28/07/2024
Letter To Efo Dzorgbenyuie
My First UN Mission
Episode Two
My Adventures To Dongo
We were airborne in no time. The flight took us about two hours if my memory serves me right.
In no time we landed in Gbadolite airport. Gbadolite wasn't a town meeting my expectations of having an airport. It was basically a village. I wasn't much surprised of the airport because our SOP(Standard Operating Procedure) made us aware that there were two major means of transport in the country, air and river transportations due to the land size and the forest cover.
We were moved to a Ghanbatt camp as Gbadolite was a forward position of Ghanbatt. The main duty of Ghanbatt there was to protect the airport and the locals from the activities of rebel groups in the area.
We were to spend the night at Gbadolite as the helicopter to take us to Dongo was under maintenance the day we arrived. So I had the opportunity to engage a colleague friend who had spent about a month on ground.
I got to know the locals were friendly and one could practically buy local food ingredients very cheap and prepare Ghanaian food. With that, the dependence on UN ration(food) was less.
The locals loved them because they were always giving out their rations to them for free.
Hearing of fufu with goat light soup and Akple with okro soup, grilled fish with pepper, my heart longed to stay at Gbadolite. But it was an impossibility. We talked on different issues deep into the night before we fell asleep.
I had a dream and saw my little girl who was then four years old crying and running towards me. I tried carrying her to console her but realized I couldn't stretch one of my hands to carry her. I tried a couple of times but I couldn't and I woke up. This made me sad and worried the whole day even though I said a prayer against any bad omen that might befall either the family at home or myself.
I took breakfast, bathed, dressed and sent my luggage to the car transporting us to the airport. We got to the airport and the helicopter was prepared and on standby. We loaded and got on board. We were divided into three groups as the helicopter wasn't big enough to carry all of us at a go. The heli was to do three rounds trip.
I was part of the first group because I held an appointment as a batman(something like an errand boy) to the OC(Officer In Charge)
Don't despise my appointment because it came with some privileges, Batmen are usually young soldiers who serve their bosses, ie Ironing, shining boots, washing and anything the Boss needed to be done. The privileges are also enormous, some are, Batman may not perform duty, eat the best of food, drink the best of wine meant for his boss, serves as his Boss' mouthpiece etc. Batmen usually enjoy these on mission areas.
In no time, we were airborne.
In about 45 minutes, we were finally in the dreaded village. The feared village, the village all other battalions were running away from, the almighty Dongo.
My views of the village from above before landing gave me this impression.
A typical village with no amenity, no better building as the houses were built and roofed with mud and thatch.
Village bordered by river and forest.
We landed and were surrounded by few village folks, got to know most ran away by crossing the river to the neighboring Congo Brazzaville. Only a few returned after the rebel massacre.
We were offloading our luggages from the helicopter while the women and children surrounding us were in the mood as if in jubilation. In their mood, one phrase kept repeating, I decided to pay attention and what I heard made me freeze.
I told myself this would be an adventure worth experiencing.
Episode three loading...Watch out!!
