The Wisdom of Solomons

It’s not often that you get to listen to the wisdom of Solomon. But it is even more rare to benefit from the collective wisdom of two Solomons at the same time! Yet that is exactly what I got to do on May 4 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia when I was able to introduce two friends from my past life as manager with MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship.)

Solomon Gizau was assigned to my region in the early 1990s as the first Ethiopian national to qualify as an MAF pilot. At that time, he and his family lived in Uganda, but even then, I knew his heart was set on some day returning to fly in his home country. That is exactly what he did, eventually starting the Abyssinian Air Service business with one leased Caravan aircraft and over the years, expanding it to seven Caravans, a helicopter and ten training aircraft used for his flight school. Today AAS is second only to Ethiopian Airlines as a national aviation company that trains and hires all local staff to accomplish its mission.

About that same time back in the 90s, I first met Souleymane Kouyate when I was searching for someone to recruit  for helping to open up a new program. A handsome, six-foot-plus, West Africa, Solo, as we called him, brought along two things he had picked up along the way in France—a degree in electrical engineering and a five-foot-two, blond-haired, blue-eyed wife! It’s been a pleasure watching him grow in experience and capability over the years to the point where today he serves in the same position I used to have—MAF Regional Director for Africa.

Never having met each other, I felt it would be mutually beneficial to getting these two Solomons together to see what collaboration just might arise from their collective wisdom. Finally, this last May 4^th it worked out and for half a day, along with MAF VP of Operations, Dan Whitehead

 we shared experiences, lessons learned, stories, and also some outstanding enjera wat Ethiopian food. As I expected, the insights gained were many. Here are just some of the topics we covered:

• The state of aviation regulation in Africa and how it impacts a small business start-up.
• The future use of light aviation by the church and mission community.
• The challenges of maintaining a safety-conscious aviation culture in an African context.
• The margin of profitability for a small, commercial aviation organization in Africa.
• The importance of not submitting to expected bribes by government aviation officials.
• The possibility of giving Western MAF pilots an introductory internship with AAS before beginning their ministry assignment.

 If there is anything I came away with from our time together, it was the satisfaction of knowing that despite the challenges, Africa’s future is in good hands if outstanding national leaders such as these two Solomons are at the helms of their organizations.  And, they might even have some pretty good wisdom to pass on to the rest of us non-Africans as well.