Wow, what a story. If you don’t mind telling what year did that occur and, if a long time ago, do you think the mindset is still the same?
This happened in NE Uganda during the Famine of 1980-81, probably in early '81.
...if a long time ago, do you think the mindset is still the same?
"A long time ago and a galaxy..." as they say. Which mindset do you mean? If the "halfway to heaven, lay back & die", the perhaps it is still the same. I did not mention that when we picked up the patient, the tribal Catholic catechist from the closest village was there giving the man "Last Rites", which probably had a very strong influence upon his attitude.
If you mean the attitude of "you took him away ALIVE, don't bring him back dead", then it is hard to say. Something of that attitude is present in all cultures, "primitive" and "sophisticated".
When I first started flying out there I assumed that the villagers would be in awe. "Look, Lotim, that mzungu is making that metal box float in mid-air!" However, one day I spotted a group of men carrying someone on a makeshift stretcher. I landed, discovered that they were carrying a woman, whom they thought might have a broken back, to be examined by the nurse at the mission station. I loaded her into the helicopter and told the men that I would be taking her to the hospital and that they should continue to the mission station to tell the nurse who the woman was and village was her home.
When they arrived at the mission they told the nurse that "Bwana was flying over in his motor car and stopped to help." Their evaluation of my wonderful (to me, at least) helicopter was that if the wazungu can make "motorcars" roll down the road then they could just as easily make them fly through the air. No big deal.
Ask a "sophisticated" Western journalist or movie star where the electricity comes from to charge their "save-the-planet" electric car and many will say, "Oh, I just plug it in and it charges. No big deal!"