World traveler talks to Rich-Mar Rotary
ADAMS TWP — World-traveler, author and photographer Annette Jahnel made a stop to speak at the Rich-Mar Rotary Club Wednesday in the middle of a cross-country trip.
Jahnel, originally from South Africa, became the first woman to circle the world alone in a land vehicle in 2007. She later wrote a book about the experience, “My Year of Beds.”
This year she is traveling the United States speaking to groups and doing research for a new book.
On her global journey she asked strangers to sign her car, a 2005 Renault Kangoo she called the “Wishmobile,” with a marker and write a wish for the world. She took pictures and wrote a blog as she went, calling the trip “One Planet, One People.”
She started in Germany and drove east through Europe and Asia. After crossing the Pacific Ocean she drove around the United States and Canada before crossing the Atlantic Ocean to the United Kingdom and returning to Germany.
Many wishes were the same including world peace, tolerance and clear air.
“The thoughts of the men from around the world had transformed this perfectly ordinary car into a global artwork of goodwill,” she said.
She discovered that despite living in different countries and different cultures, people across the world had a lot in common.
“Their (people of the world) core value system is shared by everyone. They would all like to live their lives based on the four pillars of humanity: tolerance, honor, kindness, self-control,” she said.
Her current trip is primarily funded by sales of her first book, and she intends to write another book based on her findings.
On what she calls “Searching for Galileo,” Jahnel is traveling across the United States talking to groups of people and having conversations with ordinary people, as well as scientists and researchers.
Her goal this time is to find people who can elevate human thinking and make breakthroughs on the scale of astronomer Galileo Galilei learning about the night sky and the universe.
As technology has advanced in other areas, society still has a lot to learn about the brain and thinking, she said.
“My aim is not to tell people what to do, it is merely to categorize how we think,” she said.
Rotary President Chuck Berry said he heard about Jahnel’s current tour and e-mailed her four months ago to see if she would be available to speak to the group.
Though her talk is a little out of the ordinary for the Rotary, her research is a fascinating topic for anyone to hear, he said.
“This is the last frontier of the mind,” he said.
Though she spent less than a day in Butler County, Jahnel said she has spent about a week in Pittsburgh. She called the city “fabulous” and said that it reminded her of Essen, Germany, where she used to live.
She was planning to meet with a couple of local neurosurgeons Thursday before departing for Cleveland where she was scheduled to speak to a college class.
To learn more about Jahnel, visit her website jahnelamericas.com.
