Written by Ted Horton
It’s been roughly 2 weeks since we landed at Wilson airport in Nairobi, Kenya after 18 days and 77 hours of flying during which we logged over 10,000 miles!
This flight marked the achievement of a significant personal goal. It entailed a lot of logistics. 48 Foxtrot had to be 100% physically fit to go, and the route had to be carefully planned for fuelling stops to minimize the long distance over-water risks in particular.
To be clear, the cost of this air adventure would be and was 100% personally funded by Hanne and I (no part of this air adventure was funded by our charity). I had sensed however that this safari could provide a good opportunity to raise some much needed funds to continue educating the HHFL kids. So “Miles for Kids” was born and became the slogan that Fox proudly carried on her tail for thousands of miles.
“Miles for Kids” raised over $7,000 thanks to the generosity of several loyal friends and supporters of HHFL. Thank you all!
Fox is about to fly to her new base in Nanyuki (about 90 kms from Nairobi by air) where she will undergo re-registration as a Kenyan aircraft. She will no longer wear N2948F on her tail (she will get a new call sign) but she will always be affectionately called FOX by Papa Tango.
So, it’s been daily “hands on” at the Project (where Hanne has been spending most of her time over the past 4 weeks). As I write this, we still have 18 of our high school students (public school teachers and doctors have been on strike for the past 3-4 weeks) at home in the Project. We’re not wasting any time. They do daily studies and review; they work on the computers (which some of them don’t get a chance to do at school) and we do current events and debate.
Whether it’s a current events session (discussing articles from the daily newspapers) or a debate, I act as speaker/moderator/mentor/coach/trainer and all round cheerleader. Yesterday the debate resolution was: “political leaders and civil servants should all be required to use public services”. It was lively to say the least!
Today’s resolution is “the doctors’ strike should be settled before the teachers’ strike”.
I really enjoy working with these young men and women. My objectives are straight forward: improve their presentation skills/articulation/ poise and self confidence; encourage them to think logically, to be prepared, to make their points both succinctly and clearly and to think not only about the article in question but also the larger context that may make the stories even more compelling. Good news! We are all in this together, learning for the better! Fun stuff!
