Flying for Kosovo

Well folks, I was finally allowed entry into Nigeria.  Despite the problems that I had beforehand relating to my visa, I have absolutely great memories of this country and its people.  Despite my writings and my preconceptions, I have been pleasantly surprised by the people of Nigeria.  Many times, we tend to label people or a country with a red mark before we know about them firsthand.  Once those people receive a red mark, it is often hard to change our minds about them and remove the negative label.

My dear friends who have been reading my writings, I am here to tell you something very important about Nigeria and its people.  During my three day observations and experiences in this great nation, I have realized that Nigerians are wonderful people and that the capital city of Abuja is a wonderful capital, much like any other city that you would find in the mid-west United States or France.
Abuja looks like its infrastructure has been well planned, having nice roads, tall business buildings, nice apartment buildings, etc.  Everywhere I could see, it looks like the capital is a booming place.  It is also one of the cleanest places that I have ever visited.  On many occasions, I felt like I was right in the heart of the US.  The best part of this city, though, is that for the first time in several weeks, my stomach has not been upset.  For two days in a row, I was allowed the comfort of not having to deal with those kinds of interruptions to our mission.

The people here in Nigeria are very friendly and courteous.  They all thank you and try to make you feel comfortable in all situations.  It reminds me again, that I am one of the most fortunate individuals on the planet.  I have been exposed to so many amazing things in my lifetime that I have learned many times that the principles and values of all human beings are the same, no matter where you might be born or what situation you are having in life.  Though we don’t seem to have a choice in where we are born (with our location being more of a characteristic of nature and human evolution), that does not mean that we want to be labeled based on where they live.  Most people, I have learned, have become victimized by their dysfunctional government systems.  Many times, it is not by individual choice or will that people find ourselves in the middle of a bad situation.  Because people are often at the mercy of their government, ordinary people are usually the ones that have to pay for the good or bad consequences of decisions made by their leaders. Rather than everyone being different based on who where they live or who their government is, it is more like we are all similar in our beliefs and values.  When you get to the bottom of things, we all want the same thing – to live a good life, to feed our families and, most of all, to be respected by other human beings.   I am really glad that I did not listen to all of the people who advised me to bypass Nigeria.

Yes, Nigeria has it’s share of problems alright.  Their human rights record has been poor at all levels of government, they have their share of organized crime and it has been rumored that their elections have not always been fair.  But let’s not forget that it is very rare nowadays to find any country that is problem free.  Even the safest places on earth have their share of problems.

Another thing that we should not forget is that Nigeria is one of the biggest countries in Africa.  It certainly is the highest populated country on the continent and is the eight most populated country in the world.  Though English is the official language, many people do not speak it (especially in the rural areas).  There are over 250 ethnic groups here and over 520 languages rumored to be spoken throughout the country, so unless you are a member of the ruling elite or live in one of the larger cities you would not have access to learning it.

Finally, it is also important for us to remember the role that Nigeria plays in the bigger world.  Because of the oil boom in the 1970’s, Nigeria has been a key player in the international oil industry.  Unfortunately, like Equatorial-Guinea, this means that the country has forsaken its traditional ways and instead has come to heavily rely on income made from the oil industry.  Not to worry though, as Nigeria is considered to be the fastest growing economy in the world and the country has maintained strong ties with the United States since it began to supply the US with some of its oil.  Even more, Nigeria has a lot of pull with the more local African countries.  It was a founding member of the Organization for African Unity (now called the African Union) which includes 53 African states.  This country has a tremendous influence in West Africa and Africa on the whole.  Because of this, it is very important to get our message out in this country.  If Nigeria were to officially recognize our independence, it is likely that it would create a domino effect and that many other countries down here would jump on board and choose to recognize us also.

In regards to our mission, which is the whole purpose of that I am visiting this country at all, I didn’t get off to the best start after landing here.  I will say though, that after a few days of working and being driven around by my great taxi driver, Mr. John Wsyz, I have been able to look back and see that I actually was able to be very productive and successful here.  For one thing, I have to admit to you all that I am often times very impatient and want to conquer the world as fast as I can.  I always seemed to be slowed down by the ‘real’ world though because my goals and the pace that I want to go is always way faster than everyone else.  Having said that, it is impossible for  me to get things accomplished in the amount of time that I expect, so I’m starting to realize that it’s probably me that is the problem.  All I wish for most days is to have a magic wand in my hand that I could wave over each country so that Kosovo would be exposed worldwide in the most prestigious and respected way.  But I keep forgetting that the planet is extremely big and slow, despite my internal drive to treat our planet like a little soccer ball or basketball that you can just move around and do with as you wish.

Throughout my entire journey, I have met many important people and have learned a lot from each one of them.  Here in Nigeria, I was able to meet some of the finest journalists with tons of experiences.  Their knowledge of the world and their view of life were passed on to me and I will never forget our interaction.
Thanks to Mr. Chung Solomon M., with the ‘Daily Observer’.  He conducted a great interview and showed a great sense of caring about Kosovo and our people.  Another wonderful reporter that gave me an in-depth interview was Mr. Isaac Anumihe and his coworkers Ms. Zion Zadok and Mr. Ubons Ukpons.  Mr. Onyebuchi Ezigbo and his boss Patrick Ugeh with the newspaper ‘This Day’ were also very nice and professional.  The team at The Vanguard newspaper, the Abuja Bureau Chief, Mr. Emma Ujah was another personality that I won’t soon forget.  He just kept pushing his journalist to ask all of the questions necessary to complete a high quality interview so that the write up would show extreme dedication to learning more about our cause.  Mr. Emman Ovuakporie, the journalist who completed the actual interview was very knowledgeable already about our history during the 1980’s and our dark decade during the 1990’s.

The most amazing media experience so far though, was to encounter a newspaper that was named after my profession.  The ‘Nigerian Pilot’ is a well known daily newspaper here in Nigeria.  They also have a magazine known as ‘Nigerian News World Magazine’.  The great team here is very professional.  They have state of the art technologies and a wonderful conference room where you could actually hold a presidential meeting or a press conference if you wanted to.  Mr. Olu Akinboyewa had the greatest personality.  He was very detailed and meticulous in his interview and took a lot of pride in his work.  This experience, to have been interviewed for a newspaper called the Pilot, was something that will always be remembered.

Thank you to the team at ITV who also showed care and professionalism.  The senior reporter, Mr. Ene Okon showed great interest in our country and our people.  Another very professional team was to be found at ASO Radio Abuja 93.5FM.  Thanks to their boss, Mr. Ali Abdullahi and his employees and managers.  The news manager, Mrs. Lovette Ilobi taught me a lot during the few minutes that I was able to spend with her.  Finally, the two young ladies who actually completed the interview, Ms. Joyce Jackson and Ms. Loretta Ugonabo.

Nigeria’s Ministry of foreign Affairs were very receptive.  The Director of Protocol guided me to the Director of Central and Eastern European Division, Mr. Charles Ojukwu an older gentleman.  He was very calm and welcoming and we ended up spending more than an hour discussing the issue of Kosovo and our independence.  He asked me quite a few questions about our cause, including how many countries have recognized us already, who they were, how many were in Europe, etc.  He just kept writing everything down so that he could have a briefing with the Minister himself.  I was able to hand deliver Vlora Citaku’s letter to him and it was my sincere joy to have had this opportunity.

I will get tired of being able to deliver the stories of my people and my nation across the planet, though there have been many times where I might have forgotten this privilege for moment.  It is so hard sometimes when I am struggling and suffering to keep a sense of what the larger purpose is.  Because it does not have an immediate effect, I often have lost sight of the reality of my work.  But after hearing of the impact that our mission will have for many years to come, I could not do a more honorable thing in my lifetime.

Thank you to all of the people who are a part of this mission and have become a part of my life.  I could not do this without you.  If it was not for everyone’s constant perseverance during all of my struggles, I would still be sitting somewhere in Central America.  I am sure that my life will be given whatever meaning is deserves, but you cannot put a price on the small changes that I am making for the future of my people and our children.  As my reporter friend Chung Solomon M. reminded me, no matter how things turn out, my children and loved ones will be the ones that will always be proud of my accomplishments.

For sure Nigeria will be one of the places that I will remember for the rest of my life.  I will never forget the great hospitality of the people that I have met in this beautiful country.  I wish lots of success to my new friends and may god bless Nigeria.

Weekly Trust

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So far, I haven’t had any problems yet on the African portion of our mission, as far as visas and/or immigration issues go.  No country has ever made me turn around with my plane and go back.  Many times, they have been  nice enough to let me enter either at the airport or borders, even though I may not have had the appropriate paperwork from time to time.  But Nigeria is not letting me have this luxury.
There was absolutely no way that they were going to let me get around the proper legal requirements to enter their country and believe me, I tried every angle my friends.  This was very frustrating as you can imagine, having to backtrack my flying to a previous country, especially given the fact that I had previously bought a visa  for Nigeria and it had already expired.  Many times on our mission, my original time line and reality have often not coincided (due to waiting for visas, not being able to get travel to the next country until getting the proper paperwork processed, etc).  Though I’ve tried to avoid this, and tried to continue on to some countries even though I haven’t had all of the paperwork required – as I mentioned before, most of the countries have been sympathetic and have always allowed me in.  With Nigeria, not only did I have to re-route to a different country, I also had to reapply for a second visa, which sometimes makes it very expensive to continue our work with the mission.  I guess that these frustrations are part of my commitment to continue our mission, despite the struggling and suffering that I sometimes experience along the way.

Here in Africa, my original plan was to follow a pre-programmed flight pattern of visiting country after country based on their geographical nearness.  But I have had to change my flight plans many times already due to trying to accommodate the every-changing circumstances of our mission.  If I had continued on with my original plans, I would still be sitting in Senegal somewhere waiting for the neighboring countries visa and permits to come through.  Instead, I end up having to make quick decisions that don’t fit with an orderly plan and skipping countries in the hopes to go back to them eventually.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned throughout this mission, it’s that circumstances change all the time and that I have to be prepared to continue on in very creative ways.

But enough with Nigeria for now, let’s move on to my current destination, which is Guinea-Equatorial. It looks nice enough.  I see lots of construction everywhere and the infrastructure looks better than some of the previous places that I’ve visited so far.  It looks like there are lots of new apartment buildings here, many modern business buildings, new roads, modern bridges, great parks, etc.

From what I have learned, Guinea-Equatorial has recently found some natural wealth underneath their land and water supply.  In 1997, it began oil production and is now the 3rd largest oil supplier in Sub-Saharan Africa.  Although the oil initially helped the country, in other ways it has been destroying in.  According to many intellectuals and other people that I have spoken with here, it seems that once the country heard the magic word of petrol being found, it gave up on everything else that it was doing, including the basic things like subsistence farming.  Everyone thought that money would just start flowing into their bank accounts, which would fix everything.  Unfortunately, they were wrong, because the people who actually benefited most from the money were the countries elite.  Though Equatorial-Guinea is one of the most prosperous countries in Africa, at least 70% of its people still live on less than $2 a day.

Because of the oil boom, people here gave up production of basic necessities like fruits and vegetables, cacao and cotton.  Now, they have had to change their way of life so much so that they must now rely on imports from other countries, which ends up costing them much more money.  They have forgotten that their soil is still very fertile and that they can still plane everything that they need to survive.  My new journalist friend told me that they are now starting to realize that they are paying much more than necessary (as high as $1USD for a simple tomato) for basic necessities.  I hope that someday soon, the people here will be able to live off of their land and grow their own food again.

Other than that, this country is beautiful.  Malabo, which is the capital of the country, sits on Bioko Island, which is volcanic and very mountainous.  I guess that it is better for the elite maybe to be living safely on the island and away from the commoners.  People here are banned from criticizing public figures and, unfortunately, this country has one of the worst human rights records in the world.

One thing that I noticed very quickly here is that there seems to be a lot of Chinese people here.  It seems like they are taking over the place.  I am learning that participate in the business world, own businesses like construction companies, service businesses, restaurants, etc.  Initially, I have been told that they first started immigrating here to work in the cacao fields and coffee plantations.  But it seems like they have benefited from the oil boom as well.

One thing that did confuse me here, though, was the  media.  Apparently, there is one national newspaper which is published once a week.  However, they have several ‘reviews’ that are also called newspapers.  Those reviews though only get published once a month.  The other confusion that I had was that I didn’t understand yet that the government here has substantial control over what the newspapers actually report.  I started getting the impression that all that is reported here is what the government does, anything else (world happenings, the daily news, things happening in the lives of the people, etc.) is not important.  It was only later that I learned that the current President here has been cited by Reporters without Borders as a ‘predator’ of press freedom.

I am grateful that I already knew how to speak Spanish before visiting this country.  Though most of the other countries that I’ve visited so far have spoken French, Spanish is actually the official language of Equatorial-Guinea.  Thank god I was still able to communicate here or I would have gotten nothing accomplished during my stay.

Thanks to my two new media friends who were willing to talk with me, despite the governments heavy control over their work.  Mr. Patricion Mene Miche Abeme was an absolute wonderful gentleman who had lots of wisdom and some great values.  He worked for the paper ‘La Gaceta‘.  Mr. Laureano Nsue Nguems also helped me, from the newspaper ‘Ebano‘.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs here were very nice and Vlora Citaku’s letter was hand delivered to the Ministry’s Secretary, Ms. Mercedes Seriche.  She promised me that she will follow up with her boss and the government regarding our cause.

I can’t forget to mention a few other people in this country that helped me out quite a bit:  first, my taxi friend Mr. Blas Ela Riesa, who was very quiet and works hard for his money.  I was glad to help him out though with giving him my taxi fare because his poor car seemed like it was about to give up at any moment and made a lot of noise while we were traveling around; Mr. Pat. U Osuji who helped me out tremendously by helping me obtain that guarded Nigerian visa that I needed after paying the fee of $100 USD or 50,000 CFA; and finally, I want to say a special thank you to the pilots that I met from ‘Cronos’ airlines of South Africa.  Captain Anne Berghout, Captain Denis Hewartsons and First Officer George Pretorius all helped me out very much during my stay here in Equatoria-Guinea.

Next country is Nigeria.

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After landing in Chad, I already start to notice that the climate is very similar to the past few countries that I’ve visited: Burkina-Faso, Niger and Mali. Since this country is landlocked, is a far distance from the sea and is mostly a desert climate, Chad is sometimes known as the ‘dead heart of Africa’. Religion seems to be a larger focus here too (50% Muslim and 50% Christian) and they also seem to have a big awareness of ‘foreigners’ with outside money.

Everywhere that I went, they were always asking me the same question “which hotel are you staying”. I would never answer them because they were trying to determine what my finances were. To tell them that I was broke and needed to find a good hotel for a price that I could afford to pay was not what they wanted to hear. They wanted me to tell them that I was here to give them tons of money, but as soon as they hear that you’re broke just like them, they want you out of their country. Since 80% of the people here live well below the poverty line and rely on animal herding and farming, I guess they are used to getting lots of outside help.

I also quickly learned that I was not going to find an affordable hotel that was satisfactory as far as cleanliness and amenities go. Here, they want you to pay the price of a Marriott or Holiday Inn hotel for the quality equivalent of a room at a Motel Six in the USA. In other words, my bed for the night was very expensive and of poor quality.

Additionally, I have also learned here in Africa that (after visiting nearly half of the continent) that comfort foods that won’t make you sick are twice as expensive as what you would pay in the USA. For example, the price of a Coca-Cola is twice as much. In El Paso, TX, I would have had access to a fantastic Chinese buffet, with over 200 selections of food (vegetables, fruits, soups, desserts, etc.) for only $6.99. Here, if you want any kind of food that won’t give you stomach problems, you have to pay at least twice that. Another food that I am daydreaming about lately here is a nice, fresh salad. Many doctors here in Africa have told me to avoid eating those due to the high risk of infections. Salads don’t seem to mix well with a warm climate, especially in the countries that I’ve been visiting that don’t have proper sanitation. Only 2% of the people here in Chad have basic sanitation and only ½ of the homes in the cities have access to potable water. My mind is starting to play tricks on me with all of this daydreaming of good, quality food – it has been quite a while since I’ve had any.

After a less than comfortable night of sleep in my Marriott-priced Motel Six quality motel, I wake up and wash all of my clothes by hand. This is something that I’ve done in bathroom sinks since I’ve left Kosovo. Otherwise, it could be as high as $5USD per shirt to have them cleaned for me. My friends, you can calculate that bill if you have to change your clothes daily! There are many times lately that my shirts have been a different color by the end of the day. With all of the dust and pollution down here, my white shirts either become black by the time I get back to my hotel or red, due to the soil down here in these dry African countries.

After washing my clothes in the morning, I get into a taxi and find that he too is very difficult to bargain with as far as prices go. I guess I will pick my battles and settle for using him though, since I need to have some reliability during our busy work days. He seems nice, as do many of the people that I meet here in Chad, but they are tired of high prices. Many of them complain to me about many things that they see wrong with their country. Since Chad has a history of being one of the most corrupt governments in the world, I am starting to see why. I will say, though, that I do notice that the government has been making some improvements here, as far as infrastructure (roads, bridges, newer hospitals and buildings, etc.).

As far as the media, they all seem very nice. However, like the last country, Central African Republic, Chad’s newspapers are only published once or twice a week and are usually only 4-8 pages long. I am guessing that they must not be able to afford to publish them every day. All of the media staff were all very nice, professional and willing to bring our message of Kosovo’s independence to their people and their government. A few of them even wanted to take my picture with me in my pilots uniform and epaulettes. I am guessing that they like official people over here.

Thanks to Mr. Ngarbe Ferdinand with the newspaper ‘Quotidien Le Progres’; Mr. Edpuard Takadj with the newspaper ‘L’Observateur’; Mr. Yamalbaye Ritidn Gar with the newspaper ‘Le Temps’; Mr. Mahamat Gamougane with the newspaper ‘La-Voix’; and Mr. Touroumbaye Geoffroy, Redacteur En Chef, and Mr. Djimasra Parfait, both with ‘N’Djamena Hebdo’ newspaper.

Thank you to the wonderful teams at the ONR TV, Office de Radio and Television Du Tchad (Ms. Halime Assadya Ali and her journalist Mr. Assane Lame both had great personalities to work with) and Mr. Mahamat Issa Djarat with Radio Ngato FM 89.6 MHZ for his in-depth interview.

Next stop was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They were all very friendly, open, courteous and professional. The Director of the Protocol, Mr. Nouradine Mahamat Alio, took the letter that I delivered from Vlora Citaku and promised that he would pass it on to his boss (the Minister of Foreign Affairs himself). He was very knowledgeable and personable and mentioned that he would do anything that he could and try his best to help our country and our people. He even gave me his personal cell phone and told me not to hesitate to call him.

Finally, I have noticed that I am beginning to enter into a bunch of conflicted territories here in Central Africa. In Eastern Chad, there has been lots of ethnic violence going on. There have been almost 200,000 people displaced here because of that, in addition to the many refugees here from other countries. Sudan is to the east and the UN estimates that in 2008 there were over a quarter of a million refugees that fled here from Darfur. There are also around 55,000 refugees reportedly here from the Central African Republic. Not to forget the child trafficking in this area of Africa. Many children here are forced into labor (such as forced servitude, cattle herding, etc.) and commercial sexual exploitation. Many of them are sent further on toward the coastline in order to work in the fishing industry.

The next country up is Nigeria, but I am really struggling with getting my visas in a timely manner. It looks like I will have to jump back and forth between countries for awhile. Though I was expecting some complications here in Africa, it is very timely and costly to have to jump back and forth. Regardless, I am still committed to the essential goal of our mission, which is to visit all of the countries on this continent. Though progress is slower than I would like, I am glad that we are still moving somewhat forward.

Best wishes to the great people of Chad.

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Another long flight today (more than six hours) from Douala to Bangui, the capital of the Central African Repulic.  More importantly though, most of the flight was spent flying over dense jungle.  While most of this country is savannah (flat land), I am flying through the south side of the country, where there tends to be more jungle.  Folks, that is a lot of time to spend flying over lions, tigers, giraffes, elephants, monkeys and thick forests!
Many times I have heard stories from other pilots about crashing in the jungle.  They say that the chances of being found are slim because the trees of the jungle end up covering sight of the airplane from above.  On top of that, in remote places like this, any type of search and rescue would take forever, since they would have to use animals to travel out here and not cars.  Thanks to God that my baby plane’s engine held out and didn’t quit on me.  Otherwise, my wild friends would have been having lunch with me.
During the last two hours of my flight, I begin to see more signs of human life and activity.  Particularly, I start to see lots of fires.  This is a surprise to me, but at this point, whatever I see here is a surprise to me.  Since I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would ever visit this part of the world, I didn’t have any idea of what to expect here.  It looks like in this area, the farmers have a tendency to burn things I guess.
I’ve also notice that this country is very rural.  Though it’s large geographically (about 60 times the size of Kosovo), the population is only twice the size of our country.  It looks like most people live in tribes and live a subsistence lifestyle, relying on livestock.  After landing and being in town for a few days, I also learn that the country is about 50% Christian (there are a lot of missionaries in this part of Africa) and the next major religion tends to be the indigenous beliefs.  It appears that Islam is only a small portion of the belief system here.
I might mention here that I was also struggling during the flight with my navigational system.  My GPS (global navigational system) stopped working during the last hour of the flight.  This was great news, since it was also getting dark and now seemed to be the time that I remembered the fact that this part of Africa has many electricity shortages.  Not only did my navigation system stop working while flying over my friends the lions and tigers, but by now it was complete darkness around me as I could not see very many lights below and there were all of those fires as I mentioned.  It felt like I was flying into a smokey little ghost town.
Whew!  Thanks to God that I landed safely in Bangui.  The airport is smaller than I anticipated (and only half of the landing lights were working) and looks deserted.  There isn’t much activity going on for this being an international airport.  Oh well, that makes it faster for me to clear customs and get a taxi.  Here in the Central African Republic, I did not have a choice in which taxi I would take.  It was ordered for me by the military police.  I guess this country has has some politically stability issues for quite awhile, which explains all of the police and UN workers I see.
I am starting to noitce more and more that there is a lot of UN presence in this part of Africa.  I’ve been seeing more and more UN planes lately.  From what I can gather, this country in particular seems to rely on the UN for a lot of their services.  There also appears to be a lot of ‘other’ ways to make money here, like moving alcohol, diamonds, ivory, etc.
After a good night’s sleep, I wake up to a rather lazy day.  It is Sunday, so I can’t get much done as far as the mission goes.  So I spend the day trying to catch up on my writings, doing laundry, checking emails and making phone calls home.
On Monday, I was off to a good start, thanks to all of my media friends in the country.  Every country that I go to now, the media people become my main contacts.  On top of the taxi drivers, which help me to learn about their country, the media people are a great resource when it comes to learning about local life.
Here in the Central African Republic, I quickly learn that there are not many media houses.  That must be due to having such a small population and being so rural.
Thanks to my new friends in the media here who gave me great interviews and for all of the interest that they have shown in covering the mission and Kosovo’s independence.  Thanks to Mr. Samual Turpin, who authorized my interview with Radio Ndeke Luka.  I like that name because because it roughly translates to ‘lucky bird’ or ‘bird who delivers a message’.  Mr. Turpin has worked in  many countries and was very knowledgeable about Kosovo since he worked there during our conflict and was in charge of establishing one of our radio stations there.  Also thanks to Mr. Fred Yapendet, the journalist with a great personality who actually did the interview with me.
Since radio is a huge media resource down here, I also went to Radio Nehemie.  Mr. Jean-Piere Nambate Dounia was very knowledgeable about Kosovo.  It was nice to hear that some of the listeners were asking if I could do the interview in Sango, one of the local languages.  Even if I was able to do that, I hear that there are over 80 ethnic groups (all with their own language), so it would still have been hard to be understood by everybody.
My third radio interview was with Mr. Keven Junior Zackou-Wangui at Radio Notre Dame (there’s a history of French colonialism here too).  I owe him a big thank you for his in-depth interview.
At the newspaper Le Confident, Mr. Banale Fleury and Mr. Etienne Madondabou helped me do an interview and at Le Citoyan, it was Eddy-Stephane.  Mr. Samba Ferdinand and Dotte Geoffroy Hyacinthe were the great personnel at the Le Democrate newspaper and Mr. Jimmy Nzecko and Mr. Sylvestre Krock at the newspaper Hirondelle were also very helpful in getting the word out about our mission.
Finally, the Director of the National television station, Mr. Michael Ouambeti authorized his journalist Mr. David Nvale to interview me.
At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Attachee de Protocole du Minister, Ms. Viviane Nancy Dalemet had a great personality and was very persistent in getting me a meeting with her boss, the Minister himself, Mr. Antoine Gambi.  During that meeting, Mr. Gambi gave me undivided attention and was very pleasant when discussing our mission.  He mentioned that his personal position on Kosovo was that self-determination is a right that everyone should have and that he agrees with our independence.  However, their file on Kosovo must go to his government so that they can make a decision as a group.
I hope that my visit to this remote and mostly tribal country will make a positive change here as far as Kosovo is concerned and that a decision will come out of this beautiful place soon.
Speaking of decisions, I find out that on this coming Sunday is when this country will have its next political election.  As I mentioned earlier, this country has a history of political instability.  This election alone has been postponed numerous times.
On a lighter note, I cannot forget to thank my taxi driver, Mr. Bruno Zoua.  Though he ended up changing prices on me throughout the day (despite having agreeing to a set price in the morning), he was a trip to spend time with as he had the personality of a space cadet.
I am glad to have made progress here after wondering if I would ever make my landing.  It was nice to spend my time here with humans instead of my friends the wild African animals.  The next country up is Chad.
God Bless the Central African people.

Le Citoyen

La Redaction

L’HIRONDELLE

Le Confident PDF

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I’m still enjoying the progress of this mission so far, despite the extreme stress encountered nearly every time that I have to deal with those nonsense permits required in every country.
The way that I figure it, it only takes basic math skills to understand that it would be much better to eliminate these nightmare permit requests.  By doing so, these countries could have many more airplanes land at their airports, which means that they would also put more money into the local economy through the other fees required upon landing (parking fees, fuel charges, etc.), not to mention the money that visitors would spend for such simple things as taxis, hotels, restaurants, etc.  Instead, the complicated process of gaining permits inhibit people from landing in these countries because all of the bureaucratic paperwork, pre-planning, back and forth requests, various waiting periods, etc., which all lead to a miserable time for the pilots that do land here.
I guess that many of the countries that I’ve visited so far are basically broke, so maybe they think they are bringing in money through all of these fees and hoops that they make you jump through to get there.  In reality, they could make much more money being friendlier to incoming pilots and their air visitors.  Instead, less airplanes coming in means that no extra money can be brought into their economy.  Not to forget that it isn’t just this country with all of these complicated rules, there are many that I’ve visited that have the same sort of process for entry.  Again, my basic math skills lead me to believe that these practices work to destroy the countries financial base and hurts their own people through trying to stick to an ideology that is not working effectively.
Needless to say, I did encounter these struggles in my visit to Cameroon.  Despite all of the official requirements for entry, I ended up having to work around these.  The permit that I was approved for was only intended to allow me to make a technical stop in Yaounde, the capital.  Usually, a technical stop allows you to make a stop out of necessity only (refueling, diversion flights due to weather, stopping for physical needs, unpredicted circumstances, etc.).  However, I was able to land in Douala instead.  I am very lucky that I was able to stay three days there, since I did not have the right permit to do so.
Upon arrival in Douala, I was met by friendly people with a great sense of customer service.  Thanks to my new friend, Onana Denis Gaeian, I was well taken care of.  He spent half of the day with me, helping me get everything taken care of at the airport (getting fuel, paying my fees, flight planning, etc.), providing rides to and from the nearest hotel and assisting me with arranging a bus to the administrative capital of Cameroon, Youande
It’s always a good feeling to be in a foreign country and have someone local whose willing to help you out.  Mr. Gaeian brought me to the bus station in Douala so that I could travel to the town of Youande, Cameroon’s administrative capital.  The bus ride was an additional four hour ride that night.  After flying 7 hours straight and dealing with airport paperwork both before flying and upon landing here, I ended up not getting to Youande until after midnight.
After a good night’s sleep, I awoke ready to face the tasks of the day.  As usual, I hired a taxi driver – this has become a necessity in order to get anything done in a timely manner in regards to our mission.  My driver today, Mr. Daniel Kenmene, is another very humble and wonderful person.  He knew the town really well and was very pleasant to spend the day with.
In two full days, we were able to accomplish quite a bit together (even if we were running around like madmen).  While we were going from one media house to the next, we didn’t even have time to eat a  proper meal.  Instead, we lived off snacks from sidewalk vendors in order to make the best of our time and get the most accomplished.
Thanks to the great people at the newspaper ‘Le Jour’, the journalist Mr. Beaugas-Orain Djoyoum who interviewed me and his boss Francois Xavier Luc Deutchoua; To Mr. Hugues Marcel Tchoua, with the government newspaper, Cameroon Tribune; Mr. Alphonse Nkoa-Anaba with Radio Anaba 87.0 FM.  A big thank you to Mr. Georges Alain Boyomo, who wrote a wonderful one page article at the newspaper Mutations, and his boss, Mr. Leger Ntiga, who authorized its publication; The newspaper Le Messager and Ms. Nadege Christelle Bowa for her great in depth interview; Mr. Jean-Patient Tsala (another great person who knows Kosovo past and present really well) and our interview with ‘magic FM’ – that was and interview that I will remember for a long time; The great team at radio RTS Radio Tiemeni Siantou 90.5 FM who gave me another great interview –Mr. Eugene Messina, Eric Boni Face Tchovakeu.  We had lots of fun talking about many great topics, from the culture similarities and differences between Africa, Europe and Kosovo, as well as other topics of life in general.  Finally, I don’t want to forget my appreciation for the awesome team and Canal 2 of Cameroon – Ms. Cathy Toulou Elanga and Marius Kouosso.  Both of them had a great personality and were a joy to speak with.
I’d like to say one additional thing here, in regards the African media.  I have been continually surprised at the receptiveness of the media here in Africa.  I am, of course very grateful and appreciative of their time and attention to our cause.  They are such an important part of helping to raise awareness of our nation, our people, and our future.  They have published and transmitted many excellent articles, radio transmissions, electronic transcripts and video reports.  I never gave much thought to it before traveling here, but the media here is much more receptive than some I have encountered in the past.  Folks, it saddens me to admit this, but this portion of our mission has been much more successful in getting media coverage transmitted to the rest of the planet than the coverage from our own country, where my heart is.  It seems like Flying for Kosovo should be the primary focus of our media in Kosovo, as far as getting the word out to the rest of the world,  especially since it would be so beneficial to our people and nation to know about these other countries in the world and how we can build better relations with them.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs were all very professional and respectful, I owe them a big thank you for having organized a meeting with me on such short notice.  Mr. Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, General Secretary at the MFA was extremely knowledgeable about Kosovo’s independence and the desire of our people.  He said to me “Mr. Berisha, we all know that Kosovo’s independence is irreversible and that [Cameroon’s] government can’t deny that, but that they would have to be careful on how to proceed with this delicate matter in order not to create a situation that would damage his countries interests and position in the world.  Vlora Citaku’s letter was hand delivered to him and he assured me that the Minister himself would get the letter shortly.  It was the Minister himself who initially authorized Mr. Ngoh to see me.  He apologized for not being able to receive me personally (and on such short notice) since he had The Vice Minister of China in his country at the time.
The city of Youande looks very nice.  A lot of the buildings have French-style architecture.  Again, the French were very involved historically in developing this part of Africa.  Even today, it is French and English that are the official languages of Cameroon.  The best part of this town, however, was the boulangeries, or French bakeries.  What a treat my friends!  Many of you might not know this, but I have lost weight on this trip due to my bodies intolerance to certain of the foods that I have tried.  So I thought I was in heaven being able to eat a fresh, French pastry here.

Cameroon Tribune

Africatime.com

Le blog de Tchoua

Le Messager PDF

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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.

Evenement Bihebdo

La Roue De L’Histoire PDF

Le Republicain

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It is weird, but after a few days with people in each country, I begin to get used to the surroundings and accustomed to the way that each system works.  Just when I become comfortable and settled into everything, it’s time to move on again and start all over.  Though part of me wants to move on to my next destination, there is a part of me that is sad to leave the new friends that I meet in each country.
Many times, I feel like I am enrolled in a University to get a degree, being exposed to so many different countries, cultures, traditions, landscapes, etc. and learning about the tiny details that make each country unique.  But instead of having a whole semester with each country, I am learning at a the speed of sound many times.  I often feel like I am learning so fast that my brain and body can’t keep up with each other.  Just when I start to learn about these things, my body is already off to another country.
One thing that I have come to realize during all of this, is that we humans tend to judge other humans a lot.  We begin to judge their country, their continent, their religion, and we create a category for them and mark them as bad.  We especially tend to think that those people who are less fortunate than us are bad, mostly because we create a negative image of them in our heads.  We are usually wrong.
The basic fact that I am learning is that we are all more alike than we are different.  We all usually have the same values: we all want to make sure that are families are taken care of, that they are fed, have a roof over their head.  We all want to live in peace and be around loved ones.  If we could all learn this vital fact, then our world would be a much friendlier place.
Anyway, back to Mali.  This place has a much drier climate than the previous countries that I’ve visited in the last few weeks (most of Mali is located in the Southern Sahara) and I notice quickly that the people here are wearing the same colorful robes (called boubous) that I’ve seen in the other West African countries.  I’d probably be wearing one too if I lived hear because of the climate.
Once again, I am saved by speaking French.  Like other countries around here, Mali has a history of French rule.  In 1991, they gained a new constitution and became a democratic, multi-party state.  Maybe that fact has something to do with the political and social stability that I sense in the people here here, they seem so friendly, calm and at ease.
Upon arrival, I notice that the Bamako’s airport looks pretty decent and that there is improvement and construction going on.  I’m greeted by friendly people and my favorite part – taxis that are available outside of the airport.  It always seems to be a good sign to me in a new country when the taxi drivers actually wait for you to call them instead of all of them bombarding you at once, wanting your foreign money.  Even still, their fares never match what the airport employees tell me it costs for a ride to town.  No matter where I land, I guess that if you are a foreigner in a foreign country, you are paying extra and the local rules don’t apply – even if you’re as broke as the locals.
After negotiating the taxi fare, I went to town to look for a hotel.  The first one that I visited wanted $50USD/night.  I would have stayed there, but the building was falling apart and they were not willing to bargain on the price, so I kept looking.  Since I was going to be staying here for at least four nights due to the upcoming holiday (most administrative places will be closed, so completing my mission work will be slow), I wanted to make sure that I would be safe and that my hotel would be tolerable to sleep in.  The second hotel was a bit more pricey, but was in better condition and I could see myself staying here safely.  Despite my bargaining efforts, this hotel did not go down in price either.  At least the front desk staff were friendly.
The next morning I am up early and it’s Friday, the 31st of December.  I have no clue if I will be able to accomplish anything because of the holiday, but I will at least try.  So I hired a taxi man with a nice car,  but also high on price.  Thankfully, he did agree to go down some on his price, but not enough as always, although he did seem to know his way around town.
Since 90% of this country is Muslim, I also have the fact that today is prayer day working against getting anything accomplished.  After trying three different media houses, I was about to give up on the thought of making any progress.  My luck changed when I was able to obtain an interview with Les Echos newspaper.  Ms. Aminata Traore was called in by her boss to speak with me.  Though she did a great job, the interview was held in a location that was getting ready for the New Year’s celebration.  They were decorating and preparing food all around us.
After the interview, I went back to the hotel and thought that I was done for the night and the rest of the weekend, but thanks to my new friend Aminata and her friends, I was invited to the party that evening.  What a wonderful experience, to celebrate New Year’s in foreign country, even though I am so far away from my own home.

The rest of the weekend went on without any major accomplishments.  I was even allowed a few lazy days to catch up on my writings and was able to explore capital city.  I noticed that there are many newly built roads here in Bamako and, to my surprise, many beautiful parks, monuments, statues, etc.  Not to forget the beautiful river of Niger, which flows through the middle of town.

My taxi driver over the weekend, the great Mr. Diarra Koniba, was very funny (except that there was no bargaining with him about the price).  He was very pleasant to be around and had lots of great wisdom.  During our time together, I was asking him questions about his government and if they were doing good for his country and people.  He responded in French with a very funny answer:  “Lorsque j’ai demandé à mon ami Mr. Koniba sur ce que fait le gouvernement malien afin d’améliorer la situation socio-économique du pays et permettre à la population d’avoir plus de chances à l’accès aux services de santé et d’éducation, Mr. Koniba m’a répondu que même la plus belle femme du monde ne peut pas donner à son mari ce qu’elle ne possède pas à l’exemple de la beauté!”  Which roughly translates to “even the most beautiful women in the world, she is unable to give something to her husband that she does not have”, meaning that no matter how good his government is, they are broke and can’t go beyond their means.  They have nothing more to give.
The media here were excellent thanks to Ms. Traore for the excellent Les Echos article that  was already in the newspaper Monday morning.  I owe a big thank you to the rest of the journalists in Mali and their bosses, for the time and care that they took to learn about Kosovo’s independence.  They were all really happy and keen to write something about our country so that the people of Mali and their government would know our wishes.  Mr. Soumaila Guindo with the newspaper L’independent was very professional and took lots of care; Mr. Boukary Daou with the journal Le Republicain; Mr. Brettima Doumbia with L’Essor, a government newspaper; and  Mr. Mahamadou Kane with Radio Kledu 101.8FM and his assistant Ms. Dieneba De’Me Diallo who wanted to share Kosovo’s independence in www.oustafrikablog.net.  Finally, I don’t want to forget my great friend from the hotel Mirebeau, Mr. Coulibaly Samba.  We discussed Kosova quite often during my stay and he was able to call a good friend of his. Mr. Bakary Nimaga, who is a political and successful businessman.  Many times, Mr. Nimaga contacted the President of his country to discuss Kosova’s independence and the will of our people.
Mali’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs were very receptive thanks to Mr. Salifou Diabate, Chef du Cabinet ,  was friendly and took time to listen to our viewpoint and formal request from the people of Kosovo as far as our independence is concerned.  Ms. Vlora Citaku’s letter was again hand delivered and I was assured that follow-up would be sent to Ms. Citaku shortly.
Off to Burkina-Faso.

Le Republicain

Le Republicain PDF

Document

Radio

Le Echos PDF

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FORUM de la semaine 1, 2 PDF

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I had a very long and nerve-wracking flight from Liberia to Ghana today when I had to fly over lots of jungle and spent over four hours flying over the Ivory Coast, a country that is on the verge of a civil war.  Friends, it felt very strange to fly over a country where there is a lot of killing going on.  Before this, I thought that flying over some of the Latin American countries was bad, with all of the coca fields that they had below.  But it was  definitely more scary to fly over a country where I know that people are killing each other.  I was really hoping and praying that no one would shoot me down up here in the sky.
Thanks to god that I made it to Ghana in one piece and landed in the early evening with no big surprises.  After I secured the airplane for the evening, I entered the VIP exit of the airport.  It looked very nice and it reminded me of the comfort of being in an FBO (fixed base operation station) in the USA.  This was my first experience of Ghana.  It was refreshing to have a pleasant entrance into a country and into an airport where everything was working correctly and not broken down.  In no time I was out the door and trying to find a taxi driver.
As soon as I was out the door, there was a taxi waiting to take me to the downtown area.  I always ask to go toward town upon arrival to a new country because I want to be close to everything that I need the next morning (media houses, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, etc.).  Otherwise, I would waste too much time trying to get from place to place.  So the taxi driver takes me to a hotel within my budget, the Niagara Inn, which turned out to be an excellent choice and had all of the things that I look for in a hotel (cleanliness, friendly people, coziness and an okay location).  Again, a refreshing experience!
Once at the hotel, I was able to meet the owners right away.  They were very warm upon first impression and they live there as well, which always makes me feel more secure.  Mr. Wajih El-Mawas is the owner.  He is a very nice gentleman who is originally from Lebanon, but has spent most of his life right here in Accra, Ghana.  I felt very comfortable staying here with the owner and his wonderful family on the premises.  Mr. El-Mawas is a successful businessman who owns many hotels and jewelry shops here in town.
The next morning, I woke up early in order to get to work right away.  Luckily, Wajih’s son, Ammar, offered to drive me around for the day in order to get my mission work done.  The day went well and I was able to meet with the excellent Ms. Reina Baah Sackey, the Deputy Chief of Protocol of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and hand delivered Vlora Citaku’s letter to her.  Ms. Sackey promised that the letter would reach the Minister’s hands promptly and that she would do anything within her power to help as far Kosovo’s independence is concerned.
As far as the media,  I am very pleased to report that I had great luck.  Since freedom of the press is guaranteed in the Ghanaian constitution, I had no problem finding journalists who were willing to cover our story.  I owe a big thank you to the following people, who were all excited to share some news about Kosovo with their people and their government: Mr. Musah Jafaru and his boss at the Daily Graphic newspaper were great.  Kingsley Asare with the Ghanaian Times; Justice Appiah and his boss at the Daily Dispatch; Ben Ephson and Mr. Umaru Sanda with the Citi FM radio; Ms. Perpetual Quaye with Sky TV; and my great friend Mr. Sedem Ofori, a wonderful intellectual who gave me a great interview with the radio station Joy FM who helped me to get everything organized at his station very quickly.  Finally, let’s not forget Mr. Kofi Akpabli, a journalist who recently won the 2010 CNN Multichoice African Journalists Arts and Culture award and who is a good friend of Ms. Lamia Tagzout from Algeria (who is also still trying to help our mission).
Since I left Morocco, Ghana seems to be doing the best so far economically.  There is great infrastructure here and the people appear to be well-educated and open-minded, with lots of talent everywhere.  This makes sense when I learn that Ghana is one of the world’s top producers of gold, cocoa and oil and has a very strong agricultural economy (almost ½ of the population is employed in agriculture).  It also  has one of the highest school enrollment rates in West Africa and all classes are taught in English.
Though I’ve only been here a few days, I can already see that the Ghanaian people are trying very hard to better their lives and are interested in having their country progress.  The mentality here seems to be that if anything can be done to improve their nation, they are willing to do it.

Newspaper

Radio Interview

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After being taxed like hell in Sierra Leone, I finally made it to Liberia. I landed just before dark, parked the aircraft and in no time I was out the door. My unexpected friend, Richard Zawiea was already waiting for me with a bill from civil aviation authorities for their services. But he seemed extremely nice and is just an employee of someone else, so he can’t do anything about it. This airport in Liberia is far from being cheap (very much like Sierra Leon) and having a USA aircraft does not help. They think that the USA can afford it, but they don’t stop to think if every individual can afford it though.

I got into a taxi and was greeted by nice, calm and easygoing gentleman, Mr. Alfred Kromah, who drove me to town which was about 60-70km away from the airport. I was glad that I was not still in Guinea, otherwise I would have been asked to pay 20-30 times more than we agreed on to take a taxi.

Alfred was very patient with me (which helped a lot) as I tried to find a hotel within my budget. He drove me to at least 6 of them and all were extremely high priced. Because of his patience, I told him that I needed him for the entire next day. This made him feel good and gave him some work that he deserved. Patient pays off at times.

Finally, I got a hotel. It was still past my budget, but after seeing the ones just before this that were in such awful condition, I had no choice but to pay this price. At least for the $50USD, I did not have to worry about hearing strange noises all night long…

The next morning, I attacked the media right away and had a very successful day overall. I did five national newspaper, 1 national television and one local radio interview. Thanks to Jerome W. Toe and his boss Kenneth Best at Liberian Observer, Joe K Roberts at New Democrat, Mr. Musa Kenneh (which gave me two interviews, one at Real TV and Truth FM 96.1 radio station), Mr. Nicholas Dweh Nimley with the News, Doe S.K. Davies with the In Sight newspaper and finally, Philip N. Wesseh with the Inquirer newspaper. I owe all of them a lot for their time and the attention that they dedicated to me. They were all extremely happy to know that they were really appreciated by the people of Kosovo and our government.

Thanks to the Deputy Chief of Protocol Mr. Rancy S. Torkpa who dedicated some time to my visit, even though I had not pre-arranged a meeting. He also was grateful to know that we Kosovars respected his country and had lots of appreciation for the people and government of Liberia.

The people here are very friendly and open. They all seemed to be talking and saying hello to me, even though they didn’t know me. This is such a great thing to experience in a new country, especially one so far away from home. I suspect that their reception of me, may have something to do with a long history of US-Liberian relations. This country, Liberia denotes “liberty” and was originally founded and colonized by freed American slaves and other slaves that were freed from local slave-trading ships. It’s capital city, Monrovia, was named after James Monroe, the 5^th President of the US who was a prominent supporter of this colonization.

During a time when they themselves are trying to recover from some of their countries past, the people of Liberia seem so enthusiastic and positive about everything In the 1980’s, Liberia suffered two brutal civil wars and many people died. The effect of these wars are still seen on the economy today, as many people here live on less than $2/day.

Still, this country seems to be doing better than the past few. There is a much better infrastructure here. It felt so great to go into an air-conditioned store here and have supplies from all over the world. Not to mention the luxury of having coolers that work where I could get a real cold drink. It’s been awhile since I could get something cold to drink. Many of the stores that I have had to visit recently have much difficulty keeping proper items and foods in the stores and also keeping the shelves, cans, etc. free from dust and dirt. Lastly, the taste of fresh tropical fruit with a nice cold drink really helped me to maintain some sanity! Of course, where there is tropical fruit, then there’s definitely tropical weather, which means that it is very wet and warm down here too…

The one familiarity of the past few countries and Liberia is one that I could have done without… the shortages of electricity happened daily. This did not help to keep up on all of the communication that I must do through the internet. At least here, they still managed to keep everything working and neat. The UN definitely has a big presence here, they are seen everywhere.

Now it’s time to head for Ghana and attempt to overfly the Ivory Coast. Wish me luck ladies and gentlemen because that country is currently in it’s own civil war right now and has had a lot of political unrest. Hopefully, in 7 hours time, I will be in Ghana.

Daily OBSERVER

The INQUIRER

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No matter how short is the flight between departure and arrival airport, with the nightmare of airport bureaucratic nonsense, you always end up spending at least half of your day dealing and shoveling paperwork around.  Today’s flight to Freetown was only 45 minutes, which went well over all, except that I arrived in Sierra Leone after the hours allowed by the airport authority.  I didn’t realize that it closed early due to maintenance.
Things were going well so far, I was getting a great reception and was excited to thank the Sierra Leone people and government for their recognition of Kosovo.  Little did I know yet that this place would end up costing me an arm and a leg due some very high charges that you would never see in the normal world.  It seems like the worse off a country is economically, the more money they want for services.  Despite trying to straighten things out over the phone and through written emails, it still ended up costing me over $700USD for my 1043kg, single engine plane.  In the normal world, you could land an airliner aircraft for that price!
Additionally, Safe Skies, the airplane handling company was being really difficult.  They ended up charging me another small fortune.  I’ve never paid so much in my life!  Especially since there wasn’t even AVGAS involved and they were just the result of some other nonsense charges that they just added to my invoice to please customs.
Zainep Bah, an airport handling agent, helped me to go all the way to town to make sure that I was not lost somewhere half way to the city.  From the airport to the capitol city, you have to take a taxi up until you hit the dock where all of the boats are parked.  Since Freetown is on a peninsula, you have to take a ferry or a speed boat to town.  Speed boats take about 20 minutes and a ferry close to one hour.  If you were to take an auto taxi it would take about 8 hours since there is a lot of wetland and swamps that you would have to go around to get there.
Since I arrived on a Friday, I was off to find a hotel for the night.  It was not in the best condition, but I had no choice and had to deal with it.  On Saturday morning, I woke up early and Zainep was again willing to help me out.  This time, talking to the media.  I would like to thank Ibrahim Kanu, who met me early in the morning and who stayed and helped me for the next two days.  He was my guardian and  introduced me to many great people while in Freetown.  I was able to complete three wonderful interviews with national newspapers.  Thanks to Mr. Ishmael Kindama Dumbuya with the Standard Times, Mr. Jon-bu and William Freeman with Awoko newspaper and Joe Minah with the Exclusive Newspaper for their interviews.
On Sunday, I could not do anything explore Freetown and the beaches until Monday, when I could meet with the MFA.  It is always exciting to me to explore a new city in a new country.  Though everyone here looks different and there are many ethnic groups, most of the people I meet in a new country are very nice and welcoming.
Like the past few countries, Sierra Leone has had a checkered past.  Since it is the third largest natural harbour in the world, it was once used as a trading post for slaves and it was only in 1960 that it gained independence from Britain.  After that, there were many different government administrations until the 1990’s when the country entered civil war and many people died.  By 2007, a lot of drug cartels were using this country as a base to ship drugs to Europe.  The newest administration has worked hard to try and change this and maintains good relations with Western countries.
Mr. Ibrahim V. Kondoh, who just took office as the Director of Protocol was very appreciative of the fact that the people of Kosovo have lots of respect for the people and the government of Sierra Leone.  I asked him and his Ministry to try and help Kosovo with other African countries.  He reassured me that this was part of their commitment to a new country that they themselves have accepted as an independent nation.  Overall, it was a great meeting.
Now, it is time for me to fly for four hours to the next country and I have learned that if I ever visit Sierra Leone again in the future, I will be sure to fly a commercial airliner instead of a private plane unless I have a fat wallet.

The Daily IIJ

Awoko Newspaper

Standart Time PDF

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Short flight from Guinea-Bissau to Guinea compared to some long ones in the past.  Thank you to the Civil Aviation of Guinea and the airport personnel who helped me get my clearance to their country much faster than the normal procedure of 3-5 days in advance.  The help of our friend from the Guinea-Bissau tower was also a positive contributing factor.
Landing and parking the aircraft here in Guinea gave me a better sense of security overall than previous two countries.  One thing that I quickly realized (which did not take long at all) was that they love the $$$ in this country.  Even to come and say hello to you they expected you would give them something as a tip right away.  I guess they expect me to handout $100 bills to everyone that has an exposed badge and works at the airport.
My taxi driver who looked like the big shooter type businessman comes with the attitude of telling me “Do you know how much I charge for my services”,  I said no, I don’t.  “$75USD to bring you to a hotel and bring you back to the airport.”  Right away I made it clear to him that he could stop the car and let me take another one and that all I was willing to give him 10000 African Francs (equal to about 15Euros and was all that I had) otherwise, I would not use him.  He tried to give me some nonsense of security concerns and that I was safe with him.  I found out later that you could get a yellow cab type taxi for 3-4 Euros to get to town, so he still made 10 extra Euros off of me.
I also quickly realized that the hotels were expensive, especially for the quality that I was getting.  The first hotel we entered was $120USD.  It was more than my budget allowed and nothing special, so I kept looking.
For the next two days, I was busy chasing the media for interviews.  Thank God I speak French or I would have never made it down in this part of the world.  Guinea, and many other countries in this area were colonized by the French many years ago, so many people still speak that language.
I owe a big thank you to Mr. Bah Abdoulaye, who interviewed me with L’Observateur.  He was excellent help to me during my two day visit in Guinea.  Not only did he interview me, but he brought me to several other newspapers in town and knew exactly where they were located in town.
His partner, Mr. Mamadou Dian Balde, editor in chief of the newspaper L’Independant also wrote an excellent article about our request for the government of Guinea to recognize Kosovo’s independence.  I liked the tone of his article and the title ““James Berisha, Pilote Kosovar Nous demandons a la Guinea de reconnaitre l’independance du Kosovo”, which basically means that we are requesting that the government of Guinea recognize the independence of Kosovo.  Very explicit and straight to the point.
Mr. Nadhel Diallo from radio FM Liberte 101.7FM also deserves a big recognition for the wonderful in depth interview that he did on his radio.  He had many great questions and was pushing his government to do something about Kosovo’s independence.
Next, I went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  They were great in receiving me, especially since I had no pre-arranged meeting planned in advance.  Mr. Bakary Fofana, Minster of Foreign Affairs, was very aware of my visit to Guinea and took great time in telling me that his country was well aware of our request to be recognized as an independent nation.  He expressed to me that the people of Guinea really cared about their brothers and sisters in Kosovo.  He told me that the letter that I hand delivered from Vlora Citaku, our Minister of Foreign Affairs, would be forwarded to the higher chains of command also.  So it was a successful meeting.
The country of Guinea itself has seen some political unrest in the past decade or so.  It was only last month that they voted for a new president.  The election itself had to be postponed several times and the locals are very insistent on gaining a non-military president..
Despite being one of the poorest countries in the world with a history of corruption, the people of Guinea were very nice.  They all seemed to comprehend and know the values of their country.  I’m very glad that I was able to communicate with many of them in French.

L’independant PDF

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