David Koren went to Nigeria's eastern region as a Peace Corps volunteer, a school teacher, in the 1960s. After he completed his tour he went back to the United States but when Nigeria was torn apart by civil war he took an opportunity to help with the humanitarian relief efforts underway to save the women and children of the breakaway state of Biafra. This is his story.
Koren does a great job talking about his work with children in the eastern region, his own personal life on leaving the Peace Corps and the problems his group found at Sao Tome on arrival there. I like his attitude... when Nigeria needed teachers he was a teacher. When the airlift needed people to organize the aid coming in for Biafra he helped sort out the warehouses. When they needed aircraft mechanics more than they needed warehouse minders he became a mechanic. And in all of this Koren does a great job of telling the story of the airlift itself, a dangerous job given the problems involved in airlifting aid at night to indifferent airfields in Biafra, flying older aircraft and doing it all during the ever-present threat of Nigerian MiGs. A great memoir. Illustrated with black and white photos.
No comments:
Post a Comment