The day started out pretty much the same as always: I got up, sneaked into the shower, went to breakfast, came back and prepared for the students to come to class. When they returned from breakfast, they stood in formation and were informed they would not be having class this afternoon. This was news to us teachers, but teachers are always the last to find out these things anyway, so that was of no surprise. During the third period of class, one of the military personnel came in to inform us that we would actually be having one hour of class after lunch after all; the person who was coming would be arriving late. Who could be so important that we would take time off to go down to the flight line to speak with? A retired Brigadier General of the United States Air Force!
A retired General would not engender so much interest for Afghan pilots unless this general was a pilot as well, and so he was... and interestingly enough, at 89 years old, still is! But he was not just any pilot; he is a pilot that has flown numerous missions in WWII as well as flown research aircraft and taught Pakistani Pilots. Furthermore, he developed the program to help train NASA astronauts. All of this is interesting, of course, but you probably know him better for being the first person to break the sound barrier: Chuck Yeager.
The students were very excited to speak with him and asked him a ton of questions. He had his picture taken with all of them and even ate dinner with the students a couple of hours later. He seemed like a pretty nice guy with some very interesting stories to tell. All in all, I enjoyed watching the interactions.
For myself, I was told that my bosses from Kabul would be coming for a couple of days to observe classes. While we were waiting, we were told that they wouldn't be coming due to the attacks in Kabul. Apparently they got it under control because they did in fact manage to leave and made it here just a few minutes ago. So, tomorrow I will have a US Army Colonel and a Canadian Lt. Colonel observing my class and looking over the conditions here. I hope they find everything satisfactory. I am not a big fan of when higher ups come to visit, but I figure that if I am doing everything right anyway, there is no need to worry. I just hope I am doing every thing right!
A retired General would not engender so much interest for Afghan pilots unless this general was a pilot as well, and so he was... and interestingly enough, at 89 years old, still is! But he was not just any pilot; he is a pilot that has flown numerous missions in WWII as well as flown research aircraft and taught Pakistani Pilots. Furthermore, he developed the program to help train NASA astronauts. All of this is interesting, of course, but you probably know him better for being the first person to break the sound barrier: Chuck Yeager.
The students were very excited to speak with him and asked him a ton of questions. He had his picture taken with all of them and even ate dinner with the students a couple of hours later. He seemed like a pretty nice guy with some very interesting stories to tell. All in all, I enjoyed watching the interactions.
For myself, I was told that my bosses from Kabul would be coming for a couple of days to observe classes. While we were waiting, we were told that they wouldn't be coming due to the attacks in Kabul. Apparently they got it under control because they did in fact manage to leave and made it here just a few minutes ago. So, tomorrow I will have a US Army Colonel and a Canadian Lt. Colonel observing my class and looking over the conditions here. I hope they find everything satisfactory. I am not a big fan of when higher ups come to visit, but I figure that if I am doing everything right anyway, there is no need to worry. I just hope I am doing every thing right!
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