Plans Change..........

As I look back at the past 18 months I can’t help but feel pretty good.

It was March 5th 2010 when I read the following post from Jonathan Porter, “As we finalize the build of the MoM 701, one of the staff went to pick some parts and got a surprise... She took hold of a lovely Royal Python...” He had my attention.

Jonathan listed a website and an address in Okwenya, Ghana West Africa. I took a look at his site and read about MoM and how training young women to build and fly airplanes was changing lives. It was at that moment I decided to stop talking about making a difference and actually do it. I decided to reach out to someone I didn’t know, to help people I’d never met in a country I had to look up on a map. I decided that I WOULD make a difference. I had some basic experience with website design so I thought that was a good place to start. It took some convincing but Jonathan agreed to let me work on his website to see if I could improve it. Since then I’ve been the MoM webmaster.

My plan was to build a site that would make Jonathan’s website duties easier and then be on my merry way. It’s not worked out that way.

It seems I’ve been adopted by the entire staff at MoM…. or have I adopted them? Either way I now have a new family that I love to hear from, worry about and delight in their successes. Just yesterday my wife and I were thrilled to hear that Lydia is now able to operate a wind up radio we bought for her as a physical therapy tool. We were very happy to have Jonathan, Patricia and Jenny in our home for their US trip and hope to see them again next year. If not we hope to see them at Kpong field in the next year or so.

I’ll be with MoM for a long time, doing what I can to make a difference. Sometimes it’s little things like posting messages for Jonathan so he has time to do more pressing things. Other times it’s contacting potential volunteers and chatting about how they can help. Every little bit helps. At the end of each day I know I’ve made a difference in the lives of countless people I’ll never know, and it feels good.

What are you doing TODAY to make a difference?

Clay Hollenback
MoM Volunteer Webmaster