I remember from an early age enjoying the nighttime sky. I’ve always been awestruck at gazing at the stars, watching for a falling star, looking for constellations like the Big Dipper and looking at the moon. At a very early age I would have been taught that blinking lights in the nighttime sky are airplanes, especially growing up so close to an Air Force Base.

We rarely go outside at night. The main reason we don’t is to try and prevent contracting malaria. Between dusk and dawn is the most probable time to be bit by the type of mosquito that carries malaria. We don’t take prophylaxis for a few reasons, so we need to take precautions like staying in during the time when the malaria mosquitoes are out, having screens on our windows & doors and sleeping under mosquito nets.

We are part of a small group who meets after the sun goes down. Side note: we have roughly twelve hours of daylight everyday all year round. The sun sets at approximately 6:30 p.m. daily. While we were walking to the car to go home after small group, Jonah looked up into the nighttime sky to admire the stars and said, “Whoa, that star is blinking and moving.” I looked up and noticed he was watching an airplane in the nighttime sky. I told him that was an airplane. He responded saying it’s cool and asked if the planes we ride in look like that at night to other people. It dawned at me at that moment that he hasn’t been exposed to star gazing or enjoying the night sky, so he hasn’t learned certain things like what an airplane looks like in the nighttime sky.