[disclaimer: what you are about to read is offensive. it is one pilot's personal account of life in and above some of the craziest places in the world.
long ago i derailed myself from the respectable airline track that most pilots aspire to. instead i chose adventure: different airplanes, jobs, and countries. i wanted to serve some of the poorest downtrodden souls on the forgotten corners of a planet. you will read about refugees who have nothing and live in war zones; victims of rape and senseless rebel violence. people who are basically being kept alive and dependent by western 'aid' while we extract their countries' resources.
i understand that it all may be a tad uncomfortable. hell, i hope it twists your entrails. that's the whole point of writing it down and releasing it into the wild. awareness, the seed of potential change.
a note on literary style: many ex-patriates and aid workers acquire an extra-dry sarcastic sexually-twisted gallows-type humor in the field. it is one of the things that helps you get through the day and cope with the madness of the job. an evolutionary adaptation, if you will. and i will.
i hope you can differentiate the serious from the tongue-in-cheek ironic. i want you to be offended by what is happening in the world, rather than how i paint it.
and if all of that makes you queasy, you are probably not tall enough for this ride.
thanks for reading! -p]
Thursday, November 20, 2008
helen
a friend of mine who works in the refugee camps around goma has an excerpt of her blog available at:
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