This is the first time I have communicated with FWC folks in a long , long time. I joined the school in 1976 and graduated in 1980. Went on to be co-director in Kenya and teach at NA Campus before moving on to other experiences.

Kirk - Great to read your comments. Thoughtful and in the true tradition of what our FWC education was all about. Nice to connect again after all these years.

Brett- Regarding legends - I was the one who pulled the student away from the coffee processor on Kai when her scalp was ripped off. She bled into unconciousness in my arms. Then student and now my wife, Sally Smith Christ, and I both rushed her to Machakos for surgery, she was pronouced dead because they could not get her pulse but we then bribed an ambulance to take her to Nairobi where we found an italian surgeon who could still feel her faint pulse. Its a long story but she lived and today is an accomplished professor of Africa history, as Kirk mentioned. I literally bumped into her in an elevator years ago at an Africa studies conference. She had no recollection of what happened that day on Kai which is good. It is story with a very happy ending but just one story of many, many others in my FWC memory ( by the way, there was no motto about Drugs, F*** natives and the rest of it you said you had heard about. There was some drugs, pairing up of students and alot of thinking about the world we live in ( and listening to Bob Marley's new recordings).

To other FWC'ers or the newer batch - I do not know about the school these days and I imagine and hope it is still a good place. What I can say about my own expereince is that it literally changed my life. This was the most powerful education I have ever had or perhaps will have in my life. Did it serve me well? I noticed that some on the tribe asked about where an FWC education can lead you. It opened doors that I would have never imagined were possible for a blue collar kid from an immigrant family in New Jersey.

I went on to become the Regional Director for Africa and Asia Studies Abroad at the School for International Training. Set up an adventure travel company with my wife Sally who is also an FWC grad (she runs the business -www.tamusafaris.com), became Peace Corps Director in Uganda and then Belize, became Senior Director at Conservation International supervising community conservation projects in 22 countries and today where a few different hats including being a contributing editor and monthly columnist for National Geographic Adventure Magazine and working on my first book: "Always Face the Lion: An Unexpected Journey Through Africa" The point is this: I have known many FWC students who have gone on to do the most amazing work and they are still at it whether it is being active in their communities or blazing new trails of one form or another. Those of you who joined FWC in later years join a tradition and a school that has an amazing history of great people. Sure, many students went down the drain at FWC because they could not cope with the demands - as Kirk said, the journals were to high a hurdle for some. As was the heavy dose of independence.

To bring it all home in a funny way, I was in Placencia, Belize some months ago, working on a story and an old gray haired man rides up on his bicycle looking like some former colonial settler. He asked me what I was up to and when I mention to him that I was writing something about the community organizing a sustainable tourism plan for the area, he tells me he used to be a writer for the New York Times, smoked four packs of cigarettes a day, worked 7 days a week but then met someone who changed his life and he left it all behind him. I asked him to tell me who it was and he said," A
guy with an idea to create a new school where everyone would travel the world and learn from expereince". "Really", I said, "Who was he?" H ethen goes on to tell me, "His name was Morris Mitchell and I joined him to co-found a school with called Friends World College". I pratically fell down and when I told him I was an FWC grad he practically fell off his bike. I And here we both were in a fishing village in Belize and he tells me he joined Morris Mitchell in co-founding FWC!

Enough rambling from this "old timer", just some random thoughts that come to mind about FWC. Sally and I live on a farm in Maine now with two boys and two dogs. We still travel each year for work and out of habit. Our sons ( 14 and 17) think that half of what we tell them about our FWC experiences is BS. And they haven't even heard the real interesting stuff yet!


Thanks for putting together this FWC "tribe" site. I have enjoyed reading many of the entries. The next entry will be Sally's turn.