His name carries a lot of weight where I am from. In fact he
has been of service for our country for over five decades. He has earned tons
of respect from his countrymen.
It was with great surprise that one day as I was checking my
voicemail and heard his voice. He needed not to mention his name. I recognized
his voice right away. He mentioned that he got my name from a friend of mine
who told him a lot about me (I really don’t know what he heard, but I am glad I
was the recipient of his call).
I called him back and we agreed to meet a week later. The
meeting did not happen that week or that month. For some reasons something was
coming up all the time. We did not get to meet, until a few weeks ago. I was
attending an event, and he happened to be there. I went to him, with a lot of
respect, mentioned my name and shook his hand. It was like being in front of
a monument. I do respect the guy.
We talked a little bit and he promised to give me a call. I
was looking forward to that call.
A few days went by and I forgot about it.
As I was about to go to sleep a few days ago, I found myself
thinking about…my country. A lot of people that I talk to are not happy about
what is going on down there. Let’s say that things can be better (that is me
being politically correct).
I started to ask myself a question. If I had all the means I
can ask for, what would I do in Burundi? An hour later I was still daydreaming
(I don’t know if I can call it daydreaming, because it was at night). It was
too big that I did not know where I could start.
Guess what! A day later, I was still thinking about the same
things. It almost became an obsession. I had to let it go. I had to find
something else to do or think about. About that time, my phone rang. It was the
gentleman I told you about. What a great surprise! We agreed to meet three days
later. I was so excited to meet him, but also a little bit curious to find out why
he wanted to speak to me.
So, last Wednesday, I went to his home. We were supposed to
meet at 3.30 in the afternoon, I was there at 3.
Punctual ? A little bit. Excited? A lot.
He greeted me as if I was his long-time friend. I was so
honoured you cannot believe.
We talked for a while, I did my best to talk about myself (I
felt like I was in a job interview). Then, he told me the reason why he wanted
to talk to me. As it turned out, the gentleman has written a book about…., can
you guess? The book is about how to bring sustainable development to Burundi. I
was like, are you kidding me? Was he present when I was daydreaming or what?
The book is amazing! It contains every answer to all my
questions. The gentleman just wanted to have someone he could talk to about the
book, create a kind of mastermind on how we can implement the ideas contained
in the book. I was like “count me in”.
He gave me the book. I have started to read it. We agreed to
meet again. I am looking forward to meeting him again.
I heard somebody saying that thoughts become things. It has been
my experience this week. The fact of thinking a lot about Burundi has
materialized into me meeting the gentleman and him giving me his book. That is
what I think (here we go again with me thinking again..). Now I have to be careful
about what I am going to think about. It can come to pass.
Moral of the story? Do you want to make a difference in your
country? Just think about it a lot and you will read a book
Always a pleasure
Patrick
The Journeyman
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