Philanthropist Noëlla Coursaris Musunka | Building Wells in the Congo

0:00You're listening to Travel Secrets with Tanya Rose, the podcast that shares wisdom for fellow travelers.

0:09Welcome to Travel Secrets with me, Tanya Rose, the podcast sharing wisdom for fellow travelers. Each week, I ask my guests to reveal their six travel secrets and the holidays and adventures that surround them. I would just like to say thank you to Mason Rose, the sales and communication agency that represents some of the finest hotels around the world for partnering with Travel Secrets, the podcast. Today, my guest is the incredible Noella Cousares, international model, philanthropist, and founder of the brilliant non-profit Malaika, which educates and empowers young girls and communities in the Congo.

0:50She has traveled all over the world, and I cannot wait to hear all of her travel secrets. Welcome. I'm so happy to have you here. Thank you very much for having me and I'm excited about our conversation today. Well, travel is so part of who you are. So before we get into your travel secrets, perhaps you can just tell us a little bit about yourself and how travel has impacted that person that you have become. So I'm Noëlla. First of all, I'm a mother of two children. My daughter is called Cara. She's 10 years old. And my son is called JJ and he's 14 years old. So So traveling is part of a life.

1:31We live between Dubai and England. This summer, we're moving to Dubai. I was born in the Congo, but I grew up in Belgium, in Switzerland. Then I came to London. I went to move in New York. I lived there for many years, and that's where I set up our organization, Malaika. And I go twice a year in Africa. My mother is based in Africa and Congo. so traveling it's uh i think every month i travel somewhere but the thing is uh and i love it because i go to different continents different culture different food the time zone is not easy but one of my favorite continent definitely is my africa i've i've read so much about you and listened to so much about you and you have an amazing story i mean your father died when you were five and then you you had to leave Congo just tell us a little bit about that.

2:27So I was born in Congo my father died when I was five years old and my mom didn't have she was very young she got me when she was 17 years old so she didn't have the resources to give me a proper education and she decided to send me away to live with relatives in Belgium and so I left Congo five years and a half went to a country in Belgium when it was so cold see if the first time snow and living with a different family I lived in Belgium for many years and then after that I went to Switzerland to live with another relative did you speak any other language when you went to um so when I was in Congo I was speaking Swahili and um and French oh you do speak so in Belgium we speak French.

3:17I was living in the French part. And in Switzerland, did you live in the French? In Switzerland, I live in the French part. So beautiful country, Switzerland. Beautiful country to Belgium. I think they all have different scenery, cultures and food experience. Switzerland, incredible. The lakes, the mountains. I grew up in Switzerland. So beautiful. Where in Switzerland? My parents lived in Bern, which is the German speaking part. But then we had a chalet in the mountains. Do you speak German? I can say a little bit in Swiss German and things like that. I speak French and I was at school in the UK so I used to go home for Christmas, for Easter and for the summer and actually my favorite time in Switzerland is the summer.

4:01I mean obviously skiing is amazing but summer in the mountains in Switzerland is the most beautiful thing. The mountains and then you have the lake and so many beautiful mountains, Verbi, Ekstad, Villa and all of them. Do you ski? You know, in Switzerland, you have to ski. You have to ski or do ice skating. Every week with school, you have to go. So, yeah, I do ski. I'm not the best skier, but for me, it was like, wow, wearing all these layouts, you know, all these socks, the shoes, the ski. I thought it was like just an experience to be dressed before you even go down. But I love the after ski and, you know, the fondue, the raclette and the atmosphere.

4:45But my children love skiing. Do they? We went in February holiday with them. We went to Kills Bowl. Oh, it's lovely. And so it's beautiful. My daughter absolutely love it. And my son loves it. Love, love, love, love it. And have you taken them to the Congo? Yes, they go. My son has been 25 times to Congo. Has he? my daughters 15 times so they count every time they go and they go every year with me and we spend six seven weeks in the summer it's good we go in a village no internet no phones we go to build wells we go to the volunteer work and we have so many people from all over the world meeting us there it's just a beautiful experience but it makes you realize so good to be disconnected of the internet because there's hardly no internet in the villages and you just connect with people with people that don't have electricity don't have hardly water that live very in a modest way and they are pure they have wisdom they have vibes they have happiness i hope that we're going to hear a little bit more about your foundation as we go through the travel secrets And if not, I'll ask you.

5:54But perhaps we should start on the travel secrets. What is the number one destination you think everyone should go to once in their lifetime? I will say come to Congo to Malaika because it's an amazing, beautiful human experience. But about that, I will say Singapore. Singapore is incredible. We went last year with my husband and my two children. And my husband works there. And so Singapore is very well organized, it's safe, it's secure, the culture, the food, just the experience, the way Singapore is built with architecture. And I will say that there's so many different cultures. So many people from all over the world live in Singapore.

6:43So definitely Singapore, number one. That people should go to. I've been to Singapore. I stayed at Raffles, which is obviously a fantastic hotel. and everything is so clean. So clean. It's amazing. And so safe. It's the antithesis of what New York is at the moment, I think. But Singapore is very clean. Yeah, the antithesis of New York at the moment, I think. Did you ever model in Singapore? No, I never been modeling in Singapore. But it was nice, beautiful to have the experience with the children and discovering the country through their eyes. And even when you arrive at the airport, it's an experience.

7:17But the Doha airport too is amazing lately. Yes. We went to Doha with my kids. We were in transit. But I spoke a few years ago in Doha. And just the way it completely changed. But you have to walk a lot at the airport. Yes, but it is a fantastic airport. It's a fantastic. And actually Qatar Airways is fantastic. You have to close your eyes because right, left, there's so much shopping. Shopping. And so it makes experience where you want to eat there and you want to eat this. Actually, you do a lot of those speaking panels, don't you? Yes. And I know you're on many boards as well as your own foundation.

7:53What is it that you're talking about when you do these panels and when you're going around the world? Is it talking about setting up your own business and your foundation? Just tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, so I discovered the world a lot because for my modeling career, for my holiday with my family, and two, because I'm invited a lot to speak at panel. Actually, if I've never been to a country and I'm invited to speak, I say, I'm going to go there. like two months ago I was invited to speak in New Delhi so I say yes I will come to New Delhi I've never been there so yes I when I'm invited to speak I'm speaking I'm invited to speak about leadership fundraising sometime motherhood sometime sustainability in fashion my career my journey Africa you to generation that will uplift Africa the next generation but really to talk about what I do too and yes I sit on a few boards I sit on the board of AMAD it's a beautiful organization that is led by the Princess Caroline of Monaco I sit on the advisory board of L 'Oreal Fund for Women I sit on the board of Segal Family Foundation that supports grassroots organizations in Africa and I'm on the advisory committee of Concordia it's a big thank forum based in New York and they do the annual gathering in New York during the UN week and I sit on the advisory committee too of the UN for sustainable fashion.

9:25And I know that you're asked by many other people to be on many other boards. Yeah and I have to say no I have to say no because it's a big commitment you know you have sometimes you have to go once a year on the general assembly or you You have to have four calls a year, a lot of documents read. In between, you have emergency call between. So it's not easy. Last week I was in Monaco for an annual meeting for Ahmad with the board and the princess. I love what they do. And it's such a beautiful organization that's been existing for so many, many years. and it's great because you know I have my we have my Laika that I set up in 2007 but what is really great to sit on different board you learn a lot you learn and you can influence too and you can teach them I don't teach but I don't teach them I believe a relationship is in two ways we learn from each other but it's great because I'm a big believer that we have to help organization on multi-years I'm not forgiving just for one year I do believe we if we involve in organization we have to help for many years and and keep following their work because it's our involvement so I push a lot of board to really donate I totally agree with you I do quite a lot of charity things mainly in the arts and culture because I love drama and theater so I've been on the board of RADA and the ballet and the Brit School.

11:01And I'm very much a believer in what you say because a one-off gift is great, but actually it's much better to actually be very involved because then you can see the students through. And you see the impact of the work they have and you're building the relationship with the organization. So you do that with your own foundation, do you? Get the multi... Some donors, they won't do the multi-year grant, but some of them do. and the board that I'm sitting, I really ask them to review their policy and really push more for two or three years or even five years. Even if you cut down the first installment that you're giving, the first donation, but at least to donate every year a certain amount.

11:43And it shows your commitment. It shows the commitment and it shows that you are really following the work they're doing and even traveling there. Let's go on to your most unexpected travel experience. What's that? I would say New Delhi. New Delhi was fascinating. And you know, it was the time where the flowers were flourishing everywhere, everywhere you were going. It was like flowers. It wasn't expected because I thought that was so upbeating. It's a young generation, it's vibrant, very focused on tech. It was an amazing forum that I went to speak. It was raising a dialogue. and when they invited me in New Delhi to speak, I said to them, we have five students that study in Pune.

12:31It's one hour and a half from New Delhi. You know when the students come to study in Malaika school? They come from five years old to 18 years old. Then we help them for higher education. So they got a full scholarship, five of a student in Pune. So they're in second year university, most of them in STEM, engineering, and media communication. so five of them came to meet me in New Delhi and they spoke with me at my panel. How fabulous. So can you imagine I know the students since five years old. I've been following, I've been part of the journey every day. And they're like my little sisters and to come on the panel with me to explain the impact of Malaika and the life in Pune in India, the food experience.

13:18It was really incredible. They are the next leaders. And New Delhi, the food was really, really, really, really good. And the people, very nice. It's very, I'm excited to see the next five, ten years of India. Yeah, I think it's an amazing place. And it's so buzzy and busy. Buzzy, busy. And people are kind. Very nice. I thought you might say on your most unexpected about when you went back to your village and you told the chief about wanting to set up your foundation. Tell us a little bit about that. Yes, so I didn't go to my village because I was born in Lubumbashi. But when I set up Malaika, I wanted to do, where we wanted to build the school and the ecosystem that Malaika is, it was where it was a real need and not a thing related to me because I want people that work or volunteer or donate to Malaika.

14:13They donate to Malaika, to our mission, to our work, and not because it's Norella. And I have this detachment that I want because I want Malaika. It's a legacy. It's been 17 years of work. It's there because of the local community, the local staff, the mothers, the fathers, the international team, the donors all over the world. So that's what makes Malaika every day. But when we decided to build a school, we went to see a lot of villages. And there was this specifically village called Kalevuka. And the community came to me and the chief of the village and we sit down and they say they were a forgotten village, a forgotten community.

14:56They didn't have nothing, no waters, no wells, no roads. It was a bush. And they say, please come to do whatever you want here and we will be here to support you. So that's where I was born at first well, school. And then after that, it became the school, the ecosystem, the community center, the vocational training, the agriculture, the sport facilities. That's impacting thousands of lives every year. And all our programs are free. And obviously you pay for it through fundraising, which is not easy. No, it's not easy. You know, we have to fundraise every year. I lead Malaika as an impassionate volunteer.

15:37And we have a lot of incredible volunteers that are helping Malaika. But it's around$900 ,000 to run all the programs. I think we're doing very well for what we're offering. But it's not easy to fundraise. Congratulations. When we started very small with one well, three classroom, it was maybe$40 ,000,$50 ,000 to run. But now we have 65 staff on the ground. We want to offer quality programs. And also you do have a program where you can teach other people to do what you're doing. Yeah, we created a blueprint, a toolkit, how organization can duplicate what is Malaika the ecosystem. them but what the main important ingredients to make a foundation successful is to work with the community and understand their needs what works in the congo in calibuca what we created might not work in in in venezuela or might not work in syria or different countries so you really have to to be close to the community and understand the needs absolutely let's go into your next travel secrets What is the most overrated or underrated travel experience you've ever had?

16:48Woo, I love New York. I love it. It's so funny because my children, they go to Congo every year with me in summer. So one day, one year, I ask them, which city do you want to go? And they choose the opposite of Congo. We go to Congo, we go to Africa a lot, mama. We're going to go to Las Vegas. So completely the opposite of their traveling. and it was fun Las Vegas we went to Las Vegas we discovered and and it's it's nice to do different things with your children and and just be with them and enjoy and going to see a museum and and the shows the shows yeah fantastic yes we went to Las Vegas we went to see a Michael Jackson show was absolutely fantastic did you see the Cirque du Soleil that's under the water called O it's incredible no we were not we were there just for six days so it's like a few days they wanted to relax and yes we went to see the michael jackson but yeah we might go back but new daily incredible las vegas food we love thailand so not many underrated places in your in your thought process there are most places that you think they're all wonderful yes you know what every places that i go and i travel I try to live the moment and take the best experience.

18:12You know, I work a lot in villages when we have built more than 30 wells. So we went to a lot of villages to build them. And there's absolutely nothing. So for me, this is really make me sad because, you know, we need basic infrastructure of water, of schools, of health. So there's nothing that really will make me feel underrated because this is what is the needs. So every places I go in the world, I enjoy. You appreciate. I appreciate, enjoy. Whichever hotel I go, I enjoy, you know. And when you go to speak, you stay sometimes in five stars hotel, but sometimes you stay in very modest hotels and you just have to make the experience.

18:55And it's the stuff, it's the food, it's the love of being together and et cetera. How did you feel when you had left Congo, went to Belgium, then went to Switzerland and then became a top model. And I think your first campaign was with Agent Provocateur, wasn't it? I mean, that is so different, isn't it? Did you, were you overwhelmed by that? How did you feel about that? I grew up as a tomboy. Did you? Yes. You don't look like a tomboy at all. I grew up as a tomboy. So for like seven, eight years, seven years, eight years, I have hair short. from six years old to like 13 years old. I have short hair, always jeans, sneakers.

19:38And it's so funny because I see my daughter and my daughter is so feminine. She's so girl. And she's telling me to do all these things on her hair and I have no idea how to do all her hair style that she's asking me. But she's so feminine and I look at her and I was another person when I was at her age. but so when I start to grow my hair at the age of 12 13 a lot of people were telling me you should do modeling and I say my mom sacrificed a lot I have to study so I study I work business management I came to London I always I have a lot of drive always wanted to do well in life and look after my mom and have a career I always dreamed to work in big organization so I came to London to learn English and more people were stopping me and my friends entered me in this competition and I won the campaign of the agent provocateur it was one of my first photo shoot arriving on the set like 15 people me not underwear and the campaign went come out I thought my family in Africa was like wow did we send Noela to do lingerie because you know at this time it was very revealing and it was like what she can do modeling but not lingerie and for many years I was booked for so many campaigns of lingerie so funny so I was never I was hiding my pictures they were beautiful photos they were amazing I love but we all love lingerie I still love lingerie you know absolutely absolutely and a huge difference from where you came from I bet exactly cultural and yeah from London then I went my agency say I think you will work very well in New York and then I went to New York and that was an amazing journey in New York the modeling career experiencing this city, the buildings and just you know and that's where I set up my Laika but I would say you know America give you this buzz that nothing is stoppable you can reach the sky don't take a no for an answer Just go for it.

21:52And that's where I learn a lot. I learn a lot in New York. Yeah. And a lot of your fundraising comes from America, doesn't it? Yes. We raise 60 % of the funds. Yeah. They're much better. Family foundation, grand application, individualized. But now it's tough everywhere. Yeah. Now it's tough everywhere. But the Americans sort of are used to it and they think about giving more than a lot of other countries. Yeah. Yeah, it's part of the DNA to give back, to volunteer, to donate money. And it's normal. Most of the people when I go to New York, I have a lunch. Or if I go to LA or anywhere, I have a foundation.

22:30Oh, yeah, please give us, send information, we will donate. It's not even a question you have to explain too much. I will research a little bit. One of my incredible flights, I was leaving Lubumbashi. and I met an amazing lady in the plane. My son was maybe six months. My son came at three months after all the vaccination that he got. He came with me in Congo. And I met this lady in the plane and I needed to go to the bathroom and she hold my baby. And then we become friends for many, many, many years. And her name is Terry. and we were talking in the plane about the organization the school she was going back to Lubumbashi because she used to live there with her husband she was American and she went back to university there and to teach and then she was going back to America and we kept in touch and a few months later she wrote to me I read about your organization and I want to do a few things and every year since she donates how wonderful what a beautiful woman story she has and her family and all the family came to celebrate the 10 years of malaika in new york so from a plane from a traveling lovely you never know who you're going to sit next to and asking you to hold your baby oh no that's a wonderful story let's talk about food and drink We all love food.

23:58I love food. We love food. We love drink. It's so much part of our lives, but it's so important for travel too. Where do you like eating? What do you like eating? Do you have a favorite restaurant or a favorite meal or a favorite country that has amazing food? Let's just talk about the whole thing of travel and food and drink. I just love, I don't drink really. I don't drink a lot. I don't drink alcohol, but a cocktail once in a while. I will say that I love food. wherever I travel, I want to discover the food culture. I want to try everything. I'm a big fan of African food and especially my mom's food.

24:39In Congo, we eat a lot of vegetables and it's so yummy. But I love Thai food. Thai food is on the top of my list. It's so fresh, so much flavor. But having children, we love pasta. you know pasta once a week on the menu we love pasta and wherever we go we will have pasta and um yes and and i just love and i love you know my husband is english we love the sunday roast pub sunday roast nothing better pub sunday roast or do you call that here bagels and mash yes my kids love bagels and mash but a sunday we cook a lot at home the sunday you know it was something that i discovered in the the lamb the meat sauce the rose the beef the the gravy i love it and i say even we go we'm gonna move in dubai we still have to do us and i do love to go to new york and when i go to new york the the nice burger sorry i'm not vegetarian but uh yeah the experience of food but i have to say to you when i travel for work I'm extremely careful to eat very safe food because I'm on a mission to work I either have board meeting or I have to work I have to eat very safe food because my trips are very short I'm a mother of two kids so my trips are 24 hours 48 hours max or maximum 3 days so I don't want to be sick so I'm very careful of what I eat make sure that I drink a lot of water make sure that I eat safe food and that I sleep well.

26:21My eight hours are very important for me. Yeah. And actually that takes us nicely onto your top travel tip. Would that be your tip? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Drink a lot of water, very carefully what you eat and have my eight hours of sleep. One mask always traveling with me to make me feel good and a lip balm. So do you put the mask on when you get on the airplane and try and sleep? No, I do that at home. I feel a little bit weird to put in a plane. I don't care what people think of me. I know, but I'm like putting, and you know, it's like an adventure. You have to open the thing, put on the mask, and then sometimes you fall down.

27:00I'll try it one or twice, and I'm like, you know what? I'm just going to do that in my room. Have you seen our mutual friend Trini when she goes on a plane? She is hilarious. You know, she does all her social media clips. She's so funny in a social media, full of energy. She puts on her mask, then she puts a red LED light over her on the airplane. I mean she's hysterical she doesn't care at all but she always looks fantastic so why not exactly she really cracks me up though and she's the most amazing packer which I am not are you a good packer I'm not a good packer but it's funny because my kids are good packers me I always take overtake but now the problem is sometimes you wait so long on luggage with years I learn to pack better when I travel for two days I really try to take just the suitcase that go in the plane so with the years yes I'm a better packer but when I'm on holiday I'm the worst packer my husband say how much clothes did you take you didn't use even a quarter so I'm a good packer for work traveling bad packer for when I for holidays for holidays oh that's okay I'm bad for both even when I'm going away for a two-day business meeting I can't seem to get my suits and my shoes and my wash bag and everything in one of these little bags so trini told me she'd come to my house and teach me because she's a brilliant packer okay do do then a little real how to exactly how to pack with her how i'm sure you have a lot of people watch that because we always like to learn when you know when you pass the way after the passport control you have to pass where you take on the makeup but it's so funny because i look a lot how people pack because sometimes they have to open this they say oh wow they pack like that they put in a bag they fold it like this I know they're so organized so organized let's go on to your most poignant travel experience or trip my most poignant I will say is with my children in the Congo and when when we're building wells because my son built a well on his name my daughter too and and we have built over the years like I was saying 31 wells when you build a well in a village where there's absolutely nothing and it's not about infrastructure it's about changing lives it's about giving them a resource they didn't have so we have two ways we're building we're building uh of course with a company uh we're building manual well so it's with a pump or you're building a solar panel well the solar panel well is last longer less maintenance and you have five taps so the solar panel wells we built one of them a few years ago and it was so incredible because you think all these it's a lot of mothers that come to fetch water for young kids you're seeing them full of joy to come to get the water and they i've been asking them what do you use the most the water so it's for cooking is to wash themselves is to give water to the vegetables that they have in the little garden.

30:03And it's really, it's a necessity. And they come every day to fetch the water between one bucket to two buckets. And they send sometimes the children, sometimes it's their husband coming to fetch the water. And through all the wells that we build, they have to, they walk less now. Because before they could walk between 45 minutes to one hour and a half to get water. And sometimes they were fetching water in very dirty river. So now it's clean. Yes. So we have 31 wells and I hope in the next few years we will reach 40 or 50. How much does it cost to build a well? A manual well is between$4 ,000 and$5 ,000.

30:47And a solar panel is between$12 ,000 to$15 ,000. We built two wells with my very dear friend, Tandyway Newton. So we built a manual well and we built a solar panel well with her. How wonderful. Well, that really is life changing. And every time I see these water aid adverts and things like that, I just think how in this life can there be people who still don't have clean water? Exactly. And, you know, I was in the middle of this village and my son said,

31:26mom look at here they have nothing and the happiness they still have and sometimes we have everything and we're not so happy and sometimes we learn things that doesn't make sense we watch things that doesn't make sense and every time we land in a congo the first thing my children say let's go to see one of the whales oh i think that's a beautiful story and actually i thought you might talk about another poignant thing that happened to you which was obviously when you were was at 17 you hadn't seen your mother for 15 years or something and you went back to see her how was that so I left when I was five and I came back to see my mother when I was 18 so it was 13 years and at this time it was not a lot of emails and phone calls it was very it's one of the strongest moments of my life where I rediscovered my country where I reconnected with my mother but it took years to build a relationship with my mother it was not from the first trip because you know 13 years I love the same way as her I sit the same way as her she's a beautiful and very humble person and so unmaterialistic she just wants to be happy there's nothing she needs she just want to have her children and her grandchildren around and it's i learned so much from her but my relationship got very stronger when i got my two children my first son when i hold my son in my hands i say wow what a sacrifice that my mother did because you don't realize no you're probably if you tell me give away your son or give away your daughter i won't be able i think it's you taking me with it but then i presume you realized what a sacrifice she did make she make a huge sacrifice and i think for her it must have been she got me at 17 years old so she lost my dad when she was 22 so can you imagine she lost her husband she lost her only child me so life was um she went through for many years in depression i can imagine very very difficult but you have a nice relationship with her yeah we have a beautiful relationship and And the second arrival, I just want to eat her food and to give a big hug and make me so happy that she has a beautiful relationship with my two children and my husband.

33:50That's so wonderful. And is she involved with your foundation? No. No. She goes once a year. When she goes there, she has a kind of a panic. Oh, does she? Yes, because she says, wow, what my daughter built with her team is incredible. She's so proud. But she's quite scared as well. But she's very scared. She's scared because it's a responsibility 24 hours. It's a commitment for life. You cannot say tomorrow you stop. You cannot just go there and do your pictures. It's gone. You have to lead it every day. I see what's going on. I have team calls with my team locally. I have to fundraise. I lead the operation with the team.

34:31I spend minimum. I spend minimum between 30, 40 hours volunteering a week. Yeah, it's a lot. It's a big commitment. It's a big commitment. You know, celebrities, they go sometimes, they do their pictures, they choose one program, and they go on. Yeah. For me, it's, but I love what I do. I love, for nothing in the world I would change. There's a lot of challenge. Working in a conflict country, Congo, we have 30 years of conflict, more than 6 million people died, more than 3 million has been displaced. Huge country, incredible potential. But the biggest wealth is us as human beings. Everything that you have from your phone, your laptop, 80 % 70 % of the reserve come from Congo.

35:22I know it's amazing. Lithium, Cobalt, Koltan. We have the second biggest forest, incredible rivers. But yeah, I think Congo, like Sudan, like all these countries in the world that are at war, I'm a big advocate for peace. We need peace. We need justice. And we need to be a happy planet. What planet we want to live for our children, what kind of traveling we want to live for our children. It's a very, very important question we need all to think. It's a completely unstable world we're living and scary world. And scary. Yeah, that is. And our children get so much information through the computers or the television, they're aware of what's going on in the world.

36:15And even too when they're asking us, why so many conflicts? Which is lovely when they come to the Congo and there's no internet connection and they can, what's the word in French? Desbrancher or something. Yeah, they're connected. But I'm quite strict with the internet and the phones. I'm a very, very strict mama. But yeah, it's good when they go in Congo. they emerge themselves with the culture. They go to playing villages. They enjoy the culture. And the PlayStation doesn't really work well. Excellent. The FIFA game, the Fortnite. Anyway, we don't have it in the Congo. We don't have the PlayStation.

36:57And during the week, I don't allow PlayStation. Only the weekend. But I don't have this drama of five more minutes, five more minutes. Do you have children? Yes, but my son is 22 now, so I don't have to worry about that anymore. But we did have those arguments. I love the five-minute game. Yeah, I know. No, no, five more minutes, five more minutes. So we don't have it in the Congo and it's perfect. I asked you to bring a photograph. Can you show me the photograph and describe the photograph and how that sums up travel to you? This is with my son and my daughters. We inaugurated a solar panel well.

37:32Fantastic. So that was really great. so that was all the day we spent there and that's them at the school with a 430 student and this is one of the well we inaugurated but it was a manual well so my daughter was trying to and my son to pump it so we um when we build the well is 50 meter between 45 and 50 meter deep for the wider call. Absolutely wonderful. And how many have you built? 31 wells. That's just fantastic. And before I let you go, what's next for you? What's next for your foundation? And where are you traveling next? So first of all, we're moving this summer in Dubai. I'm excited to have a new chapter in her life and to be there for a few years and to discover this part of the world.

38:26My daughter would like to go to Japan. My husband wants to go to Vietnam. I would love to go to Malaysia. And my son is still looking. He would love to go to Sri Lanka. So we have a few countries that we will want to discover. And Oman. I heard that is so beautiful. Very beautiful. Have you been? Yes, I have. And there's some fantastic resorts. Ziggy Bay is an amazing resort. There are some fantastic places. So if you do want to go, let me know. And I'll tell you the names of the places that I recommend. Ah, yes. So they will have to do that. Because we've been doing quite a lot in Africa. We went to Senegal, Zimbabwe.