But Reimer says they did not get sick on the trip, and it was neat to see how God worked through the different volunteers and people supporting the project to bring everything together.

Overall, Reimer says it was a really good experience for both him and Giesbrecht. He notes the people they met along the way, including representatives from both MAF and SIM, were encouraging and inspiring and he was very impressed with their commitment and their dedication to the people they worked with

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