Flying High

Today was a very exciting day for GVI in Mombasa. After some fairly drawn out negotiations, the staff managed to arrange for Precious, one of the two schools that GVI work with in Mombasa, to visit the airport. Olives, the second school, is due to be visited later this week. It may seem like a small or perhaps insignificant thing for many of us, but it is an incredibly exciting thing for the children, many of them have not even visited that part of town before.

Precious children watching a plane during take-off

While we waited at the airport for our tour guide, many of the children needed to go to the toilet. This took more time than we had envisaged as we found them playing with the running water from the taps; as some of them weren't used to this at home.

We started our tour by walking the children through departures, explaining as we went what the metal detectors were for and why they were scanning our bags. After this, our guide showed the children where customers were checked in to their flight and how they measured the weight of bags; this involved us weighing many of the children and teachers. Before you ask, no, I will not share my weight with you! The children were then actually led onto the runway to observe the planes, the look on their face was genuinely unforgettable. We were also in luck as a Kenya Airways flight landed while we were watching. This allowed us the time to answer any questions that the children had about planes and try to get them to understand how something as big as a plane can fly through the air. We also then were able to see the passengers dismount the plane, which helped the children to understand the idea of flight better still.

Precious children in the Airport

Even more luck came as we also saw a Monarch flight take off, which was also a fantastic moment, I don't think I've ever seen the children so quiet or obedient. It was an amazing experience. Personally, I think that ambition is a very powerful thing. That said, simply through GVI organising trips like this for the children, helps them to realise their ambitions and give them reason to work hard in school. I hope there are more like this in the future.

Ned Poulter, August 2011

Flying High