Cargo Drop

From Juba, I took a mid-day cargo flight to Pagak.  In the morning I rushed around town to get my exit visa from the Immigration office before we head to Ethiopia.  I returned just in time to catch a ride to the airport in one of our Land Cruisers.  Thursday is the day the Buffalo flies.  The Buffalo is an older two prop workhorse of a plane that can haul up to six tons of anything across the country.  The rear of the plane has a cargo ramp.  You load/drive your cargo up and away you go.

We followed a huge truck filled with supplies, drugs, and other medical equipment to the airport, nodded to security, and drove on out to the runway to the plane.  On the far side of the runway, a huge white UN C5-type cargo plane was unloading supplies into canvas covered trucks.  The truck in front of us mistakenly raced off to the other plane and had to be called back.  As it pulled up to the Buffalo (a white Buffalo at that), six guys jumped off and we began to unload several hundred boxes and pack them into our plane.  First though, we took off t

he radio antenna from the Land Cruiser, deflated the tires, and drove it into the cargo bay of the Buffalo.  Once fastened down with straps, we started transferring the boxes to behind the Land Cruiser and anywhere else there was room.  It took a long time to move all those damnable yet lifesaving boxes by had.  I had stupidly packed my empty water bottle away earlier that morning and the runway was radiating the full fury of the midday Juba heat.

About an hour later, as we were finishing up, the three-man flight crew wedged their way from the tiny door in the fuselage past all of the boxes and the Land Cruiser and took up positions in the cockpit.  Some other guy I had never met before and I got into the car and the rest of the boxes were placed around the side of the Land Cruiser pinning us snugly in place.

As the Buffalo cranked up its engines and slowly, but powerfully, made its way airborne, the inside of the car started to hit at least a roasting 50 degrees C with full humidity.  Since I couldn't turn on the air conditioner, I thought that I would be a smart ass and  roll down the window, put one hand on the wheel, lean my arm out the window, and pretend that the roar of the engine was actually that of the six-piston Toyota and that I was cruisin' down the street.  "That's right, ladies.  What up?"  I thought, staring at the boxes tapping against the back window trying to get in.  The guy sitting in the passenger seat ignored me and pretended to sleep.  As my two backpacks vibrated their way off of the hood, the effect was thusly ruined and my short-lived fantasy came to an end.

The flight itself took about an hour and a half.  Once we had been airborne for a while and the plane started to cool off, I dug into my bag and found the German Capri-Sun that I had stowed away in Nairobi.  Now 30% weniger Zuker!" it informed in on the front.  We passed the enormous Nile River, a lot of green pastoral land, sparse forest, and I knew we were far away from Juba.

We touched down somewhere.  Maybe we were already at Pagak, but I couldn't really see out the windows with all of the boxes in the way.  As I exited the vehicle and sidled past the boxes, I followed the crew out the passenger hatch on the side, jumped down, and fought the blinding light to see where I had ended up.

The second I jumped off the plane and looked around, I was instantly taken aback for a second.  Standing in front of me were about 50 people just kind of curiously looking at the plane and the sort of Asian-white guy that it had produced.  About a hundred other people came running towards the plane as a guy started to shoe the kids away with a big stick.  Fo

r about a minute, I found myself completely alone wondering what to do.  The sleepy guy wandered off somewhere and was nowhere to be seen.  Do I find somebody?  Do I continue to stand there like an idiot?  I chose the latter.  A second later, a Save the Children Land Cruiser came driving from the village and the local program manager welcomed me to Nasir.

We enlisted the help of some of those standing around, and unloaded all of the boxes from the back of the plane and stacked them up on the dirt runway.  It only took about a half an hour and a gracious medical staff thanked us for the supplies.  The Public Health Community Center in Nasir had been absent drugs and basic medical supplies for quite some time.  I jumped back into the cargo hold, found a seat this time, and we took off again for Pagak.

The Pagak airstrip is literally right next to the compound and the rest of the town.  You could toss your stuff over the wooden fence and it would probably end up next to one of the brick rooms we stay in.  A bunch of smiling people greeted me and I finally met Judith, Laura, Jimmy, and the rest of the Pagak SC staff.  They gave me a warm welcome and helped to settle me down in what will be my new home for the next two and a half months.