Flying for Kosovo

This morning I am on my way from Addis Ababa to Abibjan, Ivory Coast.  The flight is over seven hours in length and we have to stop in Ouagadougo, Burkina Faso for a technical layover.  Since there is such a long distance to cover, it is more efficient for me to take a commercial flight with Ethiopian Airlines, rather than fly our baby plane across the continent again.  If I did that, it would have taken me approximately a week of flying each way (not to mention all of the airport fees, fuel costs, hotel, food, etc.).

It felt good to be able to stop in Burkina-Faso again.  Just remembering the great friends and people that I have met along the way in this mission brings a sense of warmth to my heart.  I am sad to see that our stop here in Ouagadougo is too short to be able to say hello to everyone here one more time, but in the end, our mission must go on.  If you all remember, the reason that I have to go back to the Ivory Coast is that I was unable to visit there back in December, when I passed it early on in our mission.  In fact, I had to avoid it all togther and change my travel plans because things in that country were getting very heated and tense, eventually leading the country into an outright civil war.  Folks, I have risked my life enough times on this mission, but I am definitely not one to go into harms way on purpose.  Right now, it looks like the instability has calmed down some (though only within the past few weeks), so I want to take this visit their before I finish the African continent.  A promise is a promise and I want to share our country with their people.

*  In Novemeber 2010, Cote D’Ivoire held their first elections in over ten years and the opposition leader, Alassane Ouattara won against the sitting President Laurent Gbago (in office since 2000).  While the world recognized the newly elected official, the former ruling party contested the results.  The instability escalated until March 2011, when United Nation and French forces stepped in with military action in order to arrest former President Gbagbo (April 2011) and formalize the newly elected Ouattara administration.
It is only now (in a few days actually), that the new President will have his official inauguration ceremonies (May 6, 2011).  In between November 2010 and March 2011, it is estimated that nearly 100,000 fled the country as refugees and many human rights violations were reported as coming from both sides.

As we approach Abidjan, it looks very humid and hazy down there.  Just a few weeks ago, this country was still in the midst of a full-blown war, with thousands of people dying as a result.  All that I can hope for is that no one will shoot me while I am visiting this nearly lawless state and that I am able to return safely back to Ethiopia soon.  In fact, since the official Presidential inauguration is only a few days away, I’d like to hurry up and complete my mission work here before all of the public activities begin, since sometimes those can also be dangerous.

As soon as I got off of the airplane, I could tell that things were tense, but that’s okay because I was already expecting this type of thing.  All of the passengers from our flight are immediately greeted by the airport police and asked to show our visas, passports and vaccine records before we even encounter the border guards.  Of course, I have had a visa for this country since I obtained it a while ago back in Washington DC (so they have no excuses for kicking me out of here), but my vaccine card was a little bit of a surprise and is safely tucked away in my luggage, which has traveled all of this way in the belly of the plane.  So, the first thing that I needed to do was to get my luggage, pull out my vaccine card and then travel back to this side of the border in order to go through the ‘official’ entry process.  Most of the time, they want you to pass through activities like this so that they can try to make some more money off of you or make your life miserable and slow you down – you know, in order to show that they are the ones who are in charge now.  Just as an example, the authorities needed to keep my passport hostage until I completed all of their local demands.  Luckily, my bag had made it safely to the dis-embarquement area so that I could finally start this time-consuming process.  After speaking with many commanders, chiefs, bosses, etc., they finally let me through the border gates.

Now that I have cleared this first hurdle and made it into the actual country, I have to be very careful as to where I go, where I stay, who to trust, etc.  Things here are still very tense and dangerous, so you can’t just go anywhere you want.  I took extra caution to choose a taxi driver that looked halfway decent (not too young, not too strange, etc.) and asked him to take me to a decent hotel in one of the more secure areas of town.  As we drive through town, it is a hot and humid day.  Things still seem tense and there are security personnel all over the place.  It looks like I won’t be engaging in my normal routine of walking around in order to get a feel for my new country.

I should have been more prepared before coming here because I had no idea yet that my Kosovar friends here would be so worried about me.  Over my travels, I have learned that there are many Kosovars here in the African continent.  Most of them work for various United Nations missions and I have met some of them in countries like Congo, Brazzaville, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Chad, Sudan, etc.  Though I had been given some contact information about the Kosovars here in this country, I thought that I would just make my way to the hotel today and call them tomorrow, as I really did not want to bother anyone, knowing that they all have their normal lives to live, work to do, etc.

So I owe all of my friends here in the Ivory Coast a big apology, since I didn’t call them before leaving Addis Ababa to let them know that I was coming into town.  Little did I know at the time that they were all very worried about me and my overall safety.  They even drove to the airport a few times and called each other, asking about my whereabouts and if anyone had seen me.  Here I was worried about bothering them and they were all worried making sure I was safe in their country.

Instead of spending the evening with these friends (whom I had no idea were even looking for me), I had the taxi driver take me to a safe, clean hotel in the most secure part of town.  I was comforted to know that there was a security gate with lots of safety personnel around.  Like I mentioned before, I really needed to be careful here about where I went and how freely I could roam, so instead of dinner, I bought a few pre-packaged snack foods and went up to my room for the evening.  On top of having to worry about security here, you always have to be careful of the food that you eat here in Africa, especially as a foreigner.

In places like this (where it is not only unsafe, but the hygiene is not the best), it is often safer to go with packaged foods instead of local cuisine.  There have been many times during my travels down here that I have attempted to eat the local food, but have ended up regretting it later in the night, getting sick and/or having stomach problems.  Before visiting Africa, I considered myself to be a man with an iron stomach, but nothing can prepare you for food that has been sitting out in the sun all day and already half-eaten by the local insects.  I don’t mind having to share my food, but not with a million flies all at once.

Even when they are selling ‘fresh’ meats, fish, chicken, etc., my stomach could never get used to the fact that the food had collected all of the heat and dust and flies from the day before getting to my plate.  And it is not much better in the sophisticated restaurants where the meals were between $10-30USD – my stomach still could not get used to the local food preparation.  So you can imagine how much worse the local street vendor food is – you are likely to kill yourself trying to live off of that.

So I decided many countries ago to only drink bottled water and when in doubt, eat only pre-packaged food.  Even then, you were not guaranteed food safety.  I ended up always having to check the expiration dates, trying to get a product that did not have layers of dust collected on it already and always, always, going with a brand name that was manufactured in a reputable country.  I can see now why Coca-Cola, Pepsi, etc. are so popular down here.  At least you know that they are safe and prepared in a factory that tried to practice good hygiene.  So tonight, my dinner is a safe, reputable can of sardines manufactured in South Africa and bottle of name-brand water.

After eating my high-class dinner, I wanted to get a full nights rest.  I only have two full days here in the Ivory Coast in order to get our mission work done, so I want to get an early start tomorrow.   After a fair breakfast, I found a taxi with the help of the hotel staff.  Usually, local workers tend to be knowledgeable in regards to which cab companies are reliable, etc.  Sometimes they even know certain cab drivers, which saves me from having to deal with strange and/or unsavory characters all day.  But you still have to be careful with them too sometimes.

One thing that I have found here in Africa is that at some hotels, you have to negotiate your price with them – being very specific about what will be included with the price and what will not.  Sometimes though, even your careful negotiations don’t mean much.  For instance, most of the time I make sure that the hotel includes some kind of breakfast, but despite this pre-arranged service, there have been many times that they still try to bring me a receipt for breakfast.  For a small container of jelly and a piece of bread or a croissant with juice, they have tried to charge me anywhere from $7-20USD.  It surprises me everytime and, of course, I have to argue with them that this service was included.  The worst part is that the staff will look at you all innocent like nothing has happened.  But I caught on to these little tricks early on in my travels, so they all know by now that I will not tolerate their nonsense.

You have to be careful and aware of everything down here when you are traveling –the food, the hotel, exchanging money, etc. and especially with your taxi drivers.  They are a different crowd of people indeed and since they are all trying to make as much cash as possible in the least amount of time, you have to be very careful with how you deal with them and be very direct about your requests.  There have been many times that I have had to argue with them about some exhorbetent, unnecessary charge.  I’m actually pretty lucky that I haven’t had more trouble with this matter.

In no time this morning I am off and running.  My mission work routine is always the same: get a taxi, run like crazy all day from media house to media house and plead our cause.  My taxi driver today seems like a decent person and we spend all day driving through town.  I am making good progress too: things are fairly organized and I am getting some good interviews done, thanks to the very dedicated journlists, editors, reports and managers in the media here.

I am amazed and shocked with all of the stories that they are telling me.  They have truly been through hell during the last six months or so.  Their lives have been in danger constantly, even being forced to hide in many different locations (basements, houses, offices, etc.) in order to try and keep their newspapers up to date and publishing the latest news.  The media here explain that they were threatened many times by the police, paramilitary, security agents, etc. who were all trying to eliminate any evidence or truth of the local atrocities.  Of course, those in power never want the outside world to have knowledge of local conditions, especially in times of war.  They tell me here that the outgoing President did not want to give up his seat to the newly elected leader, which is when all of the fighting began.

All of my new friends here showed great interest in hearing more about Kosovo and our mission.  I think that we offered them a sense of hope for what they might become after their recent war has settled down.  Many of them told me that during the recent crisis, they often thought about the our past struggles with Serbia and that they gained a new perspective after having war come so close to their own homes.  Though Kosovo was known to them before, they found a new respect for us during the recent atrocities in their own nation.  They told me that their experiences brought them closer to the struggles of other populations around the world also.  There is something very familiar about war in that it forces us all to open our eyes to the world and feel the overwhelming sorrow of others who have faced the same brutality.

My friends, I have said it over and over in my writings that if we could just leave people alone and not bother each other, then we would all be much better off I’m sure.  I have learned over time that the best judges of a nation are usually its average citizens.  Being amongst the ‘locals’ (who have to exist within a nation’s circumstances) gives you a tremendous feel for how a country is functioning.  At the civilian level, you learn about the real issues that people are facing – not just what you hear reported on headline news across the world.  If you ask, many times people will be very honest with you about the real problems of a nation, what is going well and what is definitely not working.  In fact, the more local people you are able to speak with the better, because you eventually start hearing the same perspective over and over and it gives you a solid perspective of their land.

After traveling so much, experiencing so many different conditions and talking to so many people around the world, I have gotten so tired of the political games that I see: governments reporting only superficial nonsense to the world; the people in power trying to gloss over and hide the real facts and inequalities of their countries; etc.  I always prefer to learn the perspective of the more innocent and humble average citizen because they have no stake in trying to manipulate you or try to fill your brain with all kinds of misleading information.

I am sure that some people might not agree with my opinion on this, but I would simply ask them then to prove to me otherwise.  From what I can see of our world, there are injustices being done all over that are far beyond our wildest imaginations.  From what I have seen, most of this cruelty is the result of one person or group trying to dominate another, so that someone can feel superior to the other, can control the poorer and less fortunate among them.  This has been going on for centuries and, sad to say, it will likely continue for eternity based on our own flawed human logic and self-centered nature.

I mention all of these things with sadness, but it seems like these tragedies are part of our human genetics and no amount of therapy can cure this evil virus.  The only thing that each of us can do is to control it as much as we can so that we ourselves don’t let it get out of hand.  Each of us does have an opportunity to make change in our own life.  We all have the opportunity to help another, to be a good neighbor, to offer care and comfort in times of need.  If we focus on things that each of us can contribute, then we are all working towards a more safe and humane world.

I understand that this description is not really part of our mission work, but the observations that I have made during this mission have become part of my life, part of who I am and my understanding of the human race.  Learning about these things seems to be the only way that I can try to make sense of the fact that we are all from the same basic set of genes, yet we continue to cause harm and destruction wherever we go.

A simple example of my point above is this: many times down here in Africa you see leaders that will do everything that they can to maintain their power, even long after their usefulness has warn off.  No matter if it is their 90th birthday or they are no longer able to fulfill their duty (that is assuming that ever did fulfill their duty), they would rather keep their seat in power and pass it on to a family member, their kids, their friends, etc. and continue to keep destroying the lives of their people.  Instead of offering an ounce of help to the people, I have seen many times where it is more important for some leaders to continue to pad their Swiss bank accounts (thanks to the wealth of their nations, which the local people never see): building palaces all over the world, using their private jets, etc.  All the while their own people are left starving without even the basic necessities like clean, potable water.

So here in Africa, it is usually no surprise to see two temporary, parallel government systems: two presidents, double ministries, etc.  In some nations, there is no government at all, so you are left with a lawless country.  Here in the Ivory Coast, they have had two governments for nearly six months and the resulting conflict left thousands dead and thousands more fleeing as refugees.  But I can’t keep going on here folks because I could fill an entire encyclopedia with facts like this.  So I encourage you all to learn about all of these countries that I’ve been to: their history, their conflict, their culture, etc.  For now, let’s get back to our mission.

Driving around town, I can see the devastation from recent events: there are gunshot holes everywhere; the national television station has been mostly burned down and looks like hell and, like I mentioned before, the atmosphere is still very tense, with military personnel on every corner.  One thing that always surprises me in places like this that have experienced a lot of conflict is the fact that the people always seem so friendly.  Despite their own struggles, many of them offer a kind gesture or a simple smile and I have to wonder sometimes how they can have that sort of stamina, when I know that they have been living through hell.  Here in Abidjan, they were pretty friendly to the outside world – especially to the French since France and the United Nations had just intervened with military in order to stop the bloodshed.

I am very hopeful for the people of this country, now that they have a new government in place.  With some tender loving care, Abidjan could be a fairly beautiful capital city and the entire country could prosper.  In addition to being a world leader in the exportation of coffee, the Ivory Coast also has things like cotton and tropical fruit production in its favor.  There is no doubt that if the new leaders choose to, the Ivory Coast and its people could indeed make economic progress at a fairly fast pace.

I myself was very productive as far as our mission work is concerned.  I completed several interviews during the first day, thanks to all of my new media friends here who showed us great interest in learning more about our country (remember that many of them had just started back to work after being forced to stop for a while under very dangerous conditions).  Thank you to my print media friends: Mr. Rodrigue Konan with Le Patriote; Mr. Hamandou Ziao and Mr. Bertrand Gueu with L’Inter; Mr. Jonas Baikeh with Le Soir Info, who was very knowledgeable about the Balkans; Mr. Benjamin Soro with Mandat; and Mr. Alain Tieffi with Fraternite Matin; and thank you to the great people at Radio Nostalgie: Mr. Luise Martin and Mr. Koe Ri Tra Omer – both of them were excellent to work with.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs here was also excellent.  Vlora Citaku’s letter was hand delivered to the Minister’s Secretary and I was able to speak with several of the team members there in order to bring Kosovo’s issue into their awareness.

After spending the first night at my hotel, I was able to reach my Kosovar friends, who were all extremely happy to hear that I was in their country and that I was safe and sound.  Thank you to Mr. Milot Bujupi, brother to mission team member Fidan Bujupi.  Fidan has offered many hours of volunteer work to our cause over the last eight months.  Milot also was gracious enough to contribute financially to our mission as well.  Thank you to the rest of my new friends for sharing their time, their homes and the comforts of home.  It was a wonderful feeling to experience Kosovar hospitality such a long ways from home.

Finally, I was really lucky to be able to attend a party organized by the United Nations,which was something to be remembered – getting to spend some time with people from around the world, eat some great food and get to know many wonderful personalities.  Being with friends from home really recharged my battery and gave me some much needed moral support to continue on our journey.

Being in the Ivory Coast was a great experience for me and I met many brave and wonderful people who have gone through hell in the past several months due to the political unrest that was outside of their control.  This country will be one of those nations that can recover quickly based on my opinion and there is great economic potential since they have a tremendous wealth of resources from which to utilize.  All that is needed now is strong political stability so that they can have good governance and be able to prosper in life.  Let’s hope that this dark chapter, brought to them by power hungry leaders, will not repeat itself and that the future will allow these hard-working, goal-oriented people to prosper and live in peace, joy and security.

I have lots of good memories of this beautiful country, thanks to all of the people who became a part of me and our mission.  I was even able to visit a hotel that is part of history in the making: the Golf Hotel – where the newly elected President and his government were based until the defeat of the outgoing regime.

Tomorrow is Saturday and I am scheduled to go back to Ethiopia.  I am so glad that I don’t have to fly our baby Cessna for thirty hours in order to ge there, even though my commercial airline ticket cost and arm and a leg.  As my Kosovar friends drive me to the airport, we say our farewells.  Upon our arrival, we see all kinds of official looking planes: Presidents from around the world (including France) are all arriving in order to be here for the historic inauguration of President Alassane Ouattara.  I wish the beautiful people of this country a future full of much peace and prosperity.