....
|
BY SANDY
DHUYVETTER Rick
Antonson: Well when I first
went to West Africa I wasn't
thinking about doing a book, and
then sometimes you just find that
something is emerging, and that's
where it was with this. I had a
remarkable trip particularly in
Mali, but also in the country of
Senegal on the way to the country
of Mali where Timbuktu is. I
found an absolute fascination
with the old manuscripts from
hundreds and hundreds of years
ago that are still there and in
many cases falling apart, and
there are some strong actions
trying to preserve those
manuscripts, that intrigued me
and the early explorers, but it
was such a remarkable part of the
world that I found I was writing,
and eventually I realized there
is a book in it, and that's where
To Timbuktu for a Haircut came
from, and it covers the journey
through West Africa. Antonson:
I think one finds the time to do
the things that are important to
them in life, whether it's a
sporting activity or it's an
avocation, of some other sort. I
do find a nice release in the
telling of travel antidotes, but
importantly here I have met such
remarkable people, and it was
their stories that I worked to
try and tell, and as I did that I
realized that it came together
book-length and then publisher
expressed interest in it, and
there we were. The book was
on its way to coming out, and
thankfully it has been
well-received by the public, and
people like Africa Travel
Magazine and just really fine
supporters of it, and that gave
out a validation that I couldn't
bring on my own, and I just love
that. Sandy:
Speaking of the Africa Travel
Magazine, we put them in our
newsletter every week and that of
course is published by Jerry Bird
and Muguette Goufrani, and they
do such a fascinating job and a
spectacular job. We've actually
been able to travel all over
Africa with them, and we were so
excited when they told us about
you and the book, and we are
forever thankful for that, but,
did you actually get a haircut in
Timbuktu? Antonson:
I did, and the title comes from
when I was a child, 5 years old,
my brother and I would say every
time dad left home we would say
"where you going daddy where you
going?" and he would say "I'm
going to Timbuktu to get my
haircut" and as a kid, that just
brought whatever or any notions
that I had of travel, and I
presumed because he came back so
quickly, whether he was going to
church or the store, he always
said "I'm going to Timbuktu to
get my haircut," he returned and
one day I thought, well, one day
I better go there and get my
haircut, so I did. Paid a dollar
for it. Sandy: Oh
that is fascinating. It is so
hilarious. My father always said
to me "I'm going to see a man
about a horse" and he said that
no matter where he went, so that
is hilarious that our dads just
had that little line! And I love
that you made a book out of this.
When did it actually get
published? Antonson:
It came out a year ago, published
by Dundern Publishing of Toronto,
and available all over the world
because of the online ordering
that people can do nowadays. So
if it's not in bookstores, it's
available online, as it is easy
to Google and see the reviews.
Part of what became
important about it being a book
was, as I mentioned the people
the countries that I was
traveling through, it was such a
sense of being welcomed, of
people without in any cases much,
what we would call in the way of
comforts, who had such genuine
spirits, such a openness, such an
eagerness to share and talk about
where they live and how they
live, that I found myself quite
humbled by the entire experience.
I had a fellow named Zack who was
my guide, he was from the Dogon?,
he was a young fellow and through
him, I saw his country but I
learned from him, the way he
spoke, and funny, because I
worked at trying to practice my
French, and he one day looked at
me and he said "Reek?" its what
he called me, "Reek, I have
broken English, you have
unfixable French." Sandy: All
well what are friends for after
all. Antonson:
And things like that are when you
see the coming together of their
society and our society and you
shed all of your prejudgment and
you just try to be open. What I
found there is that they welcomed
people who wanted to know about
their lives and their countries,
and that's what gave me this
book. Sandy:
Well, I could see you doing maybe
a book even on tourism in
Vancouver; you have a lot of
stories up there
too. Antonson:
Well it's just an amazing
destination, and with the
Olympics coming, ones reminded of
the admonition "one should be
involved in the great events of
their time" and this is our great
event, and Vancouver and Whistler
and British Columbia will just do
a absolutely extraordinary job of
hosting the world. The Vancouver
Organizing Committee for the
games is just stellar. This has
been now a dozen years in the
works, it's about to happen on
February 12th of 2010. Sandy:
Rick, thank you so much for
joining us, we've had a great job
talking about Vancouver and of
course your book, To Timbuktu for
a Haircut, we will talk soon I
hope! Antonson:
Thank you very much, would love
to talk again. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sandy
Dhuyvetter: Welcome back - my
name is Sandy Dhuyvetter and
you're listening to
TravelTalkRADIO. We are talking
to Rick Antonson. Rick is
actually the president and CEO of
Tourism Vancouver in his day job,
but he did something wonderful, I
shouldn't say this is your night
job, but did you do it at night?
Was it labor of love? What was it
this wonderful book that you
wrote called 
Sandy:
It's awesome. Did you do it for
therapeutic reasons too, by any
chance? I mean you work really
hard I know, was this kind of
like a little bit of a diversion
for you?
