Niger is the 20th country since I left Kosovo. It feels so good to know that there is some progress finally being made on our mission after all.
Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that our mission would have come this far. When I initially began our mission Flying for Kosovo, my goal was to complete the Central and South American countries. During that time, I faced many struggles that made me wonder if I would ever be able to finish. But friends, it is only with the help of you all that I am able to move forward. Your love and financial support are a very important part of our mission and without you we would have never been able to accomplish such great things.
We have been able to do some fantastic work so far here in Africa. Again, without everyone’s presence and support, it would have been impossible to reach this point in our journey around the globe. Many times I have underestimated our ability to accomplish so many things. Despite all of the struggles though, thanks to god, I have so far been able to keep my head above water and keep going. On my worst days, I think of all of your support and excitement for our cause and it keeps me going.
Technically though, it would generally be advised to gather a small battalion of people to keep up with our workload, but we have been able to maintain progress with just a handful of people working day and night, across continents and with many other lives to live in addition to the volunteer work that they do in support of our mission. Thanks again to all of you that have been a part of my life and the mission for our great people of Kosovo.
Back to Niger. I arrived very late in the evening to the capital city of Niamey. I felt right away that I would see progress in my short stay here. There are nice roads, lots of fancy hotels, etc. People seem very friendly here already and I am starting to get comfortable here rather quickly.
The first hotel that I stayed in was okay, except that I have never slept on a harder bed in all of my life! But it was late and I didn’t have the energy to complain too much or look for a different one that night. So the next morning I decided to change hotels and ended up finding one not far away. The 2nd hotel fit my needs much better and even allowed me to take a quick shower if I wanted, which would not have been the case at the first one. After all of my travels, I am realizing here in Africa that the hotels tend to turn the water boilers off during the day. After early morning (when most people take showers), it is often hard to find a hot shower, even though you tend to pay $50USD or more for a night at these hotels. Even the worst motel in America would have much better accommodations, but I can’t afford the fancy hotels here, so I’ll take a luxurious shower during the day when one is available to me.
I get off to a great start in the morning, meeting with a bunch of media personnel thanks to my new grandpa, Mr. Ousmane Abdou, who will be my taxi driver for the day. He drives a basic Suburu car, which he keeps very clean and neat. It is a pleasure to spend the day with him. We make a lot of progress due to his efficiency and knowledge of the city. He also apparently has many friends around here, has a great personality and a wonderful awareness of life in general.
Thank you to all of my media friends who were very professional and expressed lots of interest in learning and reporting about Kosova’s independence. Thanks to Mr. Ibrahim Elhadj, with the newspaper Roue De L’Hisoire; Mr. Saliou Youssoufou and his boss Mr. Moussa Aksar with the newspaper L’evenment. The team of the newspaper Le Republican, Mr. Gorel Harouna and his boss Mr. Maman Abou (who had a similar view of life as me); Mr. Moussa Douka, with the newspaper La Griffe-Niger who took his valuable time to interview me; the wonderful and funny team at Le Canard Dechaine; Mr. Issa Mossi was excited to write something about Kosova to his people and government; Mr. Balima Boureima with Radio Bonferey 105.0FM of Niger was also professional and gave me a great interview; Mr. Seyni Amadou of Dounia TV, an excellent leader who organized a television interview with Mr. Adili Toro Agali – the team there were all very young, active, punctual and very professional.. Finally, the government newspaper, Le Sahel, also sent a journalist to interview me at the hotel conference room. Mr. Seini Seydou Zakaria was very interested and knowledgeable about our history because he had a cousin that worked in our country for over three years with the UN. All of these great people make our mission so much more valuable. Without their time and interest in our cause, we would not be able to raise awareness with the people and the government in each country about the importance of our mission.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs were great. Chef du Cabinet, Mr. Elhadj Moussa Amadou and his partner Mr. Mansou M. Hadj Daddo, Counseiller Technique Du Ministre, accepted Vlora Citaku’s letter in order to present it to the Minister himself. My conversation with Mr. Amadou was a pleasure, as he was very down to earth, humble and respectful. He showed great enthusiasm about presenting our case to his boss. He promised that he would not only talk to the Minister but also pass the word around to his colleagues in the Ministry about the importance of our cause.
As far as climate here, it is very hot and dry. In some ways, I am reminded of my days in Alaska, not because its cold here (rather the opposite), but because of the extremes I am experiencing in this country. For instance, both Alaska and Niger are nearly twice the size of my beloved Texas and they are both very desolate environments. In Alaska, I lived and flew over tundra in extremely cold temperatures. Here in Niger, I am flying over vast desert sands which produce extremely high temperatures. Also in both lands, many people live of the land, or live a subsistence life, in order to survive. Unfortunately, here in Niger, there is often drought conditions which are unsuitable for farming, so many times the people living outside of the cities are forced to rely on food aid from outside countries.
One thing that they seem to have plenty of here in Nigher though is livestock. This country has been my best experience so far on our mission for Africa in regards to food. They have a tradition here of cooking freshly cut goat and sheep over an open fire. Lots of people stop at these stands in town to buy this specialty, as the cooked meat is very tasty and tender.
Finally, I’ve been able to experience another unusual thing here in Niger. This is my second time visiting the river Niger, the third largest river in Africa. My first encounter was back in Bamako, Mali and now Niamey. The people here in Niger call the river a ‘fleuve’, the French word for river.
