isn’t it?”
“Oh, it’s very colorful here, don’t you think?” Maddie said wonderingly, looking forward to her work and more of the wonders she had already seen.
“Just look out for things that crawl and slither,” another voice said from the tent flap doorway. The two nurses turned. A redhead stood there in khaki shorts and combat boots, her socks going halfway up her legs. Her shirt was ripped at the sleeves and sweat stains formed a V down the front and sides. “Hi. I’m Lenora, Lenny for short,” she said as she came into the tent. “I’m one of the school teachers,” she explained.
“I’m Maddie, and that is Leida,” she said with smile as she shook Lenny’s outstretched hand.
“Oh, you’re American,” she said with a returned smile. “I’m Canadian,” she explained her own accent.
“I’m an Aussie,” Leida shook the Canadian’s hand as well. Her accent gave her away.
“Wow, we have all corners of the globe taken care of,” Lenny joked. “I’m here to escort you two to the chow tent.”
“I didn’t know I was hungry until just this moment,” Leida complained good-naturedly.
“Ah, the food isn’t much, but there is plenty of it.”
“I would love a shower at some point,” Maddie sighed as she pulled the sticky shirt away from her sweating body.
“Now that is an interesting topic.” Lenny explained that they got each other, or one of the locals who hung about, to pour water in a pan that filtered down and gave them a shower. It wasn’t much, but they could get clean.
“How often do you shower?” Maddie asked. She’d known it was going to be rough before she joined up. It was a combined effort coming to these camps where the Peace Corps, the Red Cross, and UNICEF, as well as other charities and organizations like Doctors Without Borders or Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) helped out. This area of Africa had, up until a few years previously, been a battle zone. Now it was considered relatively safe.
“A couple of times a week. Don’t worry, you’ll get one,” she assured the new nurse. She smiled. She’d already heard that they had dug in and started working immediately and that impressed people more than their cleanliness. They’d adjust. She showed them to the tent that housed their meals. Long tables consisting of plywood or planks made up the tables. The food was hot…it wasn’t tasty, but it was filling. The fruit mixed in with some of it was different than either of the women had tasted before, but at least their empty stomachs were filled. They both saw Harlan momentarily as he talked earnestly to someone on some subject and they met others they would be working with.
“No one has seen Doctor Cooper yet?” one of the other women asked Doctor Burton when he came by to greet them. She worked in the clinic keeping the beds clean. She wasn’t a nurse or a medical person, but she was a hearty volunteer or relief worker and enjoyed what help she could give these people. She was from Switzerland, or so she said.
“Nope, I haven’t seen him although we did get a bonus today. Some mechanic drove in,” he indicated with his head the blonde/brunette they had seen on their drive in to Mamadu. She was talking animatedly with a couple of the locals, in French. She wasn’t completely clean, but she looked even younger than they had thought earlier.
“Were you expecting a mechanic?” the Swiss woman, Magda, asked.
“Nope, but she’s welcome,” he assured her.
Magda immediately became suspicious as she looked at the woman across the tent who was obviously enjoying herself as she talked rapidly. Her hands were gesturing. The grease was gone, but still lined her fingernails. “You don’t think it odd that a mechanic, which we desperately need, shows up? Especially a female one?”
Looking thoughtful, Burton glanced at the woman he had so readily let into their inner circle. When