Far Away in the Sky: A Memoir of the Biafran Airlift by Koren David L

Author:Koren, David L.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Peace Corps Writers
Published: 2016-08-09T00:00:00+00:00

"Huh? Oh."

The mechanic work was long, dirty, and tedious. Hundreds of small

screws held the access panels covering the parts we needed. We often worked without shirts in the hot tropical sun, hotter as the heat radiated off the tarmac and the aluminum skin of the aircraft. Leo got a bright red sunburn on his belly and back. While Larry, Barry, Jerry, and I had been doing a lot of beach time, building a protective tan, Leo had been building the prefabs at the orphanage. After working on the flight line one day, we stopped by warehouse K to check on progress there. A nun named Maria Theresa was sorting a bale of short pants that had just arrived from Germany. Some were khaki and some were blue jeans. Sister motioned us over. She said, "You look like you could use some of these." I was filthy with oil and grease and dirt in my clothes and in my long, stringy hair. I had few clothes and it was difficult to get laundry done, presumably because there were so many foreigners on the island needing the same service. I gave my laundry to Senhor Lopes, owner of Bar Enrique and also my landlord. It took a long time for my laundry to come back. When I had gone a week without any clean underwear, I started referring to him as "Senhor Son-of-a-bitch." He knew enough English to be upset by that. But I apologized and he gave me my clean underwear and we became friends. Sister Maria Theresa gave Leo and I and Arne each six pairs of shorts.

When we appeared on the flight line the next day with our spiffy new blue shorts, the African mechanics we worked with, Valario, Oscara, and others, went, "Aack!" and roared with laughter. Above the blue shorts, Leo was bright red with sunburn, and below the shorts his 52-year-old legs were as white as a newly plucked turkey. The Africans called him Tio Leo (Uncle Leo). That day I called him Senhor Turkey Legs.

"He looks like a half-cast between an ESS-key-moh and an Indian," said Arne.

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