by Wilfried Eckholt

After ten years of flying dual line stunt kites and having flown many different stunt kites and most of the figures, I wanted the challenge of something new. After considering several options, I mused, "How about fighter kites?" At Berck and Dieppe, I watched with with fascination ... Herman, Phillipe, Francois and Christophe ... fighting in the evening hours. Whenever they flew, I'd watch.

I proposed the idea to my friends, and after a brief discussion, we decided to go for it!

I searched the stores around my home, and found only three fighter kites. ----- We didn't know how to fly them, but we were determined... we persisted These three fighters took a great deal of abuse and soon had to be replaced. What were we to do? Build new ones with nylon and fiberglass? That would mean breaking a tradition. Perhaps we could order some directly from India...

I began to search the Internet and soon found them: Indian fighter kites...the Mercedes of fighters, I read. No doubt about it; I had to order them.

The order was placed on September 23, 1999, and a confirmation arrived two days later via E-mail. The shipping and handling charges for air mail equaled the price of the kites, but that didn't matter to us. We just wanted our kites to arrive as soon as possible. I purchased a money order for a bank in India.

A package mailed from the US takes about two weeks to arrive in Germany, and we predicted it might take a bit longer coming from India. After three weeks, my friends began asking...."Have they arrived yet?" No... not yet... Even after four weeks...nothing. An E-mail query to the manufacturer yielded a reply that the money had not yet arrived. Then I made some inquiries to the German bank and was told that the money would take up to three months to get there. Furthermore, they explained, banks in India tend to hold the money for a long time before delivering it to the customer. I was astonished! Surely they had little to gain from $200.

On October 24, I received a message informing me that the money had arrived at the manufacturer. One month had passed.

As if the delay wasn't enough, the more people I spoke to, the more times I was faced with the subject of child labor practices in India. More than likely, the kites would be made by children, they said. My colleagues countered, it would be easier work for children than some of the alternatives such as carpet weaving or begging. With some relief, I agreed... I can't solve the problem of child labor.

Anyway..... time flies. December 29th and still no fighters in sight. I sent ANOTHER E-mail to the manufacturer. This time they apologized for forgetting my kites and assured me that the kites would arrive in two or three days. I accepted this, as it seemed like everything had turned out okay, despite the delays. The "two or three days" stretched into five and the kites finally arrived on January 6, 2000. My wife called me at work, describing the paper/linen package. I was shocked, and justifiably so -- 50% of the kites were damaged. Not surprising, considering how they were packaged with so little protection. While I was unpacking them, I noticed that three of them had a heart in the middle .... which made me wonder again, who builds these kites -- adults or children?

Still... we had our kites and now we could begin to learn how to fly them and how to fight with them. The next order is on its way to India. I hope that this time the story will have a better ending......