Let Them Fly

Flying into Yei, South Sudan meant that our luggage was limited to 15 kilograms or 33 pounds.  Considering that we were going for a month and that we had a strong desire to take some things to the children and widows there, this seemed at times like an impossible task.  One of the wonderful ladies at church donated about 400 little wooden airplanes to take.  This was a great option because they were very lightweight.  We distributed the first bunch of planes to the 150 orphans at Harvesters in Yei. Some of the planes were broken very quickly because with so many flying around, they were easily stepped on by some of the other children, others ended up on top of buildings or in trees. Some of the children quickly saw what was happening so they carefully took theirs apart and put it back in the little plastic bag that they came in.  For several days after you would see a plane come out here or there and a child carefully playing with it where not many other children were around to break it.  The older boys became very creative in putting together some of the broken parts and creating new planes which actually began to fly better.

 

Next we gave planes to the 47 children in Terekeka.  We cautioned them on how easily they could be broken.  With great joy, I watched them tossing their planes and chasing after them.  Then, I saw one boy step on another boy’s plane, but it was very interesting to watch what happened next.  The boy took his broken plane to the boy that had stepped on it, handed it to him, and then took the one that was still good.  Another boys plane was broken but he came up with a great idea:  he took the plane to a friend of ours and had him tie it with a string to a stick and then he flew the plane around that way. What creative children they are.

 

When our time was finished in Terekeka we took the seven hour taxi ride back across the rough roads of South Sudan.  At one point in the ride, Denver was turned around digging through our luggage and then he turned back with a bag of the planes.  What a fun idea this was: we put together airplanes and as we would pass children on the side of the road, we would toss them out the window to them.  I wish I could find the words to express just how much fun this was. The taxi driver was having so much fun with it that he would slow down and pull toward every person that we saw.  Sometimes the children would just stand there and look around with an expression that seemed to say “what just happened”.  Other children would run toward the plane with smiles and laughter, and sometimes even toward the car while we would quickly try to put more together. 

We were now back in Yei and we still have several airplanes left so one day we put them together and walked into town.  As we went we would hand them out to the children in the village. It was so much fun to see their joy and excitement.  I think we could have given away another 1000 airplanes if we would have had them. 

Denver came up with a great idea of taking these again in the future but having the words “Jesus loves you” printed on them in their native language.  Oh, that is going to be so much fun.