But how would I be rescued? Would the UN send a helicopter
and pick me up out of there? I began to imagine that a helicopter might come and
I would be the one they were going to rescue first. Certainly they’d come with
several helicopters to rescue the injured and try to account for me and others.
If confronted with scarce places in the chopper, would they allow me to cede my
place to those who were gravely injured? Would they then send another
helicopter to rescue me later? Ridiculous what the mind comes up with really…I
wanted to be important enough to be rescued and a hero at the same time.
Finally at about 1:30 pm, more than 8 hours since the siege
had begun began, we heard what we had longed to hear: an aircraft. We listened
as it slowly approached, cautiously stepping out of the shady corner of our
maize field in order to get a look at the sky. Its approaching rotor assured us
that it was a helicopter…and was undoubtedly a UN helicopter. In DRC, they are an
indicator of the insecurity which reigns throughout this region, and typically
it means that some bad guys are somewhere not too far away.
However, Epulu was different. In three years there, I had
only seen one UN helicopter, 1 ½ months prior to the attack, when the rumors
about rebels had heightened. It came and made a few sweeps over Epulu and then
it went, ready to report back on its mission. Since then, I’d been in Bunia,
where a huge UN contingent is based, and these helicopters make daily flights
for logistical, transport, and emergency reasons. So, the chopper’s arrival was
proof that the outside world had heard about our situation.
We didn’t have much open sky (it being a tiny field in the
middle of the bush) but we saw the helicopter, a big grasshopper-shaped thing,
which flew at a very high altitude above us, making a bee-line for the station
area. It started to sweep over the village area and suddenly a few shots rang
out. The rebels were still there and even had the balls to shoot at a UN helico!
Surely they UN would have to act! Even if they left, they’d get reinforcements
and return. This was the beginning of the end!
The chopper made another wider sweep and then left. In
total, the aerial reconnaissance lasted for less than 5 minutes. Despite our small
window of sky, we had a good view of the chopper as it departed. I watched with
uncertainty as it moved so slowly out and away from us, back towards civilization
where they would make decisions about how to break us out of this jungle
prison.
I calculated that they’d return in a minimum of 3 hours, so
we could still get out before darkness fell at 6:30 pm, that is…if things went
well. This wasn’t too much longer to wait.
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