If I'm not wrong, I won my first Personal Computer in the year 1991 after participating in a writing contest in french and winning the first prize. It was the famous Commodore 64 like in the picture with a tape reader and few tapes containing some games and programs such as the main Operating System (I remember only the Ninja Game I used to play with).

I miss my C64 which I had to exchange few months later to get my first PC with a mouse, The Amiga 500. Check the details of the C64 in this link

I can barely remember the details of the few times I spoke on radios. I can remember that everything started; I imagine it is the case with many Tunisians from my generation, with the interest for the international radio RTCI and the interaction with the presenters via snail mail. Many live interviews followed this beginning linked to several events I organized or subjects I was keen advocating such as the Free and Libre Open Source Software model.

I never imagined that few years later I’ll have my own “show” with a complete freedom of the topics I can present or the guests I can invite. Of course, this have to be linked to my interests and the subjects I can really present.

Few days ago, I was contacted by Radio TounesBledi team for an urgent matter they wanted to discuss with me. The matter was just an offer to take care of the English speaking program on this radio (which is broadcasting on internet from Canada). I tried to convince them that I don’t have any such experience and I never spoke in public in English (It’s a white lie). All the trust they are placing on me is based just on the content of my blog. They managed to convince me that I’ll be able to do it without even the need of an evaluation.

I had less than 14 hours to prepare the content of two hours of the “on air” program.

I managed to plan few things to speak about including of course the couchsurfing spirit (http://www.couchsurfing.com) and to include two interviews that went pretty well. Honestly I wasn’t convinced of my performance after the program but I believe that I’ll work it out in the future if I learn from my mistakes. My father, who doesn’t speak a word in English, managed to listen to the complete show from home and made an effort trying to understand what I was speaking about. My cousin who living in France told me later that she liked the program but not the “old fashion” musical selection :)

The program’s name is “bridging worlds”. It is scheduled for Thursdays between 3pm and 5pm (Tunis time, GMT+1). The time might change starting from the beginning of February 2008. I’ll keep you updated.

The link to listen to the radio is: http://www.radio.tounesbledi.net/live.html

I’ll talk about the radio and its amazing team again soon.

...

No I won’t talk about Jamiroquai’s Album. I want to talk about one of the best communities I discovered in London. The Couchsurfers.

Let’s be honest! What do young travellers need when they discover the world? I’ll give you the answer: A place where to spend the night (not even a bed if you have a sleeping bag) with the option of having a nice shower and change, a safe place where to leave the heavy backpacks during the day and, of course, a guide (usually a book) to tell you where to go and what to avoid (I’m used to buy the lonely planet).

How many times you take a room in a hotel and you pay an entire 24 hours for just a nap of few hours. Also, guide books are usually subjective and written by tourists without giving a local taste or vision of the area visited. What if you have a full list of local contacts you can trust and who might host you or at least meet you to give you the right tips/directions around a cup of local tea/drink.

The best solution I found for this was the couchsurfing.com website. Even with the fact that I wasn’t able to host people, I was invited to many picnics/partys/BBQs in many parks/houses in London and I met a variety of people (hosts, travellers or intruders like me). I remember also the London Calling where during one weekend I was able to meet “theoretically” a couple of hundreds of people not fearing the rain or late buses. It was amazing. All these people gave me enough confidence to start “couchsurfing” and hosting people and all my hosts and guests were so nice and very friendly.

From a southern perspective, I see this community also a good opportunity for Africans to meet travellers, learn about other cultures and improve foreign languages without having to struggle with travel expenses and visa restrictions. That’s what I call travelling without moving.

Come on guys (and girls): Join the community www.couchsurfing.com

PS: if you live in Tunisia, don’t forget to join also Tunisia Group and check out local events/meetings I’m willing to organise.

Until now, I can say that I lived in three different countries in three different ‘worlds’. I lived almost all my life in my home city, Tunis. I had my first and short stay of four month by my own in Mali (one of the poorest countries in the world). And lately, I just came back from more than a year spent doing my masters degree in London.

If I have to compare Bamako with London in terms of social relations, I would say and confirm that I never felt so lonely before going to live in Britain. I almost never feel lonely in Tunisia and enjoyed very much my life in Mali. I’ll spare you the reasons and the social analysis of the Londoners daily life (maybe I’ll do it another day) and I’ll tell you the ways I found to overcome this loneliness issue.

The first one was the meetups I found through the website http://www.meetup.com . In this website, very active especially in big cities like London, somebody can find anything (or anyone) he is interested in. From the singles gatherings to artists’ fan clubs or wine and dinners meetups, everything is there. I started just with some languages exchange meetups and international students’ gatherings always in pubs (bars). It was a good way to make friends …. but mainly foreigners. Don’t ask me where the real Londoners are, they have other interests.

The second solution was interesting at the social and the professional level. People that know me will guess that I speak about the charities. I started by joining YouthNet UK (http://www.youthnet.org) which is a charity providing software for other charities in order to manage their volunteers and volunteering opportunities. I was able to volunteer for them through two of their staff I’ve met in Tunisia (Thank you again Simon and Patrick). You see, it’s useful to have contacts 

After that, I joined also the British Computer Society (http://www.bcs.org.uk) thanks to my Nigerian colleague Boma who convinced me just by saying that all our lecturers are registered to this professional body. Later, I found it interesting but very serious for me until when I joined the Young Professional Group and I found myself in the “National Committee” helping with the students’ stream and attending the monthly or non-official meetings. I said once to one of the members “David” that what I enjoyed the most in these meetings is that nobody manages to speak slowly as do my lecturers. My English had no other choices than to improve to be able to understand their jokes. “Cheers mates!!!”.

The third solution was the CouchSurfing Community (http://www.couchsurfing.com). I’ll dedicate the next post to explain what it is.