The Newly Weds

"No, she does not have any identification...I do not know where she has left it. I, I, I..ughhh." a local Chadian UNHCR employee rambled to me the other morning, in a slur of French and English while we were in Guerada. He was gesturing towards his wife, the woman who had misplaced her ID.

"Look, you guys make the rules, and then expect us to follow them. And those rules, my friend specifically state that one must have either an NGO badge, or an international ID card along with an Order of Mission from the UN. Period. When we do not follow the rules we get in trouble. Ironically you guys who are the ones who yell when we break them, are also the ones who ask us to break them the most often." I fought the urge to make ridiculous noises with my tongue while making faces towards the man.

The man grew ever more frustrated and anxious, pacing and wilding gesticulating to his new wife who stood close by, timidly observing the show. I knew him. I had seen him a few times before, where I could not recall but I knew I recognized his face, and it wasn't negative emotions that came to mind at his sight either. He was extremely thin and frail, with a freckled and sun-wrinkled light black skin covering his bony face. He thrust his arms back into the cargo hold and yanked out another of his raggy bags, unzipping it and nervously fumbling thru its contents.

Lauren, our new pilot, and I stood in the brisk, howling wind, that was gusting up to 35 or 40 mph and creating a dust storm. Our uniforms flapped violently in the wind like flags on poles. As with all employees in training, you want to show them the correct way how to do things at first. No ifs ands or buts, this is it and this is how we do it here. And while flying in Chad having a clear mandate and set of rules can either make or break your day. Some days it makes life simple, some days it pulls on your heart and you know you cannot in good consciousness follow the rules exactly. I, being the trainer, was intent on showing the correct way of doing things still. We stood, flapping in the wind alongside other locals who observed the man with a look of true concern.

Papers and clothing continued to shuffle frantically from wild hands and gale force winds. "Listen, we may fly here tomorrow, and if not, then it'll be on Monday. Why don't you just go back and find her ID and wait an evening or three at most." I suggested. He seemed not to hear. My thoughts, unisonly in tune with the papers, fluttered with annoyance at myself for failing to bring a jacket, and at this man who was causing me to stand in this whipping wind.

A brief moment after I said these few things I heard an 'AHEM:' come from behind. I cocked my head and rolled it slowly around to find a female IMC passenger whom I had already screened and put on board, squatting in the door way and beckoning me discreetly. I slid across the riveted aircraft skin to where she crouched in the doorway and asked what I could do for her.

"Look, I know it's none of my business, and you have your rules that you must follow, but...well...I know these people and they need to get out. We were hoping to get them out yesterday when you were supposed to come "(I had refused to land because no one, in a stroke of sheer geniousness, turned on the radios in their trucks to give me a security report as we circled precariously overhead the airfield for 10 minutes. I think their necks still must have been sore from craning to watch our airshow for that 10 minutes...another story altogether).

"Look," she continued, in a middle eastern accent, "if you can, please get them out. Please. Otherwise...otherwise...ok, look let me put it to you this way: that man, that man who is looking thru the bags, he found his family dead two days ago, with their eyeballs cut out of their head and laying beside them. You see, he is from XXX tribe and they are rumored to be cooperating with YYY rebel movement, which most of them are not. It is about to get even uglier here, which is quite a feat. He and his wife are XXX, and he and his wife are most likely awaiting the same fate as the rest of his family if you cannot get him out of here today.

I have no problem telling a woman who has been sitting in an airport bar for 3 hours and who wanted to finish just one more martini before boarding and because of this failed to hear the final boarding call "tough luck sweetheart, try again next time.". Or anyone who shows up without proper ID anywhere else in the world, or someone who shows up incredibly late, or someone who is just a jack ass: that they can all wait as far as I'm concerned.

I do have a problem telling a newly married husband and wife that I cannot take them because of a one line sentence written in our "RULES" book that will effectively cause them death and/or disembowelment. Yeah, bit of a different ballpark...shit, different galaxy. What else can you say about it?

We found a piece of paper, a newly printed Marriage certificate, with both their names on it, and welcomed them on board. I learn almost everyday that the consequences for following or not following the rules here are a bit more obtuse than those back home. There is no cut and dried. But there can be cut, gouged and dead.