Third World Flying

When you hear the term "third world" you probably imagine a child starving on the side of the road, and people living in shacks that are falling over. Although there are not really any starving children, Belize is a third world country. I have had the privilege of traveling there twice on medical mission trips. On these trips, we were given one free day to explore Belize City. This area is the typical tropical tourist location, which is a great contrast to the rest of the area. To get to one of the areas, we had to take a little puddle jumper plane ride. 

This is one of my favorite plane ride memories for one reason: I got to ride right up front next to the pilot. The view was incredible. And I also got to get a first hand look at what it would look like to actually do the flying. 

There were a lot more controls than I had anticipated. The entire front panel was cluttered with gauges and switches and buttons. It seemed like a maze, and I was shocked anyone was capable of flying that machine. 

Yet he did. And he did it with ease. He was able to hit exactly the right button at exactly the right time. It was crazy. And I was still a little disappointed when he didn't let me try to land it. :) 

This plane, although it was housed in the third world, was still well taken care of. They still had well set out standards. They may not have had us walk through three metal detectors, and have everything we own get xrayed, but it was still a process. 

It was definitely interesting getting to see how these sorts of things operate in a country so different from ours. 

Blog post #4