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October 25, 2020 12 mins

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In this episode
I prepare for 2 months in the US to obtain my ATPL, I experience an interesting medical issue that I could only laugh at years later, and political upheaval rocks the country.

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Enid Otun (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to season two of, if women were
meant to fly, the sky would bepink. Episode Two challenges
ahead. I'm Enid Otun. In thisepisode, I prepare for two
months in the US to obtain myairline transport pilot's
license, I experience aninteresting medical issue that I

(00:21):
could only laugh at years later,and political upheaval rocks the
country.

(00:58):
I was definitely ready for mynext trip to the US. Apart from
the fact that I could stock upon stationery and gadgets, which
are some of my favorite thingsto do. I would be on the final
leg of my goal to gaining myfirst command in the very near
future. But first, I had tobuild up 100 night hours which
were slow going on my normalwork schedule, and then take a

(01:20):
course. For this, Bristow'swould be sending me to Houston,
Texas. First stop would be PortArthur, where I would join a
local flying school and buildthe 80 or so hours that I needed
at night. I would then proceedback to Houston to complete my
ATPL course on the Beechcraftduchess, a twin engine piston,

(01:43):
which I saw very majestic. I wasabout six weeks away from my
trip and busy as usual. TheLagos flying club was taking up
a lot of my time at the weekend,as people realized that we had a
fully functioning flying schoolavailable again. On the rare
occasions that I had time off, Iwould spend time by the pool

(02:04):
wherever possible. I wasn't aparticularly big swimmer. But I
did enjoy the solitude to be hadwhen invested in the latest
Russian classical novel,reclined on a sun lounger, with
the occasional foray to thepools edge to hang my legs over
the side. Yeah, I would even getmy legs out and into shorts,

(02:25):
which was a very rare thingindeed, considering I lived in
uniform seven days a week.
About a week after this, Istarted to itch rather severely
on the back of my thighs. Ididn't initially take much
notice as I was always pickingup some form of allergy or
another. But I did becomeslightly alarmed when my mother

(02:45):
noticed that the area had begunto look like the moons surface,
with red bumps appearing. Aftera further day of agonizing
itching and discomfort, Idecided to visit my doctor Dr.
Okupa, who gave me an immediateappointment. Expecting him to
diagnosis skin complaint, Inonchalantly strolled in with my

(03:06):
usual upbeat greeting. I'm hereto see my favorite doctor, happy
that I wasn't getting my twiceyearly medical, or on the
receiving end of a anti malarialshot. He examined my thighs and
let out what I can only describeas a concerned exclamation.
'What' I said, 'Larvae', hesaid, 'Say again' I said,

(03:31):
'Definitely fly larvae',he said.
It was at this point that Iactually tried to get away from
my own thighs. He told me thatalthough it was rare for him to
see, it was not that uncommon.
By lying on the sun lounger,(most probably) without a towel,
flies had layed their eggs andburrowed into my thighs to

(03:52):
hatch, while I lay on it. I willjust pause for a moment to let
that sink in. OH MY GOD. Thesmelling salts were great help
to bring me round, but I wasn'tabsolutely certain that I wanted
to be conscious just then. Iyelped, cried and then try to
maintain some composure as heexplained that the best way to

(04:14):
bring the little buggers to thesurface, to extract them, was to
fill the entry points, whichwere now open holes, with oil to
starve them of oxygen. I was areceptacle for bloody fly
families, and I wasn't happy.
Who does that? Who burrows intoyour legs like they are prime
real estate and then sets upfamily housing? UGH was an

(04:37):
understatement. He got to workright away filling up each entry
point with oil. It was then awaiting game, as they slowly
came to the surface as they ranout of oxygen. He estimated
approximately two hours andsuggested that I be taken
upstairs to a ward so that Icould be more comfortable, and

(04:58):
where the oil would be refilled.
I was a little more comfortablein a private room and had a TV
to watch, albeit on my front sothat the oil wouldn't drain out
of the holes in my legs. Imaginemy surprise when the afternoon
film came on. Yes, it was alienwith Sigourney Weaver.

(05:19):
Now in all, I had five entrypoints across both my thighs. My
doctor carefully extracted thefat worm like larvae that had

(05:42):
taken up residence in my body,from each of the oil filled
holes and placed them carefullyand still alive in a kidney
dish. My stomach contents thenjoined them.
I was signed off work for a weekwhile my thighs were treated
with copious quantities ofantibiotic powder, and healed.
And when I was finally allowedback to work, several of my

(06:04):
colleagues made sure that myaircraft seat was covered with a
gaily decorated beach towel justto make me feel better. Sun
loungers and my legs would nevermeet again, not without an added
bulletproof barrier. Creepycrawlies were abundant in my
flat as they were everywhere inLagos. From cockroaches to ants,

(06:26):
flies and rats. The rats took upresidence outside in and around
large gutters, designed to befree flowing, covered and
cleaned regularly. Flies andcockroaches were regularly
treated to raid baths within aresidence. The Raid bath was the
highly toxic flyspray of the daywith a powerful slogan which

(06:47):
stated the obvious, 'Raid killsflies dead'. I wasn't really
sure what else you could beexcept dead if you've been
killed. But anyway, looking backat that time, we didn't have any
of the safeguards in place toensure humans were protected
from toxins. Raid as a flyspraywas probably suited more to open

(07:08):
chemical warfare, as the momentyou emptied the can into the
room, you had to retreat toavoid being overcome by the
noxious fumes. Even severalhours later, when it was
supposedly safe to enter, youwere met with a film of wetness
over every surface, and thefeeling that your lungs had been
physically assaulted. Now,cockroaches were my mortal

(07:31):
enemies, not least because theywere the size of a small rat.
Well, at least it seemed thatway to me. Them and their huge
antenna, and the way theyscurried across work surfaces
and sometimes you. These buggerswould get the whole can of raid
treatment from me. I wasn'twilling to take a shoe to them
because it was touch and go asto whether they would resurrect

(07:53):
from a squashed mess under yourshoe and then they'd really hate
you. Also, the crunch when theysuccumbed to your superior
weight, was equally disturbing.
How any of us survived the 80'stoxic creepy crawly onslaught
was a mystery to me.
Throughout Nigeria's History,there has been upheaval, as

(08:13):
there has been in every countryaround the world. Unfortunately,
we went through a period ofgovernment instability after
independence in 1960, whichoften took the form of a coup.
Democratically electedgovernments were overthrown by
the military, who thought thattheir way of governance was the
way forward. Often it just ledto further coup attempts by

(08:35):
elements in the military, whowanted a slice of the action.
But caught up in this melee,were the people. Sometimes coups
were instigated quietly and youalmost didn't realize that it
happened until a local radio andTV station had been taken over
and announcements made. At othertimes, it was more obvious, and
the consequences to the generalpopulation caught unawares, was

(08:58):
catastrophic. I lived through anumber of them and it always
felt the same like someone hadpulled the rug out from under
your feet. The instability andapprehension were palpable.
Sometimes it would pass offwithout bloodshed, and sometimes
there would be so much carnage.
People would disappear, caughtup either intentionally or
unintentionally in the melee. Ihave witnessed on more than one

(09:21):
occasion the brutality of justsuch an event. It was
heartbreaking to see, and evenmore so when things that should
not happen, happened right infront of you. Because I always
traveled to work in uniform,when situations erupted around
you like this, you were unsureif your uniform would be a
protector or a target, dependingon who you ran into first.

(09:42):
Protesters of the day likedsolidarity to be shown by
showing of palm fronds orsomething green and similar.
Whilst should this be displayedas you approached a military or
police checkpoint, it wouldprobably not end well.
Far too often we were forced toswitch between the two, as we
progressed slowly towards ourdestination, uncertain of what

(10:05):
we would find when we got there.
I witnessed some atrocitiesthat, to this day I feel unable
to speak about and I wasn't theonly one. It was self
preservation for the most part.
No matter how you truly feltinside. Often we would arrive at
the airport, uncertain ifflights were allowed to depart
and under what conditions. Wewould standby for hours in the

(10:28):
ops rooms waiting for theairports to be opened, so that
we could position aircraft tovarious places and pick up the
backlog of passengers that hadbeen stranded around the
country. Coups were frighteningand uncertain, no matter how
many times they occurred, younever got used to it. There was
a sense of the unknown withevery one. Some hope for better
things to come, but the oftencrushing reality of yet another

(10:52):
failure. In reality, then, itwas the norm, tinged with the
hope that one day, coups wouldbe a distant memory as the
country settled down to ademocratic future.
Thank you for listening. Asalways, your reviews and
comments are very muchappreciated. Thank you to Lucy
Ashby for the editing of thisepisode. If you'd like to ask a

(11:14):
question or make a comment,please do so on our social media
sites. We're on Instagram,Facebook and Twitter. or send us
an email.
Our email address is theskyispinkpilot@gmail.com or visit our
website. www.skyis pink.co.uk.

(11:34):
In the next episode, I land inHouston for two months of
intensive training for my ATPL,I'm reminded of blatant and
institutional racism whilst inthe US, and I return to Nigeria
with a renewed sense of optimismand excitement as I can almost
reach out and touch my command.

(11:55):
Thank you and goodbye.
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