My dearest people,
I have visited over half of the countries on the planet during my lifetime. But I have never once experienced such a shocking and chilling event as I have here in Mauritania.
Did you know that during the hardest times of our life, during our darkest hours, through the war, the killing and loss of loved ones at home that we were not alone? Did you know that there were actually people in other parts of our planet who were praying all along and who were feeling the sorrow and the sadness of our souls?
The people here in Mauritania are from a completely different part of our planet. They have a completely different background than us who live as far away as Kosovo. But despite the distance, the people here have felt our pain. These beautiful, caring, loving, sharing souls have been sharing our hard times.
My friends, never in my lifetime did I ever imagine that there would be a little Kosovo on the other side of the world. Through this mission I have learned a lot. But this simple fact, that we have brothers and sisters on the other side of the planet who have named a suburb of their town after us, might be the most shocking and heart-warming thing of all. This experience will be remembered until the end of my days.
Walking into Nouakchott, Mauritania was like walking into a dream. The amazing people of this place have a soul that is rare to find. Eleven years ago, they decided to share our love and our sorrow. During our hardest times, when we were suffering through our war, they decided to show the world and the people of Kosovo the highest form of respect and honor. In the name of solidarity, they chose to name a subdivision of their capital Nouakchott after us.
It was so powerful to meet with the local children and hearing them call their homes Kosovo. If you ask anyone (young or old) in this great city about us, they all know where we are located and they know about our history. They know, my friends, because some of them live in Kosovo right here in Mauritania! This giant subdivision will always carry our names, our people, our nation, our identity.
Today, my tears would not stop coming down as I walked down the streets of this subdivision in the dry lands of Africa. The sun was shining and dust was blowing from the winds of the desert. But I am sitting in a place called Kosovo. Our home away from home.
I was able to walk in Kosovo, away from Kosovo. Their mosque is the mosque of Kosovo. Their school is the school of Kosovo. Their outdoor market… Kosovo. And so on. Here, in this great city, the word Kosovo is repeated countless times throughout the day, every day.
These tears and this great feeling of love have fulfilled me today. No experience in my life so far has been this touching or had such magnitude. I am walking on the clouds. I feel like the entire world is mine right now. I only hope that you can feel and experience the tremendous amount of love and humanity that these beautiful people have shown us. The solidarity that they have given us. The people of the great country of Mauritania have heard our voice and have recognized our independence!
These people have so much love and compassion. They have shown such strong solidarity with us. But they also struggle. They struggle daily just to feed their families and loved ones. Despite this, they were still able to think about people all the way on the other side of the planet who were also going through a hard time in their lives.
I bet that you never knew that there were people here in Mauritania who have sacrificed for us, despite their own suffering. Elderly people were selling their precious jewelry, their golden belongings, just so they could raise money and send it to you, my people. When we were homeless, with no shelter, no basic necessities like food, clothing and security, they were trying to raise money for us.
I hope that you, my people of Kosovo, read these words carefully. Please, let us all do something to give back to these amazing and caring people.I hope that one day, we can all connect with these wonderful people of Nouakchott to try and build something together, so that we can all progress and prosper together. Lets not forget that there is love to be shared and help to be given, so that we can all have better lives and sunny days with our people and our loved ones. The people in Nouakchott, Mauritania have shown us such strong solidarity during our darkest hour. Now that our nation is stronger, let’s show the people of Kosovo, Mauritania our solidarity and remember to help these loving people, our brothers and sisters who struggle today on the other side of the planet.
Lastly, I don’t want to forget to mention a few of the amazing people that I met during my visit. Mohamed Fall Ould Oumeir wrote an excellent article about my visit here. He is very knowledgeable about Kosovo and even surprised me with some things that I did not know. He is quite familiar with our history and our great writers like Ismail Kadare. Moussa Samba Sy is also an amazing person with a great background. He really seemed to have a passion about our Albanian culture. Finally, I don’t want to forget to mention my awesome friend Ablaye Benjelloun, who acted as my local tour guide and accompanied me the whole time, making sure that I had everything that I needed during my stay.
My friends, let’s remember to show our solidarity and help our friends here in Kosovo away from Kosovo.
