Page 56 - Archangel

chattering in rapid fire Swahili until the Kenyan pilot came over the radio

with, “Family and unit reunion is over. Tower says I lose clearance for take -
off, if we don’t start taxiing within 10 minutes.” To Kenyatta and Ngetti, the
pilot keyed his radio mike and yelled, “Kwaheri, Kakas [Farewell, Brothers,
Swahili],” laughed, and directed, “Now move!” The Kenyan flight crew
snapped to attention, crisply saluted the retired but not forgotten Captain
Kenyatta and Sergeant Ngetti, and said goodbye as they sprinted for the
mid-sized transport plane.
Designed to carry substantial loads and land on poor surfaces, the sturdy
de Havilland Canada DHC-5 Buffalo cargo plane resembled a grasshopper
with broader wings and balloon tires for feet. Pulling their jeep up to
the plane’s central loading door, the flight crew threw Skye into the hold,

parked the jeep, leaped inside, scampered to their respective stations,
and strapped themselves in. The two engines immediately started
screaming louder.
A load master appeared from nowhere, led MacIain to a jump seat, and
snugly strapped him in. He then bent down, and yelled into Skye’s ear,
“Captain Kenyatta says you’re family. So to the first albino in our unit,
Karibu! [Welcome, Swahili].” Thrusting an ice-cold Tusker into MacIain’s
hands, he added “I’ll keep you posted as the flight progresses. We’ve got
three to four hours of rocking and rolling, if we’re lucky. You’ll be fine,
since Captain Kenyatta says you’re crazy enough to hang-glide and jump
out of perfectly good airplanes, like our airborne unit.”
Seconds later, the laughing load master barely seated himself with
a wobble, when the plane started accelerating into the night – and

uncertainty. Destination? Over 200 miles, six driving, or three flying hours
to Tanzania, and Benaco, one of the largest and most challenging refugee
camps on earth. But Skye was first destined for waves of dreamy images
from the last three months of the Great Lakes regional genocide – of which
Benaco would be only a single act in the play of one of history’s biggest
mass murders. He prayed he could make the difference his friends seemed
to think he could.
Countless lives depended on it – including his own.

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