Arusha Airport

Emily and I decided to treat some of our younger kiddos who spend the term break on the other end of town to a surprise trip to the airport. We realized what a true surprise it was when we arrived to pick them up and they had long faces and were hesitant to join us as they thought they were going to the hospital...All was quickly well when we explained the days plan.

We went to the little Arusha airport where the kids could watch all of the smaller private and charter planes landing and taking off.

They sat right up against the gate and spent a lot of time deciding which plane they thought was the biggest.

We got really lucky because as we watched planes landing we noticed one of the pilots was a friend. Jordi was incredibly gracious and agreed to come talk with the kids about being a pilot. He even invited us out to the tarmac to get a closer look at the plane.

I know it might not be obvious from Miriam's face, but they were VERY excited to be on the plane!

Jordi the pilot ate his lunch on the fly to be able to show us around his plane.

Not surprisingly Aminieli has decided he too will be a pilot.

They were all eager to get as close as possible to the cockpit.

When the passengers began to climb the steps to enter we all agreed it was probably time to exit the plane.

We snapped a quick group shot before the plane took off. Everyone was a tad gloomy as we were not flying off to the Serengeti!

Attitudes turned around quickly as they got sodas and lunch from one of the airport bars. They happily ate and watched as Jordi's plane took off. Though Aminieli thought the plane was his and squealed with excitement "there goes my air-o-plane, there goes my air-o-plane!"

Some of our best days on the ground grow out of seemingly small events and excursions. When we got back to the office Fratern told us about his memories of his first visit to an airport. We are so lucky to building memories with our scholarship students and there are more to come!