The New Age of Adventure by John Rasmus

Author:John Rasmus [Rasmus, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4262-0610-8
Publisher: National Geographic Society
Published: 2009-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

THE NEXT MORNING, I hear news of a Cessna that has arrived in Bunia and is bound for Entebbe, Uganda. I have no business in Uganda, and Entebbe is a long way off, but I ask a UN official to give me a lift to the airport so I can get a seat. Anyplace in this world seems better than Bunia. While I wait for the pilot to finish up his business, I see the head of the Doctors Without Borders mission overseeing the unloading of supplies from a cargo plane. He recognizes me and comes over to say hello. I notice how old his face looks, how grave, though he’s only in his 30s.

“So you’re leaving,” he says.

“Yeah. I’m running out of my nine lives.”

He nods. “Yesterday,” he says, “we had to amputate a girl’s arm. We had to wait an hour with it because we weren’t able to bury it. The arm was just sitting there in the bucket—we tried not to look at it.” I don’t know why he decided to tell me this; it is as if he were telling me about the weather. I wonder how long it will take before he allows himself to feel again.

“Is this the worst you’ve ever seen, here in Bunia?” I ask him.

“No. I was in Angola. Liberia. Sri Lanka.”

“So do you think there’ll be peace here?”

“I don’t like to lie,” he says. “No.” The pilot is heading toward the Cessna, so I say good-bye and get in the plane. We taxi down the runway and surge into the air, but the dangers are not over yet: The pilot must gain a high altitude and avoid flying over roads or villages to protect us from any anti-aircraft fire. Gradually, Bunia and its problems shrink below us. I see that it’s better to view this land from afar, muted by clouds and distance. Then I can pretend there’s beauty, at least. I can forestall heartache.

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