Dearest friends,
I am certain that all of you want to join me in wishing Jean a "Happy 50th birthday" and a "Happy 5th anniversary of his walk"!
Five long years... thousands of steps spreading on two continents: America and Africa! More than one thousand families welcomed him in their house... no matter that it is a palace or a hut and shared their food and their daily life with him. We are in a hurry to consign his African adventures in a book but we must first finish writing the American part of his journey.
Whereas he was in Cairo, in the beginning of March 2005, Jean had filed a request for a visa by the consulate of Libya. Still without answer in spite of his repeated calls, he decides to walk up to the Libyan border with the hope to get his visa there. In vain... In Saloum, border city, an English professor, Mohamed Ibrahim Gebriel, offers him the hospitality within his family while Jean multiplies his attempts with the Libyan authorities.
On May 11th, he gets on the bus for Cairo and from there, the plane for Tunis, on May 13th. He remains in Tunis during a few days and corresponds with his 25-year-old son, Thomas-Éric who has just rightly finished his studies at the Berlin Weissensee College of Arts and offers to meet him during two weeks. It will provide him with a bit of holiday before rushing on to the work market... The price of the plane tickets between Berlin and the island of Djerba is affordable and father and son meet at the Djerba airport on May 31st. The last time that they had met was in Costa Rica in August 2001... They had celebrated the first anniversary of Jean's walk.
The meeting is most moving and Jean decides to offer an experience of his walk to his son instead of lounging as tourists on the beaches. They first walk around the island of Djerba, then follow the Mediterranean coast until Sfax. Thomas-Éric is delighted with this outstanding experience and as soon as he returns to Berlin on June 13th, he hastens to email me, describing his wonderful vacations and suggest that I do the same thing myself, at the time of my next yearly appointment with Jean. To this, I answered that my walk is made all year round with my fingers on the keyboard of the computer!!!
Jean pursues his walk toward Tunis because he has appointment for Canada Day on July 1st, at the Canadian embassy. Under way, he is invited to visit orphanages, schools, and holiday camps...
He crosses the border of Algeria on July 14th. Since his arrival in this country, he notes that, once again, people are all loves... to use his own expression! Since Egypt, he cannot stop marvelling of the kindness and the welcome that people lavish on him... The Arabs are extremely hospitable people. A guest in their house is a king and they will absolutely make all they can to offer him all the comfort possible!
On July 18th, I receive an email from Sidali Zerrouki, including a few photos:
"Hello,
We are in Algeria, more precisely in Annaba and it is with an immense joy, pleasure, curiosity and satisfaction that we met Jean Béliveau... the man of peace who comes from the country where the sun goes down... but not the rights of the childhood.
... today, the journalists and citizens are busy preparing a small surprise for him... to add to his willpower, a zest of energy... "
On July 20th, I receive an email from Rabah Amani, a student in biology who met Jean close to the Tunisian border and who invites me well heartily to come to celebrate Jean's birthday in his house, in Tizi Ouzou, a Berber city (Kabyles) situated at 100 km of the capital.
"... my proposition is to invite you at my home so that we may celebrate him for his birthday and I would like it to be a beautiful surprise for Jean. Know lady, that if you want to come in ALGERIA you are welcome and you will be sheltered at our home and for nothing else than to please you and Jean and indeed it is an honour for me to welcome you at home. Finally I thank you again and I wait for your answer with impatience. "
To my great sorrow, I had to answer by the negative, for all sorts of reasons...
In Aftis-Jijel, Mr. Hocine assures me by email that Jean is very well.
Since already several months, Jean thinks about his entry in Europe (foreseen for October 2005) and he wonders how he could help the children of the world otherwise than trying to make people (adults as much as children) become aware of the importance to cultivate peace and non-violence. Until now we didn't make any levee of fund simply because we don't have the necessary organization to carry through such an operation. While he was in Tunis, Jean went to visit the UNICEF office and he volunteered himself as a mascot or like a focus point for a big campaign of levee of fund that would last the time of his crossing of Europe. He is certain that he would succeed in raising the interest of the medias for such a campaign and he even prepared some documents to this effect, documents that he sent by email at the UNICEF office in Tunis. In short, he would wish that the UNICEF takes advantage of his journey to help the children of the world and he is ready to cooperate entirely with them. In return, he asks for nothing except being allowed to continue walking.
Here is what he writes to you on this topic:
"Dear friends,
In the setting of my mission of peace for the children, in dedication to the proclamation of the United Nations (UNESCO): 2001-2010 - International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the children of the World, a second phase will begin at the time of my entry in Europe. I think that it would now be appropriate to create a campaign of financing to the profit of the UNICEF. It could be a 2-year program corresponding to the length of my walk in Europe.
GOAL
To make a promotion with double purpose:
1. Highlight the non-violent actions. Position the children on the front stage so that they may establish their self-esteem. Demonstrate that the adults can facilitate for them, the access to a better place in their scale of needs.
2. Commit the participation of people, organisms and commercial societies of all sizes in a common action for voluntary donations of money.
Sincerely,
Your walker, Jean"
On another subject, I finished publishing on Jean's Website, all the photos that I brought back from Egypt. These photos cover almost a whole year of his walk... Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt... go see... it will envelop you in a cocoon of exoticism!
Till next time...
Luce