I Should Bring Them Some Cheese

After being here for two weeks, I received many texts from the ticket agent in Goma that contracts with Busy Bee Airline, the airline with scheduled flights to our area. The ticket agent asked me to please convince the owner/pilot of Busy Bee Airline, now a good friend of our family, that it was safe enough to land his planes here. Later that day, the ticket agent here in Minembwe showed up at our house and handed me his phone; he had already dialed the owner of Busy Bee, who answered his phone the minute I grabbed this phone. Awkward!

I told the owner that all was relatively quiet in our area, but the surrounding areas were a mess. I told him that he needs good intel before he flies in, and that Miles and I can’t provide enough info for him to make a proper decision. A couple of hours later, the Busy Bee plane landed here. Surprised, Miles went out to talk with our friend the owner as he had piloted this flight, and the owner gave Miles a couple of huge rounds of cheese and said, “I had heard that this area had been overtaken by the rebels and that everyone was slaughtered. But after I talked to Michael on the phone, I thought “I should bring them some cheese because they’re not dead.””

Somehow - Michael