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My Journey to a second meeting with the Princess of Africa

She is a friend of Nelson Mandela and Bono, she has met the Queen of England, Michael Jackson and many other celebrities and world leaders, she has been at the White house, she has received many awards, she is a superstar and humanitarian, and now she is a friend of mine. How cool is that! I am talking about Yvonne Chacka Chaka also known as the Princess of Africa.

I met her for the first time in Burundi last July and we kept in touch ever since. At that time she told me she would be in Toronto in October. Guess what! She was here for four days. She came here to receive the Development Award from Planet Africa, for her Humanitarian work as UNICEF Ambassador and Humanitarian.

I called her as soon as she got here and we agreed to meet at her hotel (beautiful hotel by the way). I went there and met her and her humanitarian assistant. What a delight! I got the opportunity to hear her new song (not released yet) that she sung with Senegalese Superstar Youssou N'Dour. Wow! A masterpiece. They are releasing the song this week in Kenya.

As she was getting ready for the award ceremony in the evening, we agreed to meet the next day for lunch, and she would introduce me to the guys at Planet Africa. Of course I was there the next day. They came to pick us up in a big SUV (I thought I was the President or something), and off we left. We went to a place I had never been before. Really nice place. We met great people and all the time Yvonne was saying “this is my friend Patrick”. In my thought I was like “I am going to put that one on my resumé”.

We had great time (when I mention great time, you already know that food is involved), and even danced a little bit (Chaka Chaka music of course). I got to meet the guys at Planet Africa. I was impressed by what they have accomplished so far.

Then, around 6PM, Yvonne's humanitarian assistant came, and we started talking. This guy is something. He has humanitarian work in his blood. He works in over 15 African countries, all over Asia, and he is on the Board of so many humanitarian organizations it is not even funny. I asked him where was his office and he just went:”my computer is my office”. He told us the kind of work they do, and I was so amazed by this guy. I kept asking him questions, (I just want to know how the industry works). Do you know what got me the most? The guy is not even paid to do that. I was like What!!?? He just said to me: “I just do it because it is the right thing to do”. I was speechless afterwards.

I learned my lesson. Here am with Yvonne, a world class superstar with his world class humanitarian assistant (I know I am a world class bloger, but..lol), amazed with who they are. Do you know what is common between these two people? They just do what they love, and they do it because it is the right thing to do. If I want to be like them, I just have to do what they do. Do what I love to do and do it because it is the right thing to do. How cool is that? You can do it too.

Moral of the story? Do you want to meet a world class supertsar? Do what you love to do and you will meet...me


Always a pleasure

Patrick
The Journeyman
patrick@goalachieverscanada.com

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