Flying High Without Ever Leaving the Ground

Every year the First Graders take a field trip out to the airport to visit SIMAir and see what we can see.  This year the Firsties were so excited, they were flying high!  I invited my friend, the elementary principal, to go with us and we were literally busting a gut because of the things coming out of one kid's mouth on the way to the airport.  They were so hilarious that we had to write them down.  Good thing I brought Bev along to transcribe them!

The two boys were sitting on the very front seat of the van where there are seat belts enough for three.  But at one point during the journey one of the boys looked down and saw an unbuckled seat belt and got scared that his friend didn't have his seat belt on.  When he realized there was an extra and his friend was still buckled in he exclaimed, "You scared me!  I thought I was going to have diarrhea!  What is diarrhea anyway?"

A little bit further down the road, we were discussing the train tracks that have just been built out near the airport and I quote the same kid, "I wish I could be a train and ride on the skis of awesomeness!"  Haha!  I don't think that that thought has crossed anyone else's mind in Niamey!

Just as we were about to turn into the airport the same kid, sighed admiringly, "I love the airport!  It's my favorite place to go for inspiration.  What is inspiration?  I don't know but I just like to use that word."

Alrighty, then!  With that kind of attitude there's no way that this field trip could be a bust.  

So we were off and running getting a quick introduction to the plane, how it moves,

and sitting in the pilot's seat.  

This little one was so excited to get to see her dad at work.

Then we got to make paper airplanes and fly them.

After which it was off to the Airport Fire Station where we got to try on the Firemen's helmets, 

watch a plane take off,

see the firetruck spray it's foamy mixture,

climb inside for a visit with the driver,

and even see the jaws of life at work!

Normally, this is where our field trip ends but this year a helicopter company has set up shop next to SIMAir so we got to climb on board a pretty big helicopter.  It could seat 12 people and can be used to medically evacuate three people.  Because of the nature of their work, I promised not to post any pictures but I did get a good laugh out of the fact that this part of the field trip appeared to be a field trip for the SIMAir pilots too, all of whom climbed on board with us and proceeded to have a discussion with the helicopter pilot about autorotation.  You know it wasn't the first graders who brought that up!  Though I must say that they did sit there with rapt attention.  Their attentiveness was rewarded with a bag of American Skittles from the helicopter pilot.  A sweet end to a very fun field trip!