Flying for Kosovo

Dear friends, sometimes it feels like progress is being made at a much slower pace than I would like.  One thing that I can say for sure though is that we are finally heading northbound towards Europe.  After so many struggles and difficulties, this thought brings me some peace of mind.

Malawi is one of those great nations that have already recognized our independence, so my visit here will be one of gratitude.  Remember, part of the promise of our mission is to visit nations that have already recognized so that we can show them our gratitude toward.  We are very lucky to have friends like Malawi who have heard our voices and given us an opportunity to be a part of the same big family on nations on this planet.

While on approach to Malawi, I am being bounced around all over the place as the weather is definitely not cooperating.  Here we are facing strong winds and I have to fly through several heavy rainstorms in a row.  My friends, I do not recommend this for those with a weak bladder.

Unfortunately, weather does not mean much down here as it would in other places.  Usually, flight regulations are very sensitive when it comes to weather and, in a normal world, you would be able to land anywhere and get AVGAS with no problems.  Of course, you would also have access to things like great facilities, good service and safe and secure pilot areas, not to mention a place for in case you are forced to spend the night inside the facility.

Here in Africa though, it’s a whole different story.  If you do find yourself in the unfortunate situation of needing to make an unscheduled landing, you could find yourself in a hellish situation, spending your days in the wrong place at the wrong time without being able to leave when you would like.  Remember, we are dealing with nonsense permits and authorizations down here all of the time which are regulated by insane bureaucrats who have no clue about general safety and/or the aviation field in general.

It’s not always the individual staff members, but their supervisors and dysfunctional governments that make these outlandish decisions which end up causing a safety hazard to aviation.  All of those permits that I speak of are only good for your exact planned route, exact airport landings, exact days, etc.  This could make your life miserable if you have to land unplanned or change routes and/or days, because it means that you must then be prepared to endure hell and misery for doing so.

Down here, there is no such thing as saying ‘oh great, I see an airport, let me just stop to wait out the weather, or land for personal and/or physical needs.  Forget it my friends, these are not even options down here on this continent and if you decide to choose this route, then you are forced to deal with uneducated people who have no clue what you may have been faced with up in those skies.  That unscheduled stop usually results in more astronaumical fees, spending extra time and money on getting a new permit and a number of days of wait time until it is authorized.

No my friends, weather problems do not appear to be taken seriously down here, extreme situations or not.  So, this left me with no choice but to get bounced around like a ping-pong ball on my way to Malawi and pray for the weather to improve so that I wouldn’t be blown back to someplace like the Congo.

It was late afternoon when I finally approached the international airport of Lilongwe.  As usual, it was the first time in my life that I had visited this airport and that experience seems to be one that I have done all too often.  Though I am in no way complaining about the work that I’ve chosen to do, it can sometimes be a very large and lonely world out there when you continue to move from place to place with no home.  At every stop you must quickly learn the local customs, local regulations, etc.  If you don’t catch on quickly, then you run the risk of wearing an even bigger dollar sign than the one that most people already see when you arrive.  Of course, it doesn’t help that I stand out like a light bulb down here where the local people are darker skinned.

This stop is unusual for me in another way however as I am quickly approaching the expiration date of both my certified flight instructor license (‘CFI’) and my medical clearance certificate, which need to be kept on file back in the USA.  These two documents are necessary for any pilot and need to be up to date at all times due to professional standards that are set and must be followed.  If I were to let my license or medical certificate expire, then it would be the end of our mission folks and a lot of extra time and money to get them reinstated.

For those reasons, I simply had to get back to the states before they expired.  Though I was not looking forward to the long journey back there, I had no other option but to plan a short visit.  Please see my special post ‘A Necessary Trip to the States’ for the description of my time there.

Back to the mission my friends.  I arrived in Lilongwe Malawi on Sunday afternoon and went straight to a hotel in the downtown area. Ladies and gentlemen, my head hit the pillow in to the early afternoon and I slept straight through until the next morning.  For those of you that know me, this behavior is highly unusual.

After that refreshing nights sleep, I was up early Monday morning and ready to work hard for our mission.  I wanted to get back on schedule and leave for Comoros on Tuesday, so I was focused on getting everything accomplished in one day.  I need to thank the media people here in Malawi for making that possible.  None of them seemed to give me the familiar run around that I have faced in some countries.

Here in Africa, I have noticed that many countries tend to have just one or two telelvision stations (often owned by the government), but tend to have much more of a selection when it comes to newspapers and radios.  Usually, I am able to select the media outlets that cover our mission.  I have to be careful about this decision as I don’t want to get into situations where the local paper is either too religious or scandelous.  Since I don’t want our cause to be associated with anything negative or radical, I try to choose those outlets that are most reputable and honest.  This way, our message can get out to the people as accurately as possible.

When making the media decision, I often rely on the help of local people.  Nearly all of them are honest and sincere right away and direct me to the right places.  I try to get the opinion of several people right and that information helps me to quickly decide which media houses to try.  I find that keeping little notes about what they I have heard will usually help me when its time to request an interviews.  It would be impossible to keep all of that information straight in my head otherwise.

Sometimes, however, the information that I am given sends me in the wrong direction.  I have experienced a few times where certain people have overheard me talking about a specific media outlet and try to sway my opinion away from it.  This seems to happen most when those people are working for the government and don’t want me to go to the outlets that tend to bring to light any criticism of how things are run.  Those are the governments that really don’t want the public to hear that kind of information and don’t want to be confronted with their own bad behaviors.

Here in Malawi, I’d like to thanks to the great team at The Guardian newspaper, Ms. Lucy Kadzongwe, who authorized my interview with Mr. William Kumwembe and I owe a big thank you to Mr. Singayazi Kaminjolo at The Nation for his great article that was published the very next morning.  Lastly, thanks to Mr. Suzgo Khunga at the Daily Times Malawi for his time and care toward our cause.

At the national television station MBL (or Malawi Broadcasting Corporation), Mr. Chawezi Banda did a wonderful job with our interview and was on his show Good Morning Malawi.  He had a good list of questions prepared and was ready within minutes before the actual interview.  Mr. Baxter Nkhoma from MBC Radio (also a national station) also did a great job.

The country of Malawi is quite beautiful.  Everything is very green here and there is a positive energy in the air.  I don’t know if it is just that I’m getting older or that I have changed a lot during this mission, but it seems that I have become more judgemental of each country over time.  I have learned to gather input about a few basic elements upon landing and find myself quickly forming an opinion of the area based on that information. Within hours, I am aware of how well the country is functioning, how organized and accessible the systems are to use, some strengths and obstacles that the nation faces and, most of all, I learn right away what the charcteristics of the local people are and how they react to outsiders.

For instance, in some countries I have been faced with populations who view outsiders as a walking dollar sign.  They offer no sympathy for any struggles that they might make you go through and are most definitely not concerned about your comfort to say the least.  All that they care about is figuring out how to get some US dollars out of you, how that behavior might affect their future generations, or how you perceive their country and talk about it back home with your friends.  The present moment is most important thing to them and they look at you as if you were wearing clothes made out of USD or Euros themselves, often offering their services to you just to make a buck (whether you asked for them or not) or regardless of whether they actually intend to provide that service.

But that has not been my experience here in Malawi folks.  I only learned later this country has been nicknamed ‘the heart of Africa’, but I definitely knew that for myself after just a few short hours on the ground.  The people here are very friendly and actually want to provide quality service to you.  It is more important to them that you are comfortable than it is for them to get paid first and up front.  Throughout my entire stay, I was consistently greeted by friendly people who wanted to make my stay here as comfortable as possible.

It’s amazing to me when I experience this human warmth, because I also start to see very quickly some of the difficulties that the local culture must face.  When I see people who struggle everyday with daily life and they are being nice instead of taking it out on you, then I have the highest respect for them and it changes my whole perspective toward them.  It seems that a simple smile or a thank you can change your whole outlook about a country and/or spending money there.  It makes me glad to pay them for their hard work instead of biting my tongue and giving someone money for a needed service, even though they are being a moron and may not even provide it to you anyway.  Experiencing friendly and welcoming local people helps to re-energize my battery at times as, even though I am often broke and struggling, having a nice atmosphere and positive energy around you makes a huge difference in your outlook towards life.

Later, I found out that part of the reason for Malawi’s friendliness is that there are many non-governmental organizations stationed here in Lilongwe and even a few foreign corporations.  So as a rule, it is in the best interest of the people to be accomodating to outsiders as the country has relied heavily on that outside investment and assistance.  Since Lilongwe has many foreign nationals living there, the city tries to make them feel comfortable through their hospitality and availability of services. But remember, locals here are still very poor by Western standards. Even though they may be working in the city to provide a high level of friendly service to you, many of the people here are unable to even imagine being able to afford those same services.  They are often faced with tremendous challenges in their daily lives and obstacles such as electricity, lack of running water, diseases, etc.).  On the other hand though, it does appear that the different classes of people here in Malawi manage to live in harmony, unlike some of the other countries that I’ve visited.

After a successful day of work and pleasant interactions, I was ready for a good nights rest before heading to Comoros.  I want to again thank all of the media people here who were excellent and I don’t want to forget my taxi driver, Mr. Paul Lizimba, who is a great human being and drove me around during my time in Malawi.

The comfort and friendliness of Malawi will be missed very much.

The Guardian PDF

Malawi PDF

My dear friends: though some of the information that I have for you is not directly related to the mission’s overall goal, I oftentimes find it necessary to share some of the daily struggles that I face in order that you might better understand the context of our mission work.  Here in Zimbabwe for example, I was shocked to learn that they are continuing to struggle with appropriate currency and don’t even use one that is their own.  There are currently four different currencies being used in this country (US dollar, British pound, South African rand and Botswana’s pula) and I have to be honest, this fact was very hard for me to understand as it makes things as simple as buying a newspaper much more difficult than they need to be.  Things often have four different prices listed on them and the process of buying something becomes can sometimes become quite difficult.

The primary reason for this issue is that Zimbabwe has experienced tremendous inflation in recent years (the second worst inflation spike in history) and the countries currency could not keep up.  Though a $Z100 trillion banknote was created in 2009 due to high prices, the Finance Minister then announced that the country would be permitted to use other, more stable currencies.

The reasons for the inflation are speculative, however many believe that it stems back to the President’s redistribution of farmland in the 2000.  During that time whites (a very small minority of the population) reportedly owned nearly 70% of farmable land and President Mugabe evicted nearly 4000 white farmers in attempts to equalize ownership.   This resulted in a flood of refugees to neighboring countries, hyperinflation many US sanctions and nearly 80% local unemployement. 

After redistribution, the once farmable land was affected by continuos drought, lack of finance and a tremendous reduction in agricultural (which had been the country’s leading export).  This led to shortages in important things like fuel and other consumer goods and forced many people to buy their goods from neighboring countries as far away as 500-1000km during that time.  Though workers often received wages, there was no way that they could keep up with local inflation prices.  Many residents fled permanently from the country and there are currently over one million people within the country today who live away from their homes.

In addition, taxes and tariffs for any private enterprise caused many companies not to invest in Zimbabwe.  In 2008 there were reports of corruption in the areas of government, diamonds and currency.  US sanctions were enforced and human rights organizations reported that the government of Zimbabwe violated the rights to shelter, food, freedom of movement and residence, freedom of assembly and the protection of the law.

 The countries landscape has also struggled as a result of inflation.  Though still beautiful and picturesque from above, the scenery has changed tremendously.  The once lush forestland with pleantiful wildlife has now become deforested and eroded.  There is no longer a substantial amount of fertile soil available and poverty, population growth, poaching and lack of fuel have led to a reduction in local wildlife as well.

One thing that shocked me in the other direction, my friends, was the upkeep of the international airport.  It was in working condition and clean.  The best part: when I attempted to clear customs, I was told not to worry about it, that it was not a concern and to have a nice day.  They didn’t require my passport and I didn’t need a visa in order to enter the country.  This is so very different from all of the other countries that I’ve visited, but nonetheless appreciated.

Another thing that I enjoyed was that, unlike most other countries in Africa, the airport here seems much closer to town.  Usually, I have had to spend a ton of money to go from the airport to the local city, but not here.  I was pleasantly surprised that the two were so close to each other and that I could catch a break on this one.

 Since it was approaching the weekend upon my arrival, I had not choice but to wait to do our mission work.  Plus, I still had to wait for a permit to land in Malawi before I could leave this country anyway.  At least the mission work was spread out nicely because of this. 

As far as the media is concerned, one thing that I have learned from my travels here in Africa is that it is often the case that one media organization ends up owning a bunch of subsidiary newspapers, television and radio stations at once.  This can be a great thing or a it can be dreadful because if you get rejected from one outlet, you are likely to be rejected from the others since they are all controlled by one source.

At least here I was able to get a few interviews and I am thankful to all of the media who helped to make our cause known to the public and to local government officials.  Thanks to Mr. Nevanji Madanhire with the newspaper The Standard.  He authorized my interview with Mr. Owen Gagare with the newspaper NewsDay, which is the first privately owned daily newspaper to be published in over seven years.  Mr. Gagare was very detailed and knowledgeable about Kosovo. 

Thanks to More Tirivashowa with the government newspaper The Herald for his time and effort in covering our cause.  Thank you to Mr. Zivisai W. Chagaka with The Financial Gazette for his hard work and dedicaiton toward expressing our wishes to country and finally, thank you to Mr. Reagan Mashavave with the Daily News newspaper.

Mr. Freedom Moyo and the team at the national station TV Zimbabwe were also wonderful.  Mr. Moyo was able to organize a live interview for me with his coworker Mr. Jonathan Hunzvi, which was transmitted nationally.

At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I have to thank the Deputy Director of Protocol, Mr. Claudius D. Nhema and his coworker in the European Department, Mr.Canisius Tanyanyiwa.  Both gentlemen showed a great sense of care and dedication towards Kosovo’s independence and promised to follow up with their bosses.  I was assured that they would do everything within their power to help our nation succeed. 

In the capital city of Harare, I was greeted by a landscape similar to any other city of the world.  The main difference, though, was that the struggles of the local people were evident everywhere you looked.  Again, due to high inflation that has occurred here, many people still struggle to meet daily needs.  Electricity is a problem, as it is in many of the African countries that I’ve traveled so far and some remote and rural areas go without any power whatsoever.  Similarly, these rural areas also lack access to running water.  Folks, it is sad to encounter so many people around this world that don’t even have access to the basic necessities that we in the Western world take for granted every day.  Here, things like running water, electricity, accessible roads, schools, hospitals, etc. are not readily available.  It pains me to imagine the difficulty of daily life that some people face and I am reminded of the ease of modern day life back in the States.  Today, I am trule grateful for the fact that I have been blessed with such small things.

 One thing that I haven’t mentioned yet is that, by traveling in countries that are so close to each other down here, I often find that I am running into relatives of someone that I had met in a previous country.  This is the case here in Zimbabwe.  It was a pleasure to meet the family of Ms. Kudakwangu Chisweto (whom interviewed me for One Africa back in Namibia).  Her mother and two sisters provided me with a small sense of meeting family in a home away from home.

Lastly, I can’t forget to thank my taxi driver, Mr. Joseph Mazarura.  He was such a polite, humble gentelman who was very polite during our drives around town completing our mission work.

Despite all of the struggles that I have seen here in Africa, there is always hope within the wonderful people that I meet.  No matter what circumstances I find them in, they always manage to present such optimism in the face of the big, messy governments that rule down here.  Although one would think differently, I have not seen much pessimism down here at all.  If it were people from the USA or Europe experiencing conditions like this, I think that the situation would be much different and you would be hearing lots of screaming going on day and night.  But with these great people it’s different.  They still manage to have hope in their lives, which is truly a gift to bear witness to.

Next country is Malawi.  Bless you all here in Zimbabwe.

News Day

Zimbabwe Press PDF

The Financial Gazette

Bulawayo24 NEWS

The Financial Gazette PDF

The Herald

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Very short distance today between Swaziland and Mozambique, but there is a huge difference in the infrastructure, organization, road system, cleanliness, etc.  The changes between these two countries are quite noticeable.  I suppose that part of this may be because Mozambique is a much larger country with many more people in it.  It’s comparable in size and, whereas Swaziland had a population of a little over a million people, Mozambique has well over 22 million.  I would imagine that it’s a bit harder to keep things neat and clean with so many people.

It’s so refreshing for me to be traveling north my friends.  Just knowing that I am on my up the continent of Africa and have reached over half of the continent gives me a small sense of relief that this portion of the mission will be coming to an ending at some point.  It helps me stay focused as I can now see a small light at the end of the tunnel.

Another thing that makes me happy here in this country is that I get to travel along a small portion of the Indian Ocean coastline.  It is refreshing and there is a different feel to it than there was on the Atlantic side of the continent.  And its actually a bit warmer here than in Swaziland.

I am feeling comfortable already and am sending thanks to God for the few Spanish speaking skills that I have acquired over my travels.  Since this country was once a territory of Portugal, Portuguese is the official language here. Though I definitely don’t have many skills in speaking that one, my Spanish is allowing me to get by fairly okay and at least helps me get my point across so that I can get my mission work done.

Remember, there are tons of different languages being spoken here in Africa every day.  Luckily, the culture here is that there is also a lot of trade going on across countries and cultures, so the people tend to pick up on each each others languages fairly quickly.  Even though they may not speak it perfectly, it is usually possible to carry on a brief conversation or make business transactions.

That fact has been my saving grace down here.  I am especially fortunate in the arena of all of the media communication that I have done.  Many of the journalists that I meet generally speak in their primary language, but because of their familiarity with either English, French or Spanish, we have been able to get by and I have been able to get my point across as far as the mission work is concerned.

Regardless of language, I have learned over the past two years that the most important qualities to have when communicating with others are those of tolerance, forgiveness, understanding and compassion for others.  When you present those qualities, it often translates into showing respect for the other person, no matter what their culture is, what language they speak, what race they are, what country there are from, etc.  When this magic happens, you end up finding solutions to many problems that may come up along the way.

I arrived in Maputo in the early afternoon and attacked work right away.  There have been lots of times, folks, where upon arrival to a new country, I don’t even check into a hotel right away because I am trying to make my brief stay as productive as possible and get our message delivered to the people and the government in the most efficient and effective way possible.  As a result, I am usually able to get my work done fairly quickly by taking advantage of official office hours, etc. to work and then do my personal business after hours in order to avoid spending days and days in one nation.  Remember, our planet has 192 countries and if I ended up taking my sweet time then James would never finish anything, so I have to get to work right away when I arrive in each country and be as efficient as possible.

There have been many times where I don’t see anything in a country except what their media houses and Ministry of Foreign Affairs offices look like, unless I have to take a particularly long taxi ride in order to get there.  This work is often in the capital of each country and so I am only able to see these two privileged perspectives as opposed to spending more time with the local people and exploring more of the regional nature that I would like.  But my friends, we have to get the word out about Kosovo to as many people as possible and the way our mission runs, almost broke all of the time, I don’t want to take up our precious time or finances acting like a tourist.  We have a serious request and I am on this mission in order to present our case for recognition to the rest of the world.

The media houses here in Mozambique were actually very receptive to our cause.  Thank you to all of the wonderful journalists here who have helped our people by using their professions and positions in life to help us gain strength and recognition around the world.  Thank you to my friends at the newspaper Noticias, Mr. Alcides Tamele and Mr. Aboobacar Amade for their valuable time in their help in sharing our mission and our cause with their country.

A big thank you to my friends at the national radio station, Radio Mozambique and Mr. Aderito Lipanga, a very detailed journalist who was well spoken and a very humble human being with great character.

Thanks to Mr. Adilson Mahomed Dos Santos Taju, with STV television and the newspaper O Pais, for his meticulous work and dedication to delivering a high quality story that would have great impact on his people.  He actually had something prepared and played on television within just a few hours of our interview.  And I can’t forget to thank Mr. Francisco Carmona, Redactor in Chief with newspaper Savana, who had lots of knowledge about Kosovo’s past history and our problems in the Balkans overall.
Finally, thank you to the wonderful team and Televisao de Mocambique (TVM) for their interest and to Mr. Admiro Feliciano and his cameraman Mr. Samuel Canda for their wonderful work during our interview.

At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Antonio Bambissa, Directory Adjoint (Deputy Director) for the Europe and America’s Division was gracious with his time, even though I had no prearanged meeting scheduled.  Vlora Citaku’s letter was hand delivered to him and he assured me that if there was anything that he was able to do in his power within the Ministry that he would do so to help further recognition of Kosovo as an independent nation.

Most of my taxi drivers were okay here in Mozambique, except for a few dishonest, unreliable, greedy drivers.  I have been very lucky, folks, that this hasn’t happened to me more often during my mission and that, in general, most of my drivers have been quite helpful.  I do want to thank Mr. Denis Vilancules though. He really helped me out during my stay in his country and helped me to gain the most productivity from my very short visit here.

After working on this mission for the last two years, I have been through so many changes, challenges and experiences, but one thing that does make me happy is to know that a majority of the nations that I have visited so far actually agree 100% that we should be considered an independent country.  Two years ago, I would never have guessed that this was true.

But this does not mean that we should stop working on this cause now just wait for things to happen.  We must still continue to demonstrate to our world that we are serious in this area and that we are ready to begin a relationship with all of the nations around the world.  We must also take this opportunity to continue building relations with the countries that we have already visited.  This does not mean that I should have to go back to every one of them for a follow up visit, but that each and every one of us begin to think of ways that we can contribute to furthering our nations position worldwide.

As Albanians and Kosovars, we each have a duty and an obligation to demonstrate our capacities to the world so that they will continue to hear our message.  We must all use our individual talents that we have been given so that we can further contribute to society, the world, humanity, peace, etc.  As a new nation, we have no choice now but to do our part and demonstrate to the world that we can show strength and perservere in being recognized and that we actually have the capacity to be stable politically, economically, socially, etc.  We need to continue to harness the power that we have within all of our individual abilities in order to demonstrate to the world that, as a nation, we can become a contributing member to the world community and that we do not intend to settle for mediocrity.  I hope that you all will find your own individual ways to help our country become stronger in these areas and live up to what we all know our Kosova can be.

Back here in Mozambique though, it looks like this country is trying to grow stronger as well.  It is unfortunate, but this country maintained a civil war from the late 70’s through to the early 90’s.  Because of that, there were many people who fled from here as refugees and the economy was not as strong as it could be.  I see here though that they are trying to improve things since then and that there is great potential for future growth and success.  There are many dynamic, hard working, welleducated, aware and wonderful people here too, like Kosovo, which puts both of our countries in a position to progress in a positive direction.  All that remains to do is to put all of our talents to work and to use so that our nations can play an even bigger role in the world – for Kosovo with Europe and for Mozambique with Africa.  Despite the common struggles that I see, things could turn around fairly easily if things move in the right direction.

Maputo overall seems very well develped, except for a few improvements that might need to be made here and there and looks fairly similar to any other European city that I have seen.  There is some construction being started which is a positive sign for their economy I would guess and the locals tell me that most of the people who fled during the civil war have returned, which is also helping the economy to grow.  It definitely takes a village to grow a nation and progress cannot be gained when there are only a few people here and there contributing to efforts such as this. There is tremendous opportunity to be made if we all begin to realize that we are all responsible for our future success and that we each have certain strengths that can be given towards leading us in that direction.

The next country for me will be Zimbabwe, which I am looking forward to visiting and seeing what progress has been made their after the sky rocketing inflation that they experienced a few years ago.

God bless our neighbor Mozambique.

Premiero Journal

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This country is beautiful, clean, with a nice location.  The topography is that of some mountainous areas along with much farmland.  The infrastructure is great and the people are also very nice and friendly here.  The weather here was great upon my arrival in the mid afternoon.  I was able to enjoy some of the nice countryside by taking pictures during the entire time that I was here.

This country is very small in size.  Though it is a little bigger than Kosovo, it has nearly ½ of the people that we do back home.  Part of that is because the population hasn’t grown in awhile due to the debilitating AIDS epidemic and many adults now have a lower life expectancy.  On the other hand, I have seen so much strength and determination in the eyes of people in the last few countries.  They are committed to finding an end to this current struggle and have been some of the best people that I have met in my life.

After landing in the capital city, Mbabane, I find that it is quite small but refreshing, as it means that there are not enough people to run you over like they would in a bigger town.   The people here also seem very relaxed and not stressed out at all.  I guess they must have been practicing that lifestyle for a while since this place is known to have had residents living here as far back as 25,000 B.C.

I feel good about trying to find another bed and breakfast here because I see that the city seems very neat and clean, so I will have to worry a little less about our little mouse friends visiting me in the night.

Folks, it feels so good to be visiting this country.  The main reason: Swaziland is one of the nations that have graciously recognized our independence so I will be speaking with the media and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to thank them for their swift action and the good things that they have done for us.  Remember, part of our mission is to visit these countries too in order to thank them and not ignore the ones that have already recognized us.  At least I get the sense that my mission work here will be fairly quick, easy and laid back since the people here are also relaxed.  Being such a small nation, they will probably only have a few newspapers, but I do want to be sure to get a television interview as well, since nowadays that is the best way to communicate your message to people.

It’s Sunday night when I arrive, so I am able to check into the B & B, put my luggage down and go for a small walk to take pictures and familiarize myself with the surroundings.  I spot a beautiful plaza area with a charming little shopping mall in the heart of town.  Wouldn’t you know it though, that right this beautiful spot is where all of the taxis, mini-buses and other transportation run as well.  They have an outdoor market in this same location, so you can imagine the type of chaos that this scenario may produce sometimes.

It also appears that city life here starts very early in the morning but also finishes very early in the evening.  The people here often leave to go home earlier in the day to get to their home on the outskirts of town.  The younger people here tell me that, though this is the capital of Swaziland, it is very different from the economic capital, Manzini, which is about a 30 minutes drive down the road.  For one, Mbabane is fairly small, so you can reach everywhere within a 20 minute walk or so. Also, the young people report to me that, though this area is relaxed and lower stress than Manzini, they often get bored easily and don’t have the luxury of crazy and wide-ranging entertainment that places like a bigger city, Johannesburg would have.  To me though, I prefer this environment instead as it is much more peaceful and you don’t have people running you over all of the time.  After having a good food at our American chain restaurant KFC, it was time to go back to the B & B and get some rest before beginning tomorrow morning at full speed ahead.  I am confident that things will go very smooth here for me as far as media goes.

Early Monday morning I am up and ironing my shirts, which I hand washed last night and hung to dry.  This is one of the things that I will never miss in my lifetime after finishing our mission.  I don’t like having to hand wash my clothes at all, but circumstances make you do everything in life.  Another thing that I do not like at all in this portion of the mission is the money issue.

Here in Africa, the most important and most difficult thing for me to learn has been patience in all areas of the trip, as far as all of the logistics go.  Since Morocco, I have been without reserve cash and my team has had to send me money via services like MoneyGram or Western Union, who rip you off and often charge double or triple what MoneyGram does at times.  In more developed Western countries, a transaction like this would usually takes 3-5 minutes tops.  However, here in Africa, the minimum amount of wait time is over an hour and it could be as high as four.  I have encountered many problems when making one of these difficult transactions.

Often, the amount of money that I need transferred to me at times is more than $1000 USD since the expenses of landing fees, parking the plane, fuel, accommodations, etc. often total more than that.  So, back in Gabon for example, I tried to make a transaction like this right there at the international airport, but they did not have $1000 USD in order to pay me.  Other times in the past, the transaction system has been down due to electrical and/or Internet outages and unlike other places, most African nations aren’t even able to make the required copy of your passport that they need in order to complete the transaction (or the more ridiculous scenario where they don’t have any ink in their cartridge), so instead, you have to leave that place and travel miles away sometimes to get a copy made and then travel back to the company to complete the transaction.  That is just the beginning my friends.

In places like Zambia, for example, you are limited to transactions under $1000USD, but by accident, you are sent 1000 Euros instead (around $1300USD).  Well, you can’t complete the transaction because the amount equals more than your limit so you are forced to find another place to get your money sent to you.  If you find another place aside from Western Union or MoneyGram, then they give you the countries local currency.  My friends, you can just imagine James Berisha walking around with $1000USD worth of local cash.  I have to carry it like a bag and since I already look suspicious (being white in mostly darker skinned cultures) I then start sweating (both from the heat and the stress of it) and the people start staring at me more.  On top of this I’m then terrified of getting robbed or killed for that kind of money since most of local peoples live on less than $2 a day.

If you do take that risk and get it changed at a local exchange business, the first question that they ask you is if you have a local bank account.  Can you imagine me opening a bank account in every country around the planet!  To add some more frustration, places like this often limit you to only $500 USD worth of local cash, so then you have to either go buy USD on the black market or at the Burem De Change (Exchange Offices) which are hell to deal with folks and 90% of the time they don’t even have $1000USD worth to give you, so you end up having to go to three or four of them just to try and avoid the black market.  I had to do this once in Caracas, Venezuela and ended up losing $200 USD as a result of dealing with those heartless people.  In exchange for $100 in local currency I had to give them $200USD.  But when I tried to use it, I was told by the cashier that it was fake money, that I was taken for a ride and that I could end up going to jail for being found with fake money in my wallet.  Needless to say, the cashier then took my $100 worth of local currency, leaving me without my original $200 USD and broke again.

Over time I have learned that these banks or bureau de change locations are just decorations for their city.  Just because you see one doesn’t always mean that they will provide a service to you, especially when you are dealing with the large amounts of money that I often need.  And to add to that, don’t forget that each time you exchange money, you are charged a service fee and an exchange fee, which will vary depending on if you are switching it into local currency or into USD.  So what may start out as an initial transfer to you in $1000USD might end up being only $600 in your pocket by the time you are done with all of this nonsense. I don’t even want to think about what would happen to someone if they ever needed to exchange larger amounts like $10,000 USD or $10,000 Euros.
And let’s not forget that a lot of these places will not provide services if you go even just one minute after 15:00pm unless you want to wait until the next business day.  In some of the banks, you can’t even go past 14:30 pm because the queue is already so long and you will have the security guard telling you to come back tomorrow.  Unless of course you want to start throwing scandals in there when being lighter skinned is already something that gets additional attention brought to the situation.
Try dealing with these things when you have a landing permit for the next country that expires at midnight and were up to an especially early start today in order to get this done because if you try to fly there tomorrow they will not let you since your original dates are set in stone.  When that happens, you are stuck for another three days of your life because you then have to go and reapply for a permit with new dates on it before you are allowed to take off again.

Add to this chaos the fact that you have been held up at the airport for a number of reasons.  One of which may be the fact that they only charge you and accept payment in the form of USD, which means that you don’t have the right currency after you have already spent so much time trying to arrange to have local cash.  So back to town you go again trying to exchange the money back to USD, which then costs more astronimical fees.  After you get back to the airport and are ready to pay the fees again, you have to do so in many different offices and sometimes someone may require you to pay a random fee by using their local currency again.  So now you may have to go back to town and change some USD back to local currency, all of the time knowing that you have now changed the original USD into local currency once already and then back again to USD before this additional transaction that now needs to take place, remembering the whole time that each of these transaction has charged its own fees.
By the time you have run around the airport paying all of your fees (and/or going back into town to exchange some more money), you are leaving late and now have an eight-hour plane ride to fly in a single engine plane over jungles with lions and tigers under your feet and can do nothing about the fact that you know that this will only lead to unsafe flying after dark in order to arrive at a safe aiport on the ground, which will now charge you an extra $100-200USD in order to land because you need to use the required runway lights because it is after dark.  On top of which you have flown all the way there in an airplane which was built in 1967 and that you’ve had to fly like the pilots did in the 1920’s and 1930’s because the primary navigation instruments stopped working about 15 countries ago and I haven’t had the the couple thousands of dollars that it would cost to install a new GPS.

My friends, I wish to higher powers that I was only exaggerating, but these things are true and I have had to deal with things like this on a daily basis because This is where a lot of our money goes and part of why our mission is broke all of the time.  But I have no other choice because I can’t give up.  I could keep going with this list for days and days, but try to explain it to someone sitting in the US or Kosovo or Switzerland what the heck James is talking about and their eyes will start going blank.  By the way friends, I know that this is not part of the Swaziland description, but since I started talking about why I will not miss hand washing my clothes I thought I would let you all in on the other little secrets of my day to day frustrations because my sunburned, bald head was already starting to explode.  I guess to accomplish a mission of this magnitude, one has to have the character of an elephant or a donkey because otherwise you might have a nervous breakdown or end up in a clinic with a bunch of mentally ill “bingo” friends of yours, though you are in perfect health otherwise.

When I am feeling stressed about all of these little things, I try to remind myself of why I started this mission in the first place.  It is because of the atrocities that I saw in Kosova after losing my father.  All of those people in the refugee camps that I saw and the trauma and destruction that I witnessed firsthand.  I knew then that their stories needed to be told, which is why I wrote my first book Escape From Kosovo.  But after that, I knew that it was only a matter of time until we gained our official independence.  When we finally did, I was devastated to learn that world would still not legally recognize our country on a simple passport, instead reminding us that because not enough countries recognize our independence formally, the official country name on our passport and even some maps is still Serbia.  It was then that I decided that I needed to use the skills that I have gained in my profession as a pilot in order to further our place in the world and share with others our request to be accepted finally as our own country.

I guess to accomplish a mission of this magnitude, one has to have the character of an elephant or a donkey because otherwise you might have a nervous breakdown or end up in a clinic with a bunch of mentally ill “bingo” friends of yours, though you are in perfect health otherwise.

Okay friends, I’m sorry about venting and enough with the problems.  Let’s be an optimist and be positive in life.  I guess that if I was not an optimistic person in my life today then I would still be back in Brestovc driving my tractor and raising cattle.  The bright side of my mission is that I also get to visit countries like Swaziland who have recognized our independence and re-energize me to continue on.

Thanks to all of our media friends who were excellent.  Mrs. Gcinangaye Tsabedze with Radio Swaziland organized an interview there within minutes of reaching their doors with Mr. Mbuso Tilman was awesome to work and whom I thank for his time.  To the great team at the main newspaper, Times of Swaziland, thank you to Mr. Maqhawe Nxumalo and Mr. Mbongeni Mbingo who called our us “our Kosovo”.  They both had been wanting to write an article about us since Swaziland recognized our independence last year.  Finally, thank you to Mr. Oscar Mabusela at The Swazi Observer for his detailed interview about our nation of Kosovo.

Thank you my wonderful friends at the national television station, Swazi TV.  They were all excellent and appreciative of learning that the people of Kosovo respect them very much.  They even invited me for a live interview on their morning show, so thank you also to Mr. Oscar Mabusela, the boss man and news editor, for authorizing such an interview.

Thanks to Ms. Xolile P. Mkhonta, the personal assistant to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.  She was very charming and also very appreciative of our interview.
The next country is Mozambique and I would like to thank Arlindo at their embassy here in Swaziland for giving me a visa for his country with no complications at all and within ten minutes of entering their doors.

May higher powers bless this beautiful nation, I will miss it very much.

[View with PicLens]

Compared to some of my very long flights, I feel like I’m going across the street here when I only have to fly from Maseru, Lesotho to South Africa, which is just across the border.  After just a few minutes, I am in South African airspace and its time to say goodbye to Lesotho (a country that I will never forget).

I could already start to see a huge difference in the amount of air traffic between the two countries.  This is by far the busiest airspace that I’ve encountered Africa so far here in Africa.  Planes are flying around all over the place and this is the first time on this continent where the air traffic controllers have alerted me to keep an eye out for para-gliders in the sky and that I should be careful to watch for them.  The air traffic is probably contributing to the slight turbulence that I’ve been experiencing, but it’s all good and just part of the process of flying.  It’s a joy today to speak with the air traffic controllers in English.  This is a tremendous relief as it means that I can fully understand them and they can understand me.  It also raises the level of professionalism when both parties are able to speak in the same language.

Down below I see little airports everywhere.  Some of them don’t even exist on any maps that I have seen.   Also, like the past few countries, I start to see some diamond and mineral mines below.  Down this way, the economy relies heavily on those types of natural resources.  They also rely on tourism is, which makes me think that their customer care will be more aligned with what I am used to in the USA and again, I am able to see a few fruit trees here as well.

After that short flight I landed at Lanseria airport, which is just north of Johannesburg.  Instead of landing at the high traffic international airport, they have routed me to one more suited for our baby plane.  This airport is generally used for smaller or ‘general aviation’ aircrafts, but compared to places like California or New Jersey, this airport definitely seems to have a bigger airfield.  I am starting to understand why this country is considered to have the third most developed aviation industry in the world.

Folks, upon landing, I was in heaven.  All of the overhaul or maintenance hangars at this airport were big name providers, like the companies that you would find in the USA.  They also had an aviation or pilot supply store here, which brought tears to my eyes.  I have always loved flying and aviation so much and to be near services like this gives me such a sense of comfort and familiarity with a world that I am used to.  I know that right now, my airplane could break down and that things would be fixed here in no time at all and with no problems at all.  I’m also certain that the quality of service would be comparable to in the States.  South Africa is definitely the aviation heaven of Africa as far as I’m concerned.

After I parked the aircraft in TPSC’s (Turbo Prop Service Center) parking area, I was given my first sense of South Africa’s great customer care.  Mr. Andreas Diener was very helpful and friendly to me and was gracious enough not to charge me for parking.  As another gracious gesture, he also offered to give me a ride into Pretoria (the administrative capital of South Africa) in order to get a hotel.  I was actually supposed to be getting some preventative maintenance done on the plane too while here at the airport. But since the mission is totally broke right and waiting on more funding, I can’t afford it so things will have to wait a little bit longer.

I was able to get a great bed and breakfast owned by a wonderful couple, Madame Hannie Greyling and Mr. Giel Greyling.  It was comforting and felt like a home away from home to be in such a warm and welcoming private home instead of an huge, impersonal hotel.  The Greylings helped me out so much throughout my swaye stay here in South Africa and became like a second set of parents to me right away.  It was comforting and felt like a home away from home being in their very warm and welcoming environment.  Mr. Grayling was so generous and offered to help me with some of the transportation that I needed to do for our mission.  This was especially helpful to me since the average rate to hire a taxi for the day here is around $200USD.

One thing that I dislike about traveling to certain countries is that some of them have more than one capital.  It is very time consuming and expensive when you have to travel to more than one capital in order to accomplish your goals.  Here in South Africa, there are many capital cities: Pretoria, which is the executive capital; Bloemfontein, the judicial capital; Cape Town, the legislative capital; and Johannesberg, which might be considered the economic capital.  Because I had the goals of meeting with the media and also the government officials, I had to travel to more than one city in this country.  Luckily for me, most of the work that needed to get done was in Pretoria and Johannesburg, which are less than 60 kilometers away from each other and that I don’t have to go around chasing capitals all over the country, since Cape Town is over 1200 km away.

One thing that I found interesting here was that even in places like South Africa, they still have their fare share of problems.  For one, this is the birthplace of Apartheid, which was a time in their history where it was legal to separate black and white communities in all areas of society.  This went on from the late 40’s until 1990’s when Nelson Mandela was released from prison after twenty-seven years and went on to become the President of South Africa.  Since then, the climate has become much better between the two communities, although the UN does rank this country very high in terms of assaults and rape per capita.  There are also 11 official languages spoken here, which means that there are many more cultures than that which makes it difficult sometimes to communicate with each other.  I guess that all of these issues are too big expected since even in places like the United States there are still some areas affected by the same types of things.

I was shocked though at one particular difficulty.  I would have thought, as economically strong as South Africa is, that it would have been exempt from things like power outages.  But as it turns out, though they may be the biggest producer of electric on the planet, they are also the largest consumer and their government power plants haven’t been able to keep up with the demand.  Now I don’t feel so bad about our problems in Kosovo, knowing that big places like South Africa have some of the same troubles.

On a more positive note, this country seems no different from any other place like the USA or Western Europe.  It’s beautiful here, the infrastructure is great, they have nice roads and parks and the people here are wonderful.  More to the point though is that I have to admit to you here that I never in my life would I have imagined that I could miss something as simple a McDonald’s restaurant.  But after seeing one here for the first time in many months, I know that this is no longer true.  I went crazy like a little child here in South Africa when I saw the golden arches and I couldn’t help but to buy myself a lunch there to feel that small comfort of my home in the States.

I wish the media made me that joyful, but they were a little more difficult to deal with.  A majority of them wanted me to arrange future appointments to meet with them.  Now let’s not exaggerate here people, I am not trying to meet with the President himself for lord’s sake, just a reporter (at most an editor) so that they can write about our nation and our cause.  If I would have made appointments for all of the times I needed to meet with the media, I would never finish our mission in this lifetime, especially when I’m trying to fly across half of the planet.

Another thing about the media that I’ve learned over time is that unless something is a disaster or there is something bad happening and thousands of people have died, they usually don’t want to cover it and the story is not that important to them.  This makes me feel kind of good actually though because it means that Kosovo is not considered a hot spot anymore and we are not such a big interest today.  On the other hand, after doing this mission for over two years, I have also learned big countries like South Africa still remain knowledgeable about exactly what is going on with Kosovo and follow our developments step by step.  They are all well aware that we are asking to be recognized in the world.  Especially when we remember that it is big countries like this where Serbia also tries to focus their attention and lobbying efforts.  Make no mistake my friends – we are very much on the radar of internal documents in big countries like South Africa.  The smaller nations, however, need a little more sometimes because they don’t always have the required staffing to keep up with all of the world’s events.  Instead they have to just go with the flow and address things as they come up.

So I want to say a big thank you to all of the media houses that were willing offer their time and meet with me here, given the challenges that were presented.  Thank you to the great team at the national radio station, South African Broadcasting Company SABC FM 104-107FM for being part of our mission.  Mr. Themba Dlamini is the wonderful person who organized a live interview for me that lasted over 25 minutes, Ms. Mignon Van Deventer, who was their evening program manager and Ms. Nthateng Lerate who was the one who actually interviewed me and also had a great personality.

Thanks to Ms. Seugnet Esterhuyse with the newspaper Beeld, who did in-depth interview with me lasting over an hour.  At the newspaper Sowetan, the staff was also wonderful, so thank you to Ms. Nonku Khumald for her dedicated work and professionalism.  Finally, thank you to Peter Fabricius, the excellent editor and journalist who interviewed me for his newspaper The Star.  He was the foreign editor of that newspaper and had lots of knowledge about the functioning of the globe that we live on.

It is great to be continually reminded of just how much can actually be done just by being sincere and nice to people and treating them with respect.  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs so far on this portion of the mission have all been excellent and I have luckily been able to get what I want accomplished with them in the shortest amount of time possible without having to wait for weeks on end just for a quick meeting.  Especially in the nations where we are not yet recognized, it would be extremely difficult to get a meeting organized without having the protocol reject your request.  But, I have been able to get in without arranging any meetings so far just by showing respect, being nice and talking to the right people.

I have been very happy when I can get in to these places so that I can get our main message out, which is ‘we the people and governance of Kosovo request for your formal recognition of our newly independent nation’.  It helps that I am there to hand deliver a letter from Ms. Citaku requesting such, so that I can leave them with a formal document to help them remember us.  I guess that if you know how to be nice to people and show them respect, it allows you to get things done in the way that you want them to happen most of the time.

Thanks to Mrs. Nowetue Luti, the Director of the Eastern Europe Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who granted me a meeting and accepted our letter from Vlora Citaku.  Her response to Kosovo’s independence was clear: we are following the progress of your nation very closely and your position in the world.
My taxi driver (a gentleman in his 60’s), Mr. Anelius Mthembu knew journalism quite well.  He had great values as a mature human being and also showed character in providing a service instead of just being worried about taking my money and moving on like some of the others that I’ve dealt with.

I have nothing but excellent memories of this beautiful nation and it was great to be able to see a bunch of malls around me during my short visit here.  I had no idea that I would ever miss those types of things either.  It was also nice to see the booming construction and advancement of life that was happening around me.  Its surprising to me the things that I realize I’ve missed while on this mission.  Like KFC, back in the States I would never dream of enjoying a meal or two there, but down here my friends, my taste buds were having a party.

South Africa is a country that I have been wanting to visit for a very long time.  I have always had the desire to reach the most unreachable places and to try and aim for the furthest things in my life.  This experience has definitely been one of those occasions.  To be able to have traveled throughout half of the African continent already makes me very happy.

Psychologically though, I have personally struggled and had to quickly accept some preconceptions that I had about this place.  I had always thought that the African continent was only the home of darker skinned people, but I was wrong.  This continent is a home for everyone – white, black, Asian, you name it.  There are many lighter skinned people who have lived here fore many generations and who call this place their home.  And I have already learned so much more than I could have imagined from all of the darker skinned cultures that I have met.  There are some truly beautiful people in this world my friends, with the kind of beauty that money can’t buy.
I can see that South Africa is place where all people can prosper in life and I wish for this country and its people to be blessed for centuries to come.

IOL travel

This amazing country looks very similar to places Austria, Switzerland, or even Colorado in the USA.  It is full of mountains and valleys and, unlike some of the other countries that I have visited, I actually see lots of lakes and rivers below.  I could not believe the beauty that my eyes were seeing.  I never would have imagined that this country would look so magnificent.  It is all very nature and wild looking with beautiful sunshine (which makes it better for me to take lots of pictures).

Like Botswana, Lesotho is one of the rare countries that do not require a crazy flight permit in order to land, which gives me even greater joy to be landing here soon.  During approach to this beautiful nation I was actually able to take pictures of both Lesotho and South Africa at the same time, since the capital city of Maseru (where I landed) is right on the border.

In no time at all after landing I cleared customs and was out the door.  This facility seemed fairly calm and empty to me for being an international airport.  One thing that I noticed right away was that the taxis are not lined up outside and waiting for passengers.  I couldn’t find one anywhere.  I was later told that this is because they don’t come around until they know that there will be an arrival of a plane full of passengers so that they don’t waste their time waiting.

I ask a gentleman outside if he knew about how to contact them or when the next big flight arrival would be and the distance from here to the city center so that I could get an idea of how much the trip would cost me.  Without hesitation he offered his help to me right away.  Without asking for or taking any compensation, he drove me the nearly 20km into the city.  I can see right away here that the great people of Lesotho take hospitality very seriously.

I am reminded of traveling in the past few countries where the people have been very friendly and willing to help out in any way.  After traveling to so many countries so far, I have learned to look closely at the little details of each nation.  I pay close attention to things like the infrastructure, cleanliness, the beauty of the surroundings and most importantly, the friendliness and courtesy of the local people. To me, those details are very important and serve to demonstrate just how much that country wants you to visit.  Personally, I think that there is nothing better than to have a nation really pay attention to its foreign visitors because those visitors will keep the perception of their experience in their memory for a long time to come and share it with the people that they know back home.

Both Lesotho and Botswana gave me the impression that providing a service meant more to them than just seeing you as a walking dollar sign screaming at their ears to come and get me.  Then there is the other end of the spectrum where there are certain countries where the mentality is purely that of ‘give me all your money’ (even if they just come to greet you).  In some countries, local people try to come and help you even if you do not ask for it.  They impose themselves on you in order to get you to give them money.  It makes your life miserable when they do that.  Its important to remember folks that I’m not talking about the truly needy people that you can see struggling, but rather some people in general who provide a service to you whether you ask for it or not and think that because you look different that you must have a bank account with money that flows out of it like a stream.  At least with people who you can see as genuine and truly needing to work, you sometimes want to give them more because they aren’t asking for it.  But many times people are just trying to take your money and treat you like you are a dollar sign.

After my gracious ride into town, I arrived at a hotel near city center suggested to me by some locals.  Price wise, The Victoria was fairly reasonable for the quality that they provided, especially since they gave you a nice breakfast buffet each morning.  The only bad thing about staying here was that I found it slightly annoying that the cab drivers would honk all throughout the day.  I am not talking here about a few of them honking a couple of times a day, but hundreds of them honking all day long.  I guess that the people here are accustomed to it and expect to be alerted to their taxi pick-up via the honking.  Usually when checking into a hotel, I try to request the highest floor possible to reduce the amount of noise that I hear (and mosquitoes and encounters with rowdy hotel guests, etc.) and to get a good view of the local scenery, but  I guess you can’t have everything perfect all the time.

After checking in it was still daylight, so I took advantage of the small opportunity for a nice walk.  It was such an invigorating experience to enjoy a walk around town while I explored and took pictures of this brilliant setting.  The view is absolutely stunning with the cooler temperatures (due to the higher elevation), the beautiful mountains the distance and approaching peach sunset.  I could not stop taking pictures the whole time.  After that refreshing experience I head back to the hotel to prepare for tomorrow’s working day in which I hope will be successful.

For the next two days I work to finish a bunch of media interviews, all of which were excellent and very comprehensive.  I first owe the biggest thank you to the amazing team at Lesotho Television, the national government station.  They did an excellent job in transmitting the important details of our mission.  Thanks to Mr. Dyke Sehloho, the Operations Director, who after a brief few minutes of discussion authorized and organized a team of journalists to visit the airport with me so that we could do some live footage in front of our baby plane.  Mr. Sehloho sent Ms. Mamotseki Paanya to cover the story.  She was an amazing journalist and news producer with a very charming personality and very sharp and focused leadership style.  Along with her and the  cameraman, we rode out to the airport together and filmed some coverage for the interview.  The best part of this experience my friends, was that I was able to take them up in our plane to fly for a few minutes.  This was exciting to me for a couple of reasons.  One, the cameraman had never before been on an airplane, which I always enjoy.  Two, this country gave me no problems whatsoever about authorizing a television crew to visit airport, which is rarely the case and oftentimes requires a lot of bureaucratic nonsense.  And three, the best part was that this was the first time in the African continent where they authorized me to take a local flight without having to prepare flight plans or have a permit in order to take off and land.  So far, in all of the countries that I have visited, this would have been impossible, except for maybe South Africa, Botswana and here.  The interview was excellent and we were able to get some great live footage in addition to the brief, unexpected flight.

Thanks to the Public Eye newspaper team and Mr. Lloyd Mutungamiri who authorized an interview with his journalist Ms. Tsisti Matope.  Thanks to Mr. Khutliso Sekoat, an excellent gentleman from the native language newspaper Moeletsi Oa Basotho (Bathoso Advisor).  Since the main language in this country is Sesotho (or Sotho), the local people (known as ‘Basotho’) will be able to read about our plea for recognition as well.  It is estimated that nearly 40% of people here live below the international poverty line of $1.25/day.  Yet Lesotho has one of the highest literacy rates in the region, with 85% of the adults being able to read.  Females actually have a higher literacy rate than men here, which is highly unusual for this area of the world.

Thank you to Mr. Mapamela Khanyela with the newspaper Informative for his interview and to Ms. Lerato Matheka with thenewspaper Lesotho Times/Sunday Express, who was a sharp young lady with a lot of knowledge about the history of our country.  Thank you to the awesome team at Radio Moafrika FM (99.3, 90.7, 89.7 and 94.6), Mr. John Ramane and Mr. Selebalo Mathebekoane, who gave me the best 45-minute live interview.  In that short time we had over 30 people that called into the show to ask some great questions.  Had we been able to continue the interview I’m sure that the phones would have kept reading off the hook, but the radio station had other programs to cover for the day instead of only talking about Kosovo.  Interviews like that will stay in my memory for a long time to come.

The meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was also very productive thanks to Mr. J.T. Metsing, Principal Secretary to the Minister who graciously took some time to talk with me and share his knowledge about Kosovo’s situation.  Mr. Metsing stated that his government and the Ministry totally agree that we should be an independent country and that they had advised Serbia many times of their position and stance on our independence.  The only concern that they have is that they want it done right and to make sure that we maintain peace and stability in our neighborhood.  I should note here that Lesotho has a long history of supporting just causes.  Though they are sometimes vulnerable to the political and economic decisions that are made by South Africa, Lesotho was one of the original supporters of the end of Apartheid and at one time offered a number of South African refugees political asylum during that time.  Additionally, they are one of the minority of countries that officially recognize Palestine as its own state.

Mr. Metsing was very personable, friendly and down to earth and our interview was very comprehensive.  A day or so later I called him back in order to update him on the status of my media interviews.  He was happily surprised to see that my interviews were broadcast on the national television station of his country and of the things that I had to say during my interview.

Finally, I can’t forget to thank my taxi driver, a very young man by the name of Mr. Moeketsi Sekeleoane who drove me around during my entire stay in Maseru.

Lesotho is one of the nations that will always have a place in my heart and I hope to visit this nation again in the future just to enjoy the beauty and splendor that exists here.  The people are very friendly and for the first time in Africa I even saw some fruit trees growing.  Seeing the peach trees, grapes and other fruits brought me comfort and gave me a brief reminder of home.

Another thing that I noticed is that I could feel a sense of isolation and sadness in some of the voices and eyes of the local people.  For one, this country is completely surrounded by another (South Africa), but more than that, there are some other problems here as well.  Many local people have to travel into South Africa for work and so are gone for three to nine months out of the year.  The work that they find there is difficult too, mostly finding employment at diamond or mineral mines.  Most households here subsist on farming and it has been reported that there is somewhat of an issue here in regards to child labor.  Finally, this country has been devastated by the horrible AIDS epidemic, which is rumored to infect up to a third of the countries population.  It is so serious that the government now offers free screening to anyone who wants it.

During my next trip here I would definitely like to explore some of the natural wonders found here.  In addition to the beautiful mountains, many local people have talked to me about visiting the dams that exist in this country.  Apparently they are part of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which was put into place in order to provide an ongoing water supply to this country and to South Africa and to allow for hydropower to exist.  The locals say that this is quite a large system of several dams and tunnels that have been put in place and tell me that it has positively impacted their local infrastructure.  Because of all of the additional new roads that needed to be built in order to maintain the system, rural villages in the mountainous areas have had increased access to communication with the outside world.

One thing is for sure my dear friends, I could definitely see myself living in a country like this, Zambia, Botswana or Namibia with absolutely no problem at all, especially when it comes to being surrounded by the very friendly locals.

May higher powers bless this beautiful nation and its people.

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It is a small relief to finally arrive here in Namibia.  I have been waiting a long time to be able to touch down in the last country on the western side of this continent.  The only western coastline after this belongs to South Africa, which will be the southernmost tip of Africa.  What a joy to reach this point.

The only other thing that I knew about Namibia before landing here was that there has traditionally been a strong German influence in this country for many centuries and that a lot of things down here work like a clock (always organized and on time).  In the early days Namibia was known as German South West Africa (later South West Africa, when it was taken over by South Africa).  Several Germans stayed on here and this was later one of the countries involved in Apartheid (legal racial segregation). While much of the white population flourished, many of the natives did not fare so well and the previous genocide is still remembered here today.  In 1990, the nation was able to win independence in the Namibian War of Independence and has since been under self rule (though it still maintains strong economic ties to South Africa).

This country is huge my friends.  For a land area the size of Texas and Louisiana combined, there are only a little over two million people here.  That turns out to be about 3 people for every 7 sqare miles of land.  In other words, people here are very spread out, unlike our tiny country of Kosovo.

Because it is so vast, many people still have a lot of room to farm here.  But most people rely on subsistence as over ½ of the population lives below the international poverty line of $1.25/day.  Though mining for diamonds and other minerals is popular (similar to the last few countries visited), there is still a lot of outside aid that comes to this country.  Since Libya and Cuba provided a lot of help during the war, Namibia tries to maintain good foreign relations with them as a result.

As I approached  Namibia’s airspace, I could already see the vast, untouched land below.  I could see no civilization for miles, except for a farm or two sprinkled here or there.  It was so beautiful and green everywhere and very flat looking.  Remember, part of that Kalahari Desert from Botswana is here in Namibia and there is another desert land here as well known as the Namib, for which the country is named.  That desert is considered the oldest in the world.

I have to stop here and again thank our friend Jean Philippe van Nyen whom I met back in Sao Tome and Principe.  Remember that he requested that I receive a diplomatic passport through his organization, OSJ Ecumenical Knights of Malta.  It has been a tremendous gift that has worked out very well for me.  It is now much easier to travel and has really cut out a lot of the bureaucratic nonsense that I hate.  Here in Namibia, it allowed me to clear customs with no problems and in no time at all.

Catching a taxi was a bit of a different story.  I quickly learned that taxis in this country are not cheap.  Though I did try to explore other options, it turns out that buses here are nonexistent, which meant that I had no choice but to pay the steep asking price of $50 USD for a ride into town.  It was nearly a 50km distance into town, so I guess that this price might compare to what it costs to get a taxi from Prishtina to my home in Brestovc.  Last time I took a taxi there it was 35 Euros, which is pretty close to the price here in Namibia I suppose.

After all of my travels, I have learned a thing or two about how to save money though.  Thanks to god for that knowledge, otherwise I would have remained broke and stuck in some place like Mauritania.  After taking so many cabs and having been a cab driver myself, I have gained some knowledge on what types of bargains can be made, how to cut corners in cost, etc.  I have found that if I am not vigilant, everyone starts to see me as a walking money sign.  Remember, these taxi drivers, they sit sometimes for many hours waiting for a passenger and once they get you, they want to charge you all of those astronomical prices.  They definitely don’t like people like me who know a thing or two.  Once they know that how persistent I can be and that I will not take any crap, they start to reconsider their asking price and we tend to get along just fine.  Basically my friends, they mostly just give up arguing with me and agree to my demands in order to make at least a little bit of money, which is always better than none.  This time, they finally gave up trying to get the full amount for a ‘solo’ taxi ride.  Since I was not willing to pay their asking price just for a ride into town, we worked out a deal where other people who were as poor as me could share the ride and the cost.  So after rounding up another passenger, we all agreed on a total price and were off to town.

On the way, I see that Namibia has a beautiful road system, very clean and neat everywhere that you look.  Our taxi driver was now acting as our tour guide and ended up giving us lots of information about his nation.  One thing that I learned was that these people seem happy to have received lots of rain this year.  It turns out that their government regulates water here and when there is not enough rain, it limits people from their water supply.  Actually, Namibia is one of the few countries in the world to specifically address conservation and protection of natural resources direclty within its constitution.  But the people here, they don’t seem to like being limited in their water usage, so they are very happy this year to have more than enough.

During our short drive to town, I was also starting to get a feeling like I was taking a ride somewhere in California in the spring time.  The sun is out (no surprise since they get about 300 days of sun per year here) and the topography is the rather flat, much like that of the golden state.  I am feeling a lot of charm to this place.  I see a lot of true nature here and it looks fairly wild too.  Everything is green and apparently it has been raining quite often here lately since it is now the rainy season.

We arrive in no time at all to the capital of Windhoek.  Such a pleasant ride with enough time to get a feel for the nature that exists in this part of our beautiful planet.  The taxi driver dropped me off at  a local bed and breakfast which was within my budget and not far from the city center.  Shortly after check-in I was off to a nearby mall to find an internet cafe in order to update my team on my whereabouts.  Though I ended up getting there around close, the workers were nice enough to let me stay and use the computer while they cleaned and closed up shop.  In a lot of these African countries, everything closes at around 17:00 or 18:00, which often makes it difficult for me to finish up some of the work that I need to get done.

Friends, I could not believe my own eyes when I walked out of that place.  Directly in front of me was a bright and shiny sign with the words Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) in beautiful, mouthwatering letters.  It was like the heavens parted and I literally got chills down my body from missing home so much.  Without any further thought I went straight for their comfort food and had one of the best meals that I’ve had in a long time.

On my way back to the bed and breakfast, I was trying to negotiate a price with the taxi driver for tomorrows drive around town.  He agreed to 350 Namibian dollars for the day (which is around $50USD), so I decided to hire him (even though I was getting a strong negative vibe at the time). In the morning, he had completely changed his tune and was trying to charge me triple the price that we had agreed upon, acting all innocent and unaware of our agreement.  To cut it short my friends, it ended up being my worst experience with a taxi driver since I began this mission.

After getting that mess resolved, I finally started my day by heading to the media outlets and then to the Ministery of Foreign Affairs.  The first and greatest people that I met that morning were the wonderful team with the television channel ‘One Africa‘.  Those people were excellent, very nice and just a happy group of people.  I owe a big thank you to Mr. Willem Snyman and Ms. Kudakwangu Chisweto who were both amazing to work with.  They gave me an awesome interview for their tv show and were very professional.  I could start to see here part of the German-style work ethic.

Thanks to the rest of the  media here, Mr. Nico Smit with The Namibian who was very intelligent and dynamic with a great personalitiy.  Thanks to Mr. Kae Matundu Tjporuro and Ms. Albertina Nakale with New Era newspaper for all of their great help.  Thank you to Mr. Tafanji Nyirenda and Ms. Belinda Apollus with team at 100 FM Energy Radio who were all amazing people to work with.  Lastly, thank you to Mr. Nghidipo Nangolo with the newspaper Informante for his dedication to publishing something that would make his government pay attention to details and remain on their toes.

At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I found a very professional team as well who were willing to help and hear me out.  Thank you to Mr. Pinehas Aluten, the personal assistant to the Minister.  He took our letter from Vlora Citaku and offered to forward it on to the Minister.

I feel fairly well at having accomplished many things in just a few days of work here in a nation like Namibia.  I will miss this country very much, especially the nature.  It is so beautiful and wild looking and remains very much an untouched and remote part of our globe.  I should mention here the best part of this whole stop over.

On the way back to the airport, I was able to see a bunch of monkeys hanging around on trees.  The most amazing part, though, was that from the highway I was also able to some gorillas running wild and free out there.  Real, live gorillas my friends – in nature and not locked up in a zoo somewhere.  To me, it is things like this that have no price tag.  There is no price that you can pay that would equal the pure joy that I get from experiencing this kind of nature.  The beauty and wild looking creations made by higher powers are something that we can never replace and I will rememer this about Namibia for years to come.

Further down the road I was able to stop and take a few pictures of my raw and natural surroundings.  I spotted many more monkeys out there playing around and having a ball.  I am very blessed to have experienced these moments and it helps me to forget some of the struggles that I have been through.

As a reminder, Namibia is the last nation on Africa’s west coast and I am leaving here, which is something to celebrate.  Next country is Lesotho, which is a small, tiny nation surrounded by South Africa.  After that will be South Africa, which will be the southernmost nation on the continent.  I am excited to know that after that, I will be on may way north and working my way toward home.

New Era

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