Flying for Kosovo

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Archive for December, 2010

Mali

Posted by flyingforkosovo On December - 30 - 2010

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.

I hope 2011 will bring lots of joy to you all.

Le Republicain

Le Republicain PDF

Document

Radio

Le Echos PDF

 

Benin

Posted by flyingforkosovo On December - 28 - 2010

I reached Cotonou (the coastal town in Benin where all of the major facilities and international airport are located) in the early evening and tried to find a hotel somewhere near the city center so that I could get things done faster in the morning and not have to drive for miles and miles wasting time. This was when I found out the hard way that the traffic at night in the capital is miserable. This seems to be a common theme in these West African countries and so is the common shortage of electricity. But when you are a visitor like me, you only find this out when you end up in the middle of a blackout.

The hotel I found was okay, except that I started freaking out when I saw all of those mosquito’s flying around all over the place. The more I travel in Africa, the more paranoid I become ever time I see a little mosquito because I am worried to death about catching malaria. Since the disease is carried by mosquito’s, I am constantly spraying myself with bug spray and praying like heck that I don’t get bitten! So I beg the reception desk here at the hotel for some bug spray so that I could spray my room and go out for a few hours until the poison has killed off the mosquito’s and faded away, otherwise you have a big mosquito like me dying in there.

The next morning, I wake up early and find a taxi. Here we go, off and running again. Since it’s the end of the year, I need to get stuff done quickly before they close everything down for the holiday. Thanks to my new friend, taxi driver Michael Bidouzo, I am being driven around from media house to media house for my interviews. Thanks to God that the main language here is French. At least I was able to converse with everyone.

The first media person that I meet is from the newspaper L’Autre Quotidien. Mr. Brathier Leon was wonderful to spend time with. He wrote an excellent article that was published the very next morning. I learned a lot from him and always find it interesting when I am able to see the world through the perspective of someone else. Even though we are from different countries on different continents, Mr. … is an educated man who shares the same principles that I do about wanting to live happy and free. What a great conversation we had. He had a very interesting view of Russian politics, explaining that Putin and Medvedev were running the government over there like political gymnasts, switching places all of the time to accommodate the outside world.

Thanks to the rest of my media friends who did interviews and are now friends of the Kosovar people: Maximin Tchibozo, Director of Publications at Le Matinal, who authorized Mr. Wilfred Noubadan to give me an interview; Mr. Samuel Amoussou and Eric Djekpe who were very nice at the newspaper, Le Beninois Libere; Chimelle Gandonou and Euloge Rolland Gandaho with the newspaper Le Matin; the excellent team of journalists at the Ocean FM Radio 88.7, Ms. Carine Doukloui and Mr. Ricardo Loic Kpekow; Ms. Sonia Megbemadu, who organized an interview with the funniest and greatest team at Golfe television, Mr. Rock Williams Segnissou and Gaston T. Afaduhouande (who, in less than a few hours, had our mission and our request to the government of Benin transmitted on the evening news); and finally, Andre Dossa and Imourane Issifou with the Canal 3 TV of Benin.

After meeting with the media, I was able to meet with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs himself, Mr. Jean-Marie Ehouzou who is a very humble man who took me into his office with no pre-arranged appointment. I was able to hand deliver Vlora Citaku’s letter to him as he was explaining his government’s position on Kosovo and the reasons that Benin has not recognized us yet. He mentioned that he was following our progress closely and personally agrees with our independence. He did mention, though, that there are some reasons that he had to wait a little longer and that Serbia and Russia, were also (of course) trying hard to lobby against it, which we already know.

The people of Benin are very nice. They appear open-minded and very aware of world affairs. Cotonou seems to have a very nice infrastructure, much better than some other West African countries and they are right on the coast, so the view was also beautiful. But aside from the main cities (Contonou and Porto-Novo), most of the country relies on subsistence farming (with the tropical climate down here, they are able to produce a lot of cotton to export). Though this country has a little ways to go to catch up with more developed countries, I see a lot of motivation in the local people to make they country progress.

I’m happy that I was able to make some excellent accomplishments in Benin. I learned a lot from these wonderful people. Good luck to the great people of Benin.

Time to change countries again. Next up: Mali.

L’AUTRE 1, 2 PDF

 

Togo

Posted by flyingforkosovo On December - 26 - 2010
I arrived in Togo in the late afternoon and went to check into a nice hotel (it was French-owned and the price was right) in the capital city of Lome.  Togo is another country that borders the Gulf of Guinea (so the beaches are very refreshing to see).  It has a tropical climate right now and is also dependent on agriculture to survive economically.
Though the main language here is French, there have been many cultural influences and it is a country with a rich cultural history.  In fact, the countries in this area of Africa were once known as the ‘slave coast’ because they provided trade access via their sea ports.  This particular country has a big port and still has lots of merchandise and containers that are coming and going from all over the world.
I am also finding that this part of Africa is not centered religiously around either Christianity or Islam.    Both of those religious views seem to be a minority here as indigenous beliefs represent the largest religious group in this country.  This makes sense when you realize that in this small country alone, there are about 40 different ethnic groups and I have met only wonderful people here in during my short stay.
Since Togo is a small country, I hope to finish my mission work quickly and be off and running.  The next morning, I found a taxi driver for the day.  Mr. Kazmirt Pedomey knew the city very well and was driving me from place to place in no time.
Thank you to all my journalist friends and their bosses.  Mr. Gabin Koissidjin with the newspaper Forum De La Semaine.  Regis Talikpeti and Joachim Kokou Loko and his boss with the newspaper La Matinee and Dounia Le Monde, Didier LeDoux with the newspaper Liberte.  My good friend Erik Gato for his radio interview and who really took pride in his work in studying each of his discussions on the radio interview.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs were wonderful when I went there.  I met with the Minister himself, Mr. Elliot Ohin, who was very receptive and Vlora Citaku’s letter was hand delivered.  Mr. Ohin seemed really enthusiastic about things and life in general and knew Kosovo’s case in detail.  I’m unable to give more details of our meeting due to privacy concerns and other sensitive reasons.
Economically, Togo seems to be doing okay, but there is always room for improvement.  Politically, the country has a slight history of political unrest.  The most recent being with elections in 2005 when more than 400 people were killed and 40,000 Togolese fled to neighboring countries.
I enjoyed my short visit here and wish all the best to this country and it’s wonderful people.

FORUM de la semaine 1, 2 PDF

 

 

Ghana

Posted by flyingforkosovo On December - 22 - 2010

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

 

Liberia

Posted by flyingforkosovo On December - 21 - 2010

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 5th 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

 

Ivory Coast & Cote d’Ivoire

Posted by admin On December - 21 - 2010

Due to civil unrest in Cote d’Ivoire, it was highly suggested to James that he should not visit this particular country.

In 1893, Cote d’Ivoire became a French Colony and in 1960, it became completely independent of France.  Though it was always considered the Ivory Coast by the Western World, in 1985, the country requested that Cote d’Ivoire be used officially.

In the 80’s, the country went into some economical crisis and in 1999 and 2001, there were two coups d’tats and a civil war.  Currently, there are still possible unrest over the recent election.  Indeed, thousands of refugees have already fled since then.

Thanks to God that James was able to fly over this area for four hours and not get shot down.

Sierra Leone

Posted by flyingforkosovo On December - 17 - 2010

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

 

Guinea

Posted by flyingforkosovo On December - 14 - 2010

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

 

Guinea-Bissau

Posted by flyingforkosovo On December - 10 - 2010

I am happy to report that I am in Guinea-Bissau today.  I am also thankful that I did not have to go back to Dakar, Senegal again, especially after my struggles of dealing with all of the border crossings and checkpoints lately.

So far on my African tour, I can see that Guinea-Bissau is a country that is struggling the most.  This makes sense if you know that this country’s gross domestic product is one of the lowest in the world and it has also struggled with ongoing military and political unrest.  On the other hand, I see a lot of heart here, the people work very hard and have a lot of determination to be successful.

The countryside is beautiful to visit and see. Most of it is either savannah or swamps near the coastline and is very wild and tropical looking everywhere that you look.  It is also very hot and, as you might expect, there is not the luxury of having AC.

The media were very friendly and I am grateful to Mr. Simoa Abine, Director of the state newspaper Journal Pintcha.  Mr. Abine is a 25 year veteran in the field of journalism and he was the first one that I came in contact with in this country. He was very nice,down to earth and was knowledgeable about our history and the former Yugoslavia in general.  He was so enthusiastic about our cause, that he expressed a strong desire to share this information with his people and his government right away.

After completing the interview with Mr. Abine, he suggested sending a journalist and I to the airport for photos of the aircraft so that he could use them in his story.  Then, he introduced me to Mr. Salvador Gomes, Director General of Da Agencia De Noticias Da Guinea-Bissau (BBC Africa Radio in Portuguese).  This connection led to an additional story that he promised would be broadcast everywhere in the Portuguese speaking countries of Africa.

Mr. Abina offered his help in regards to the local government.  Two days later we were meeting with Mr. Liberto Gomes, Chef du Cabinet, I hand delivered a letter from our own Vlora Citaku.  Mr. Gomes seemed nice, but with a distant personality.  But he did say that he would try to see what can be done as far as Kosovo’s Independence is concerned.

My friend and I met several more times during my brief stay in Guinea-Bissau.  Over snacks and coffee, Mr. Abina shared a lot about his own country and culture.  It’s always wonderful to get to meet so many nice people around the planet, even though we would have never crossed paths before.

I am sure that even if I am gone from this country, that Mr. Abina will keep bringing our issue of Kosovo up many more times to his people, colleagues, government and anyone else that he might come in contact with.

I wish for this wonderful country to be successful and soon, so that the great people of Guinea-Bissau will have a better future.  Thank you Mr. Abina for all of your interest and for your interest in our country of Kosovo.  Thank you for helping our people from this beautiful country of yours.

Finally, I want to express thanks to my Air Traffic Control tower friends (specifically Mr. Lassana Gano) who helped me to get my permit for landing in the neighboring country of Guinea for such a short time.  It was not their duty to do so, but my friends went above and beyond and I am grateful.

Nô Pintcha
Radio

 

Gambia

Posted by flyingforkosovo On December - 9 - 2010

After taking off from Dakar, my goal was to take a quick flight into Gambia.  However, as with most of my plans, there was a unforeseen situation that changed my direction.  Upon reaching Gambian airspace, I was alerted that I would not be able to continue on.  Though I tried every angle possible to get them to let me land, they would not budge.  After more than 20 minutes of arguing, I was forced to change my course.  The Gambian air traffic controllers kept trying to get me to turn back and go toward Dakar.  But, I don’t like going backwards unless I have a safety concern.  Instead, I head for Guinea-Bissau.  It’s a good thing that I had enough gas in my tank that day.

I finally arrived in Guinea-Bissau around noon and the airport looked like it was abandoned.  Though it was an international airport, I couldn’t even find one customs agent to finish my bureaucratic paperwork.  This meant that I would not be able to fly into Gambia from here, even though it’s only 100NM air miles away.

Time for a new plan.  Since I didn’t want to waist time flying back to Senegal to get a permit to land in Gambia, I decide to take land transportation into Gambia.  Less than one hour after landing in Guinea-Bissau, I was in a taxi on my way to Gambia.  I had originally thought that it would take only three hours to get there, but it ended up taking about nine hours to get to Banjul, Gambia because we had to drive around the country due and up to Senegal first.  It took four taxis because there are so many rules and orders to follow in each country.  In the end, I had to fly south from Senegal, around Gambia and down to Guinea-Bissau only to take four taxis and nine hours to get back into Gambia.  Three countries in one day.  This is our mission in Africa, friends.

Not to forget that I had to take the four taxis back to Guinea-Bissau when I was finished.  Since the three countries are so close together (Guinea-Bissau to the South and Gambia which is surrounded by Senegal), I had to cross borders several times.  Everywhere, there were police and military checkpoints.  At least 20 times I had to go through borders and check points and every time was the same process: opening the bag, checking our passports, answering tons of questions, you name it.  By the time I reached Guinea-Bissau for the night, it was time to find an internet cafe in order to make contact with my support team back home and keep them updated.  It was a 19 hour day for me and after 1:00am the next day before I reached the hotel for the night.

The next morning I was up early and working on our mission.  I hired a taxi to take me to all of my destinations (media houses, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, etc.) for the day.  Thanks to my taxi driver, my new friend Sainey Sanyang, I was able to get to each place fairly quickly as he knew the area fairly well.  I completed three interviews with the local newspapers and the national TV station.  Mr. Ebrima Baldeh, a journalist with the national television station, knew a lot about the Balkans and has traveled a lot.  He took his time to do a great interview.  The taxi driver even drove us both to a park twenty minutes away so that we could get better shots and footage for our interview.

Since Gambia is one of the countries that has recognized our independence, I am visiting them to thank this great country, their government and their people for their solidarity.  The Director of Protocol in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Juma L.C. Janneh and the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Habib T.B. Jarra were wonderful.  They made time for me right away and were very happy to know that the people of Kosovo have lots of respect for them for having recognized our independence.  I also asked them if they could help us with the rest of the African countries, since they all have to participate in various meetings and conferences together.

It was a busy day, but I managed to finish all of the interviews in the shortest time possible, especially since Gambia is just a small nation.  It was early enough when I finished that I thought I could get back to Guinea-Bissau in a reasonable amount of time.  So I asked the taxi driver to take me back to the Senegal border so that I could transfer taxis and get back across the Guinea-Bissau border.  Luck was not on my side.  Apparently, the border closes at 7:00pm for security reasons, so I ended up spending the night in Ziquinchor, Senegal.

Despite all of the border and checkpoint nonsense, having to take the long way around back and forth to Gambia and dodging malaria panels, I was able to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time.  I am grateful, though, that I speak French and English, I don’t know how far I would have gotten so far without that.

Observer

all Africa.com

The Point Newspaper

 

Cape Verde

Posted by flyingforkosovo On December - 4 - 2010
Well, I must tell you my friends that it was quite refreshing to visit this awesome island country.  It does indeed appear to be a vacation destination.  Since it is an island country, I decided to leave my baby plane in Dakar, Senegal for a few days so that I would not have to be another four hours flying over water in a single engine plane.

The national carrier of Cape Verde is seven hours late today picking us up from Dakar, so I had lots of time to kill at the airport.  As I was waiting, a gentleman approached me to ask questions about my visit to Senegal and about the pictures that I was taking at the airport.  His name was Mr. Claus Morgensen, from Denmark. He was wearing four ties and was with two of his friends, Mr. Marco Scatigna and Mr. Stefano Spalazzi, who were from Italy.  We hit it off right away, starting to talk about life in general and our reasons for traveling on this particular day, even talking throughout our flight.

It turned out that Mr. Morgensen travels quite a bit and and Mr. Scatigna and Spalazzi both live in the islands of Cape Verde and have many successful businesses there.  They are all good friends with each other and upon landing in Priaia, they offered to let me stay at the same hotel as them and travel with them to their next destination.  It felt great to spend time with a few Europeans that happen to live in this country and know everything about it very well.  The hotel is really nice too and it felt great to have arrived in a place that I felt comfortable with right away.

After checking into the hotel, we ended up going to the restaurant right across the street, which was very elegant and clean.  Wow!  You don’t know how good it felt to see this kind of place and be in the kind of environment that I’m more used to.  I am realizing that I have been spoiled in my life by being exposed to so many great places and things, because the more that I am away from them, the more I miss them. At least here, I can charge my batteries for awhile before going back into the unknown.  A great hotel, an awesome dinner, what else could I want…

Since it is the weekend now, it will be difficult to do any mission work on the weekend, so my great friends are offering to take me to Sal (another island of Cape Verde) tomorrow.  Mr. Scatigna offers one of his apartments for me to stay in for the night.  This way, I can avoid paying for a hotel and visit a new place this weekend.

I soon learn that my European friends know many people around here and are well connected politically, despite this country being made up of many small islands. Since they pay so many taxes to support the economy and have lots of local people working for them, my friends know a lot of important people.  What a gift that they offer to me.  They want to help me with our mission and the issue of Kosovo’s independence by talking with the local government and creating some pressure with the local politicians.  What else could I want for this weekend?  I am getting everything that I could want in these beautiful islands, thanks to my good friends who are now good friends to the people of Kosovo.  And let’s not forget that their home countries have already done a lot for our nation.

On Saturday, we take another flight to Sao Vincente and then to Sal.  Mr. Spalazzi is going to get off in Sao Vincent since this is the island that he lives.  Thanks to our flight captain Carlos Amado of the ATR 42 (who brought us to these islands), I was offered a visit to the flight deck and even offered a seat on a full flight so that I could get to the Sal with my new friends.

After saying goodbye to Mr. Spalazzi, we arrived on the island of Sal.  This is the island that I will stay at until the first flight out on Monday morning.  Here, I meet with Mr. Patone Lobo, another successful businessman and wonderful person. It was him who called the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday to discuss my visit and Kosovo’s independence.  What an awesome experience so far – spending time with wonderful European friends, in a beautiful place in nice restaurants, discussing the future of our country… It felt like being in paradise.

I will be sad to leave this country, but I have no choice, as our mission is calling me to continue.  I will definitely be coming back to these islands someday because of the great experience that I had here with the people, food, beaches, nature, etc.

Back to the capital of Cape Verde on Monday morning after a 40 minute flight to Praia.  I head back to work by meeting with the media.  They are very nice to me here and my journalist friend Ricardino Pedro, who works for the newspaper A Semana, wrote an excellent article about Kosovo and our request to have our independence recognized.  Mr. Asemedo Monteiro, with the Expresso newspaper was also excited to write an article about my visit there.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs were excellent as well.  Thank you to Mr. Jose Luis Rocha, Director National for Political Affairs within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  He received me promptly and I was able to personally deliver our letter from Vlora Citaku, Deputy Foreign Minister of Kosovo.  Mr. Rocha promised me that his country was following Kosovo’s position in the world very closely.  I found it very interesting and promising when he showed me Cape Verde’s constitution.  It clearly stated that any country or it’s people of the planet has the right to self-determination and the right to freedom.  He said that they (his country) can’t go against that and that they will have to recognize our independence eventually.  He said that his entire cabinet has brought the issue of Kosovo to the table many times already, it’s just that those that do not support us are doing everything possible to delay that process.

You may have noticed that I had an excellent time in Cape Verde.  They have the absolute friendliest people here and I recommend these beautiful islands to anyone thinking about a vacation destination.

All I have to say is Muito Obrigada Cape Verde

Next up on the journey, Senegal to get my airplane and then southbound to Gambia.