Flying for Kosovo

My friends:

It seems like there are only a few things that I can count on throughout this mission and one of them is this:  No matter how much I try to perservere to get things done with precision and dedication, there is always someone or some rule out there that pushes me in the opposite direction.  Whether it is more procdures, regulations, requirements, etc. that may end up costing me extra time, money, headaches, frustration and other unneccessary suffering or a few people working behind the counter who do not understand the basics of their job – it seems I am always fighting against more and more barriers in each country.  This last time it was the fact that I had to wait almost a week! for my Ugandan permit to come through.  Even then, it was almost refused.  Were it not for my new friend Mr. Byrne in Rwanda, I would have never made it to our next country. Not to mention the fact that not only did I need one permit to get to Uganda’s main airport, but I also needed another permit from their military.  Again, another permit that took forever to obtain and which ended up costing me more money in the form of tips to several people in order to get my hands on – otherwise, no permit at all for us.

So there I was in Rwanda, finally a Ugandan permit in my hands and I’m ready to leave bright and early in the morning with our baby plane.  Instead of my sensible plans, I ended up spending the morning waiting for clearance from the civil aviation authority and for money to be sent from Pristina (yes my friends, we are broke again), which always takes at least an hour at Western Union.  Despite the actual flight being only two hours long, by the time you spend your morning running around at the airport getting fuel, clearing customs, paying fees, getting weather updates, etc. and dealing with all of these frustrations, your entire day is soon gone before your eyes.

Folks, it doesn’t make it one bit easier when the personnel that you are trying to deal with are people like the old gramma I had to deal with here in Rwanda.  That poor lady, you have to wonder how in the hell she could get a job like that when the fact is that she has a very hard time even using the computer that she is supposed to be creating my bill from.  Here we are the two of us, me waiting for the bill and her trying to find the right letters on the keyboard and we have me stressing out over the length of time it is taking her and her completely oblivious and peaceful.  While I’m waiting, I notice a bible sitting next to her on the desk.  Apparently, she must read the thing everyday, but of course, it will not tell you in the bible how to use the computer in the year 2011.  Oh my friends, here in Africa time means absolutely nothing.  There is never a rush and it’s as if everyone has their whole life ahead of them to get things done, so why hurry it along…

I finally get on my way and am nearly landing here in Uganda.  I have just flown over the beautiful and enormous Lake Victoria, which borders several countries and is the largest lake in Africa (2^nd largest freshwater lake in the world).  I am starting to see some activity up here in the skies – civilian planes, military planes and of course, the United Nations.  They are everywhere around here.  Remember, per my description of the last few countries, there is a lot of war in this part of Africa.  Here in Uganda they have been fighting for nearly 30 years.  More on that later…

Here we are again with the stress and the problems.  By the time I arrived in Uganda, nightfall was setting in.  That means that the airport must have working lights in order for me to land – it is a requirement in any country and any language.  The airport that I am supposed to land at had no lights, so I was forced to land at one prior to my destination.  It really ticks me off when I have to do something stupid like this, all the time knowing that if things would have gone along as planned, that I would have indeed made my way to my destination.  Instead, I have to spend money on a place to stay, taxis, more airport fees – you name it.  All because of these nonsense permits and fees at each airport, having to run around and deal with people working in places that they should not be and on and on.  I won’t bother to keep venting here – I think you get the picture.

The next day I finally arrive at my destination airport, a private airfield that required two permits to land in.  Though it’s not a military airport, the military maintain control over it, so they need to get their money too I guess.  From there, I wanted to get straight to work and waste no more time on nonsense.  So I hopped a local bus into Kampala, where I shared the two hour ride with local vendors traveling into town with all of their goods: chickens, goats, fruits, vegetables, you name it.

Once my work was completed in Kampala, I spent the rest of the time in my ‘base’ city of Jinja, which is located just a few meters away from that lovely lake Victoria.  The locals here report that this is ‘the’ Source of the Nile River, which is the definitely the largest river in Africa, but also considered to be the longest in the world.  With a length of over 4000 miles, the river actually runs through 9 different countries in all.

Here, I am able to enjoy a small peace of heaven as I observe the beautiful nature and wildlife that surrounds me.  On one of the evenings here I was able to sit at a local camping area owned and operated by Adrift, a local rafting company.  This place had a beautiful location right on the river, nice restaurant/bar with lots of vacationers and best of all: a free sunset to enjoy.  I almost forgot to mention that several times throughout the evening I encountered many different species of birds and lots of little monkeys jumping around from tree to tree, eating local fruits and making us humans laugh and smile.

From what I can tell, this area tries to bring in tourists to visit the lake and the famous river.  It looks like they try to keep people busy with several outdoor activities: rafting, bungee jumping, kayaking, four wheeling, etc.  It is nice to know that there are great things like this to enjoy in Africa, even if I only get to hear about them. 

Despite Jinja being a little town that has struggled in the past economically, it is still an attractive place to visit.  There are nice souvenir shops, a great boardwalk, many restaurants and outdoor markets, etc.  They even make a local beer here that is well known called the Nile.  My travels here in Uganda have shown me that this is a beautiful country with several natural resources.  In addition to Lake Victoria and promoting that as the Source of the Nile (which is sometimes disputed by other countries), they produce a lot of other things here too.  Things like sugar cane, tea, pineapple and banana are often cultivated and exported to other countries.  Time and time again, I have seen that many of the countries here in Africa could prosper really fast in all aspects of life if the local people were given more control over their future.

Though there are still opportunities for improvement.  Here I am at a hotel, sitting right next to the giant and incredible Lake Victoria, where I can hear magnificant frogs, crickets and birds singing, etc., yet I am surrounded by solid proof that cleanliness here in Africa does not seem to exist in the local dictionary.  Being on this continent for over seven months now, I have learned to expect to share my room with lots of little friends and critters.  From lizards to cockroaches, spiders the size of a dollar bill to tiny little insects, we have all been roommates at some point along this trip.  What can I tell you, when you are poor, you have to share the rent with someone.

To give you an example of my adventures, when I checked into my room last night, every wall was covered with smash marks of dead insects killed by the previous guests (and the guests before them, and the ones before them, and so on).  This is not the first time that I’ve experienced this type of thing, especially since everyone seems to be terrified of catching malaria.  Since a lot of these hotel rooms are only cleaned ‘for show’ and may not be full all of the time, a lot of insects make their way to the empty ones to enjoy feasting off of any food crumbs that may have been left behind.  I would have slept fine, except for the fact that around midnight, an army of tiny insects and ants seized my bed.  Since I started itching shortly thereafter, I thought that the best thing to do was to go downstairs and ask to switch rooms.  Folks, this is what you have to deal with unless you want to pay $300-500 USD/night for a hotel room.  With a budget like mine, there is absolutely no way that we can afford that kind of nonsense.

Especially given the fact that our mission has struggled so much financially.  There have been many headaches and setbacks over the past two years.  On many occasions, I often have not even had enough money in my pocket to buy food for the day.  I don’t want to bother you all with the details, but there have been many days that I have gone without food in order to keep our hope and vision alive.  In fact, as I am sitting here writing these few pages for our website update, I can tell you all that our mission is absolutely broke again.

During my stop here, our plane has needed some necessary maintenance work done to it.  Friends, when I say necessary I mean that it’s something that absolutely must be fixed in order to fly – remember that I don’t even have a working GPS in the plane because I would rather spend the money on something that’s more needed.  The work has been finished for almost a week now, but here I sit waiting for money that was promised to me ten days ago from our government.  There are many things that I don’t tell you about our mission my friends (mostly because I don’t want to worry you all and my ego wants you to think that the mission is going fine and that I have no problems to deal with), but I am so frustrated right now that I feel like I finally have to share some of it with you all. 

After two years of struggling, I want you all to know more about the truth.  Were it not for a few key people who have sometimes given me their last Euro, our mission would not have been kept alive.  Of course, there are many more of you that have contributed what you could, and for that I will be grateful forever my friends.  Thank you to all of the people around the world who have helped our mission in any way that they could. But the following people have been primarily the ones keeping our mission alive:

Lumnije Gashi, though she only makes about 200 Euros per month back in Kosovo, she has sometimes sent me her last one so that I could feed myself until we could get some money coming in a few days later.  Velush Orllati; Sevdali Berisha; Nazim Berisha; Albion Idrizi; Qemajl Mustafa; Bedrush Berisha; Naser Shabani; Tom Duhani (and the Detroit Albanian community) and Nail Spahiu – these men have all tried to use many different angles to keep our mission going moneywise.  Without them, this mission would have ended long ago. 

And let’s not forget that these are all people who are living from paycheck to paycheck as well.  But they made sure that I had money to feed myself and move around in order to continue raising awareness in the world about our beautiful nation.  Just last week, Nazim Berisha sent me over $2400 USD, otherwise I would not have had any food to eat in Kenya.  While $2400 is a lot of money, it goes by so quickly when you have to pay all of those airport fees, a different fuel charge in each country, overpriced dirty hotels (always the cheapest that I can find), etc.

Velush Orllati, Nazim Berisha and Sevdali Berisha alone have contributed almost twice the amount of money that we have received from the government of Kosovo.  I don’t want to overwhelm you with this information, but this is the way that it has been since the beginning.  Though there is no amount of thanks that I could give and no way that I could ever repay these key people back for all of the ways that they have helped our mission (both in money and renewed spirit), I often get so frustrated that our own government is not helping us out more.

It seems like our government has been ignoring this mission from day one for fear that they might have to admit that one ordinary citizen has done what they themselves have yet failed to do.  My friends, I would be a hippocrite if I did not share these things with you and I refuse to fill your heads with some fairy tale story of how things have always been easy and how everyone gets along.  The truth is that it has been a struggle to get help from them every step of the way.  Remember, I don’t even have a diplomatic passport on to travel with as a citizen ambassador of our country.

From things as basic as letting you all know which country I am in and how the progress is going, the people that work on our mission daily are volunteers who believe in our cause and not the formal government officials.  I just don’t get it.  I would think that it would be a lot cheaper to pay the travel costs of one person who is willing to lobby for his country than to spend millions of dollars on a public marketing campaign that goes nowhere and has no efffect.

Don’t get me wrong my friends, our government has donated some money to us at times, but sometimes I think that it is just for show and publicity sake.  Since I have been around so many governments now, I know that sometimes they like to make things ‘look good’ in the eyes of the public.  But the truth is that this mission has taken at least six weeks longer to complete than it should have due to being broke over and over again.  And let’s not forget that I do my best to try and make my daily expenses as cheap as possible.

When I started this mission nearly two years ago, I had saved up a lot of money from my job as a pilot in the US.  The original intention of this mission was to meet with the media in each country to raise awareness of our cause and to give a voice to all of those people that I met back in the refugee camps long ago.  The original goal was to bring our message to people in Central and South America.

Shortly after beginning the mission, I quickly learned that it would also be necessary to meet with the government officials in each country as well.  This is where my perspective started to change.  The more countries I would go to and hear from, the more that I started to get the picture that the Kosovar government was not doing enough in this department.  I am only an ordinary citizen, surely our government had more time and resources to dedicate to such activities?  How could it be that I was the one becoming the ‘face’ of our country to these other governments?

When I finished up with the first leg of our mission, I returned to Kosovo.  The response that I got from the public was overwhelming.  Even some government officials wanted me to continue.  Africa was mentioned many times.  But I also made it clear that I would need lots of financial help in order to be able to continue.  Having depleted my own funds and after the financial struggles that I experienced on the first leg of our mission, I knew that this time it was going to be more strenuous and that it was going to cost way more than anyone could predict.  My friends, I was offered assurance that we could do this together.  I think that might be the worst part of it all.  I always hear ‘yes, yes, yes’ we will help you no problem.  But in reality, like I said, I have often been disappointed.  Just a simple diplomatic passport would have helped me out tremendously in several countries.

On the other hand my friends, I have to look on the bright side of things.  My first obligation throughout this mission has been and always will be to the people of Kosovo.  I believe with all of my heart that I share this mission with each and every one of you and that we will have done this together – with our without the help of the government.  If I were to have chosen in the beginning to accept the backing of certain political parties or powers in government, then I can promise you something – I wouldn’t have wanted to visit a single country.  To me, you the people are the most valuable resource for our country, not the leaders or the political parties that we have.  Again, thank you to all of you who have been a part of this operation and who have contributed in many different ways.  Please know that it a sincere joy to have you all around.  When I get down and discouraged, it is your spirit and belief in our cause that keeps me going.

I want to thank you for letting me share with you some of my frustrations.  Sometimes the lack of progress and so much struggling does discourage me.  But, that only lasts a short while because I get stronger each time and I know that history will be on our side with this mission and show the true power of our people.  When we have been able to sway enough countries to recognize us, it will be through the passion and dedication of our people and not due to dishonest ways like political bribes.

This experience has taught me so many things that it would be impossible to share them with you all.  Learning about different cultures, traditions, beliefs, etc. has been absolutely fascinating, yet reassuring at the same time.  Over and over again, I am reminded that we humans are so much more alike than we are different.  Now, please forgive me as I share some more truths with you.

Sometimes, I wish I didn’t have to be exposed to some things and learn about some of the harsher realities of this world.  Having visited over 120 nations now, I am sad to say that life is not always easy around the world.  I feel obligated to share some of these shocking experiences with you so that some of you may be inspired to work for more change and resist from being swayed by political publicity campaigns.  Please don’t forget that this information comes to me from the citizens that I have spoken with in many countries.  As I’ve mentioned before, I tend to believe them any day over what some self-important official tries to fill my head with.

Many times it has been confirmed to me that there are too many power hungry dictators in control who end up destroying their own people’s lives for no reason but arrogance, selfishness, greed, more power, etc.  Many of these rulers are nothing but the most egotistical, inhumane, self-centered cowards who are only worried about buying their next new toy (cars, houses, you name it) instead of helping their own people prosper.  Based on my experiences, I would even say that about 90% of the governments around the world are self-destructive to their own people.

Don’t forget that I am all for order, advancement, progress, prosperity, etc., but with a bunch of dictators running the world I have so often seen that it is the people of these countries who suffer the most.  Over and over, I get reminded of the same type of mindset: the belief that in order to rule a country there can only be one person who knows what’s best (the person at the top, naturally) and not only must they maintain their position because they know it all, but they get caught up in using their power and control in the situation and eventually, come to believe that they deserve to stay in that position forever.  They think that their level of knowledge and capacity is the only one that matters, no matter if they have ruled a nation for five years or thirty years.

Forget about the fact that younger generations who might be better educated or have brighter ideas, once these dictators get into their powerful positions, they hold onto it tightly and will do anything to not let it go.  They might even work to groom their family members to take over if something should happen to them.  In many countries, they still have elections of course.  But my friends, I have seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears from the people that these elections are usually just for show.  By that time, the people in power are so corrupted that they find a way to rig the election and make sure that they don’t have to give up their power.  At that point, you might start hearing about an uprising taking place, or a revolution. 

Some courageous soul, or group of souls, come together and make a plan to speak out.  Sometimes, unfortunately, they choose violence.  But other times, violence is used against them.  Either way, this is sometimes how wars are started my friends.  On the other hand though, we have seen a lot of positive change recently in some of these countries.  In Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, etc.  The only thing that will give this world a wake up call, it seems, is when an entire population is trying to start a revolution.

In some of these places, the people have finally had enough.  Sadly, some have died over this.  But the people still refuse to go back to the way things used to be and they still continue to fight for positive change in their countries.  My friends, the people of this world are not stupid.  Over my travels, I have met many wonderful people who, no matter how bad the situation may be in their country, I can still see that glimmer of hope in their eyes.  It always amazes me to see the amount of knowledge, charisma and character in local peoples.  I’ve said it over and over again – many of these countries could be very prosperous if it weren’t for their own government officials trying to fill their Swiss bank accounts with more and more money.

Lucky Swiss people – they have all of this money flowing in from around the world and have the job of keeping all of it safe for these wealthy dictators.  At least finally, after so many years of lies and deceit we are finally starting to hear about who has got their money where and who has been lying to their people.  I hope you have all heard in the news about the recently uncovered bank accounts of some of them.  There is Gadaffi in Libya, Ben Ali from Tunisia, Laurent Gbagbo from the Ivory Coast, Mubarak from Egypt… and the list could go on.  All of these men have spent many years profiting off of their people and the world is now seeing the truth of their actions, thanks to some of the political uprisings taking place worldwide right now.

Some of these nations could be living in a paradise with all of the natural resources that they have.  From diamonds, to timber, gold and other minerals, petrol, etc… the list could go on, but these same countries are in a total mess, full of misery and struggle.  Instead of these resources being the property of the people, these dictators have robbed their country blind and have prospered from the blood and sweat of their own people.  They are so lost in the mindset that they know what’s best for their country, that they are blinded by the greed covering their eyes.  They think that they are the answer to every possible questions, while at the same time, they just keep building more houses around the world, vacationing in more exotic places, buying their next private jet, etc.  They feel entitled is what it boils down to my friends.  They think that they deserve all of these outrageous things because they surround themselves with people who will never disagree with them and continue to tell them that they are doing such a great job running their country into the ground. 

Often times, the Ministers and Deputies in these countries are just there for decoration so that they can look legitimate to the rest of the world.  Since the leaders give these people a little piece of the pie, the result is that there is no one around willing to rock the boat and so many leaders continue to rule way past the point of living in reality anymore.  I have found this to be quite common throughout the world my friends and if I did not mention this now, then I would be the same as most of them.

Sometimes I think that people like this must have been damaged in some way before they were even born.  How else could someone become so blinded and ignorant of the long-term damage that they are doing to their own country?  How else could they perpetrate hainous crimes against their own people in order to maintain their power well past the point at which they should have given it up?  Some of these rulers have been in power for many generations and like I said are preparing their family members to take over soon – treating their country like their own little kingdom.  Some are way too old to be making smart decisions anymore.  Folks, when you are too old to know how to send an email or to use a cell phone, then I think it might be time to retire.  I have even heard a few times where a countries constitution has been changed just so that the leader can stay in power.

My friends, too much power and greed could corrupt anyone of us.  But may we always, always look to history to be reminded of just how horrible people can treat each other when those two things are their motivators. 

Meanwhile, I don’t want to mislead you too much.  While it is true that these horrible dictators remain in power in their own countries, it’s even more of a fact that most of the world is well aware that these things are going on.  In fact, many ‘first world’ countries have benefitted from these unstable situations around the world.  Whether backroom deals for resources or keeping a person in power so that they can ‘maintain order’ in that part of the world, there are not very many governments left around the world who have not been a part of this sad game my friends.

With many of these countries that I speak of, nearly 80% of their population doesn’t have even the basic necessities of life.  I have seen many times that people often have little to no access to running water, have to struggle with things like electricity shortages and clinics with no supplies, etc.  And forget about paved roads – I am not kidding you when I tell you that some of these potholes down here are as big as your car and very deep.

Instead, the leaders take in more and more money from their offshore deals with our more ‘civilized’ world leaders – often giving them deals on the precious resources that should belong to the people.  The saddest part of all of this is that when first world leaders do come to visit these countries, they usually spend all of their time in high class hotels, being wined and dined by the elite.  My friends, many of the local people that I have met would not even think about stepping inside of one of those hotels out of fear that they would not know how to act in one of those fancy places.

The leaders around the world, they just visit each other’s protected palaces – being driven around in armored vehicles and all.  They never once get to see or experience the daily lives of the local people.  Forget about driving out to visit the more rural parts of the country, they don’t even get to see what it is like for common people in a capital city.

They just come to make another deal between government ‘officials’, trying to find a way that they can both benefit from the situation.  I don’t think that it is that these first world governments don’t care about things, but more that there is too much benefit in maintaining the status quo.  Though some of them may actually try to talk some sense into these dictators, it is pretty hard to reason with a person whose philosophy is based on getting more money and more power and who cares little about how many people get hurt because of their greed.

Folks, I have spent over seven months down here in Africa and I can tell you that misery is present in every corner of our globe and that most of it is absolutely preventable.  The experiences that I’ve had have changed me for a lifetime.  My personality has changed, my views and values about life have changed and the beautiful people that I have encountered so far have definitely opened my eyes to the harsh realities of the world.

The people that I have met have sacrificed a lot because of these deals – often living off of a small income that they make by selling their goods.  And I’m not just talking about putting a sign outside of your door my friends.  I’m talking about very dedicated and hard working people who wake up as early as 4:00am to travel into the far-away towns just to sell a few fruits and vegetables and other merchandise in order to bring in enough money to feed their families for the day. 

Another thing that I want to mention about my travels here in Africa is this: many, many people down here are still in love with Mr. Josip Broz Tito.  My friends, our fomer president of Yugoslavia has been dead for more than 30 years now, but for these leaders down here, he is still seen as an inspiration.  Down here, Tito spent lots of money to build their roads and highways back then, maybe put up a few hospitals, powerplants and palaces here and there, etc. 

My dear Kosovar people:  when our brothers and sisters, parents and grandparents were working hard in those socialist factories back then, part of what they were doing was working to make goods and supplies that would be shipped down here.  Yugoslavia exported many things to Africa during that time: basic household supplies, food commodities like flour, oil, pastas, sugars, etc. and other things were sent down here for free on behalf of our previous leader.  African schools were provided with books, notebooks, pens, pencils, etc.  Roads were built, clinics and hospitals put up… All with the sweat and hard work of our elders.

The main problem hindering our formal recognition down here in Africa is this: for many of these dictators (who have been in office since time began) Josip Broz Tito is still an idol.  For many, he was their protector, brother, etc.  Even though he has been gone now for over thirty years, ‘Tito’ is still very much alive in the minds of certain leaders.  Even though those same roads are the same ones that I speak to you now about having potholes as deep as I am tall.  In places like Zambia and Gabon, I have even seen main roads being named after their old friend.

Now, I don’t want you to think that I am against helping out your neighbor or anything, but let’s not forget that all of this help was given through the the sweat and hard work of our loved ones.  Today, we are paying a very heavy price for that help in regards to these countries believing in Uncle ‘Tito’ and not Kosova’s independence.  It seems like his grave is still stronger than two million people’s voices for some African nations.

Okay my friends.  I have said my peace.  Thank you for listening to me and letting me share the lessons that I have learned.  Hopefully we can all learn from them and work to make this world a better place.

Back to Uganda.

It is a lovely nation both geographically and people-wise.  Lake Victoria is beautiful and the wild nature all around me was amazing.  Keep in mind though that Uganda is currently having some political issues.  Just last week more than five people died during a peaceful protest.  The government had tried to disperse them with machines guns and pepper spray.  Also remember that this is one of the countries caught up in that web of ongoing war.  For the past thirty years, the people of Uganda have been fighting.

One of the organizations, the Lord’s Resistance Army, is well known throughout the world for the human rights violations that they have committed.  They are also known for their use of children in their ongoing war against the government (remember, the government isn’t always perfectly innocent either).  The International Criminal Court has charged the organization with acts of murder, abduction, mutiliation, sexual enslavement and forcing children to participate in these crimes.  NGO’s like the Red Cross, Human Rights Watch and Invisible Children have all been working to stop the abduction of these children.  And remember, like Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, etc., these conflicts tend to spill into neighboring countries, so this war and the LRA are now acting in other countries like Sudan, Central African Republic and DR Congo as well.

As far as the media in Uganda goes, I want to take a moment to thank all of the media personnel that I’ve worked with here in Africa.  They have all played such a big role in our mission.  They are wonderful people who have offered me some of their protection.  By coming to their nation, they are put into the difficult position of needing to share our information with their country, while at the same time having to be careful about what they say and how they say it, for fear of possible government repurcussions.  So far we have been lucky in that the media staff that I have dealt with has wanted to follow our story and share our information.  Often times, all I have to do is raise my concerns to them and these great people raise the issue to the public, which forces the hand of their government to some extent. 

Despite the current political turmoil and the severity of current conditions in Uganda (remember five people died during my stay here), the media did an outstanding job trying to cover our cause and spread the word about our nation and its people.  So, thank you to Gaaki Kigambo with The Observer newspaper and Mr. Robert Spin Musako, editor of the newspaper Razor, who authorized my interview with his journalist Mr. Patrick Jaramogi; Thank you to my awesome friends at Ggwanga – Mr. Kizito Serumaga (editor) who was excited to write something about Kosovo and have me at the newspaper headquarters and journalist Mr. Alex Lubwami, who had a great personality and wanted to make sure that Kosovo would get nice exposure in his country. 

Thank you to journalist Anne Mugisa at the New Vision newspaper and her editor Mr. John Kakande, who were both great as well.  Thank you to Melody Kukundakwe and her boss Mr. Paul Amoru with the Daily Monitor for their dedication and help exposing Kosovo’s cause to their country and thank you to the excellent team with the newspaper The East African.  This newspaper is very well known locally and is published simultaneously in five different East African countries.  Thank you to Ms. Halima Abdallah and her boss Mr. Michael Wakabi for their very respectful article.

In regards to radio, thank you to the team at Vision Voice 94.8mhz – Ms. Siima Kyakuhaire Sabiti and her partner Mr. Kenny Katuramu.  They were both excellent radio talk show hosts.  Thank you also to their boss Mr. Bill Tibingana who approved our live interview.  Thank you to Mr. Ggayi Julius with Radio One 90.0FM, a nationwide radio station.  Mr. Julius was a great man with strong values and was willing to help Kosovo get recognized by his country.

Thank you to my new friends with the national station UBC, Uganda Broadcasting Corporation.  The chief news editor, Mr. Farouk Kayondo was very knowledgeable, very detailed and very excited to help give Kosovo some exposure in his country.  I have lots of admiration for people like him who have tremendous courage and great character.

The team at NTV were also excellent and were able to get our story transmitted the same day of our interview.  Thanks to Mr. Atulinda Allan and Mr. Bernard Opwonya, the news producer.  Finally, thank you to Ms. Margaret Bugembe Mangooba, news editor with the NBS television station of Uganda, who was willing to get some good exposure of our cause out ther over the airwaves.

Thank you to Eveleyn C. Ngalonsa at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  She introduced me to many of her colleagues over there and was able to get my letter from Vlora Citaku hand-delivered to the right people.

Uganda, like many other places has lots of great people, beautiful countryside and lots of potential.  Let’s hope that the next time we visit here there will be more achievement and success seen in this great nation. 

My next country will be Kenya, but it is a little bit out of order, folks.  During my stay here in Uganda, after getting some money wired to our mission, I took advantage of the time that our plane was being worked on and went to Kenya without it.  That way I don’t have to spend extra time sitting here wasting more of our time here in Uganda.