I remember somebody asking me if I considered myself as a sort of saint for being a volunteer pilot during those years between 1999 and 2002. Certainly not, I was more than happy to help out, and that’s why I’m flying again for Flying Medical Service right now, but not at all costs. Let’s face it, I would not go and work in an hospital or orphanage for instance. I don’t have the necessary (social) skills for that and would not see any fun in doing it. While flying the bush at the same time, the real bush with flying rules that are a bit far from the books some times, no problem. I felt I could attain a nice balance between personal needs and give something back to people. So another Saint Ben is not born yet…
that person was right to ask because she personally knew some nurses or doctors who went 6 months somewhere remote to work for Doctors Without Borders for instance and think they deserve a medal and utmost respect for life from coworkers, friends and family. Spot on, as I’ve met a bunch of these shiny knight-volunteers here too, who think their participation, modest or not, has changed Africa, that Africa wouldn’t have survived without them or that they’ve left an indestructible prints on local people’s mind. Well sorry to crush these hopes but whatever one usually performs on a personal level on humanitarian ground is a drop in the ocean. Mother Teresas are rare and hard to imitate…
on a similar ranting mode, I can’t stand the writers or expats like Karen Blixen and Kuki Gallmann and Emma McClune who think so high of themselves or had smoked whatever to make them feel as some sort of local queen or empress, who changed Africa…Gallmann is such a good “queen” by the way that she has been badly attacked by the same people who are said to revere her (or so she thought…).
As for me, I’m more than happy to know that there is for instance one little Maasai boy named Ben after me, running the savannah near lake Natron, this because I flew his dying pregnant mother to hospital to deliver him safely and recover… One billion Africans…a drop in the ocean as I said earlier.
some pictures below at Olemilei, a tiny Maasai village stuck in the Gol mountains. Nothing special to it except landings and take offs which are quite a feat at altitude and in surrounding hills and cliffs.
the doctor listening to a Maasai patient.
view from aircraft top. Real savannah isn’t it?
and 2 below 2 aerial pictures of Maasai hamlets near Loliondo. Notice the metal roofing which is spreading around. Too bad for thatched roofs which look much better…
Awesome photos, love the aerial photos of Massai bomas. It reminds me my first fligth with precision from Dar to Moshi (when I arrived in TZ for the first time). I remember seeing them from the air and I getting real scarred thinking that I was gonna live in a real bush in the middle of no-where! Ha ha... I didnt even know where Moshi was when I sighned my contract, i just wanted to go to Africa.
As for volunteering, I always look with utmost admiration at people who dedicated their time and energy to helping other people without expecting anything in return neither from the poor nor from the rich. Nowadays, people go to East Africa, West Africa or East Timor, volunteer couple hours and then write a two-volume (4000 page) book describing their heroism. Disgusting! At the end of the day their "volunterism" was the source of their business venture. What's more all these TV "stars" get involved with that for their PUBLICITY and that pisses me off. As much as I respect Angelina Jolie's acting, I don't understand why her refugee camp visits get so much attention, whereas the names of the doctors and nurses you mentioned are NEVER acknowledged anywhere. If Jolie didnt mean to get any publicity out of it she would have found the way to make her refugee visits discreet. Where there is will there is a way!
Thanks for sharing the photos!
Posted by: Fatima | 28 August 2010 at 11:48 PM