Samosa's for Lunch

One of my favorite lunches in Africa were Samosa's. I preferred the beef but the chicken was good too. One time I ate a Samosa in the most improbably place.

We had flown into Biem, with and AN-32. Our plan was to spend less than 1 hour on the ground. The time it would take for a helicopter gunship to get from the nearest base to our location.

60:00 to go...

We had 7 tons of grain to off load, and as many as 60 patients to triage and board the plane. That is out of the 1,000's of people who where waiting to try and get out of there. With the Tsetse fly's biting us and the smell of gangrene and decomposition ripe, we worked.

55:00 to go...

Our medical team was off triaging the patients. I was talking with the local SPLA (Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army) to confirm the proper distribution of food. He ordered his men to start off loading the food.

45:00 to go...

Everything is still going fine. The food is being offloaded and organized into distribution stacks. I decided to take a few minutes to talk with some of the people. Try to encourage them a bit, see how they were doing.

40:00 to go...

I made my first call to the medical team. We had some nice FM radio sets to communicate with. No response... That's ok, they are probably busy. They still had 10 more minutes before we had to start loading patients.

30:00 to go...

I made my second call to the medical team. Still no response... Asked one of the guys with me to go and see what was going on. The food had been off loaded by now and the crew was prepping the cabin for the patients.

20:00 to go...

The medical team is coming back now with a group of casualties that they have chosen as having the best chance of survival if they reach the hospital.

18:00 to go...

I start counting the people we are boarding... in the middle of it, the local SPLA commander asks me to transport a couple of people as a favor to him. Sure, just one or two...

15:00 to go...

30 patients, but the group of 60 who the Dr's brought back is not getting any smaller. Some thing is not right. More people are boarding who are not actually patients. A quick check and found that most patients were also bringing someone to care for them at the hospital. A common practice in Africa... just not something I had counted on. "OK, ONLY PATIENTS, NO RELATIVES!"

10:00 to go...

At least 70 people are on board... the Russian Pilot is getting mad. He told me no more than 60. I am trying to stop them from boarding... but nothing is working.

8:00 to go...

"CLOSE THE DOORS!" I know we have not gotten all the people we wanted on board, who should have been aboard. The SPLA commander comes to me with not 1 or 2 passengers but over 10! "No, we can't take any more", and he understands.

7:00 to go...

The big cargo ramp is slowly coming up. It is being hand cranked by the load master. A Kenyan guy... he was trying to tell people to move out of the way.

5:00 to go...

The ramp is up, watching the hands reach in trying to get our attention was tough... but we were really close. Ok, now I just want to make sure that all of my team are on board. I look back through the crowd of people in the back of the plane... I don't see Ann.

4:00 to go...

I'm yelling into the radio. "Ann, get back to the plane!" "Ann, where are you?" nothing...

3:00 to go...

The pilot starts cranking up the left engine. It's loud... but the small crew door is still open on the right side. I am thinking about jumping out to find her... but what about the team. Dammit! Where is she!

2:00 to go...

The right engine is winding up. The load master and I are leaning out of the crew door. Here comes Ann, running around the back of the plane. The load master grabs her arm and pulls her in. He's a lot stronger than he looks.

1:30 to go...

The copilot comes out of the cockpit and asks me to go up front. The load master is closing the door. I follow the copilot into the cockpit. I'm not really sure what I am doing there.

1:00 to go...

We are taxiing down the strip of dirt and grass that we landed on. This doesn't look good to me. The pilot is calm though. He gets to the end of the runway and turns the plane around.

0:00 to go...

We begin the takeoff run. The power of the Russian planes is incredible, but we are loaded at over 200% capacity. The far end of the runway is coming up quick. So are the people who have gathered to watch. But with room to spare the big plane pulls up and we are airborne.

+3:00

We are finally "safe". I walk back through to the cargo bay. It is a scene like I have never seen before. I found the load master spraying "Doom" insecticide through the cabin, trying to kill all the bugs.

+5:00

I find the only empty place on the floor. A small space between the bathroom (non functional) and the cockpit wall. It's near the small crew door, and was cool. I slumped down and finally let myself relax just a little. The load master came and sat down next to me. He, too, was exhausted. I remembered I had some box lunches packed and pulled them out. Not much, but each had a couple of good samosas in them. I gave one of the lunches to the load master, and ate the other myself. They tasted good... until I looked up and saw the very sick and dieing people in the hold. Then I got sick...