Prepping for the NY Times Travel Show at the Cahill School in Saugerties

I had a wonderful speaking gig today and the audience was very astute, better questions I have never been asked and that includes last years New York Times Travel Show. I spoke to Sally Provansano DePoala’s third grade class as well as two other third classes. Kudos to those teachers and the Cahill School in Saugerties, the future looks bright at least when these third graders take the main stage here in the US. Polite, interested and obviously well informed.

I had a rough time preparing last night; I mean what can you tell a third grader about Kenya and the people of the Masai? Plenty it turned out. I put together a DVD of dancers and animals praying that would hold their attention, it did better than Avatar, or at least this group was gracious enough to make me feel so. What really amazed me was the number and quality of questions asked after they watched the DVD. I must confess they stumped me, several times. I am still pondering the question of how the Masai brush their teeth. It is thought that only one in every four Americans has a passport, horrible by international standards. I got more pleasure speaking to these kids than they will ever know, it made me feel that our future looks bright and I haven’t felt that way in a long time!