So, as you no doubt have heard, last week George W. Bush was in Tanzania. In Dar last week for the UNICEF conference I saw signs along the road welcoming "His Excellency" Mr. Bush. At the conference, one of the facilitators made a passing reference to the street cleaning that was underway in Arusha. In preparation for Bush's arrival, Tanzanian police began arresting street children en masse. They were detained until Bush had left Tanzania. It's not surprising that Bush was moved by the cheering Tanzanians who lined the streets in Dar and Arusha. His retinue shut down traffic in both cities for 9 hours! Can you imagine what would happen if traffic were shut down in New York, Tokyo or London for 9 hours? With the homeless in jail and traffic at a standstill the only thing to do in either city was go out and get a look at the leader of the United States.
In his usually inept style, Bush greeted the president of Tanzania, Mr. Jakaya Kikwete, by saying, "Mambo Vipi?" I don't claim any major level of competence in the Swahili language, but I do know enough to realize how inappropriate it was to greet a leader by saying the equivalent of "Wuz up?"
Bush was playing up his Presidential Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PETFAR). The plan is one of two things the man did as president that I might be tempted to congratulate him on. The other was making a huge section of ocean off limits to oil or other resource mining. Yes, no resources had been found anywhere nearby the area, but it was a nice gesture. PETFAR made available a lot of money for combating entirely preventable diseases like Malaria, TB and HIV. HIV medication is a lot cheaper than it was a few years ago because of the program. But then it should've been cheap and accessible all along - making a profit off of lifesaving drugs should be a crime. Of course the money PETFAR released to USAID programs in Africa came with a big stipulation: that abstinence would be promoted over condom use. I did say "tempted to congratulate him on".
In other news, I've been staying with two volunteers at Amani, Aaron and Christina, while our house is being finished up. I was supposed to move in last week, but the landlord had the interior painted and it wasn't finished yet. They've been treating me well, and it's free so I can't complain. I'll get the keys for our place on Sunday and start moving in on Monday night after work.
Monday during the day at Amani there's a staff versus children soccer match. I'll be playing midfield. The staff has lost everyone of these matches they've played in. I understand why: even the smallest girls can run circles around most of the caregivers here. It should be fun, though. I'll try to get a few pictures to put up here next week.
I turned 28 last week while I was in Dar. It was a decent birthday. My boss Valerie and her husband Matthew took me out to a Japanese restaurant in Dar and I was being put up in a hotel with an ocean view. But, all I did was go to bed around 10 and wake up early the next day for the conclusion of the conference. I'm toying with the idea of writing an article about the conference and the campaign to get a children's rights act on the books in Tanzania, so I'll hold off on any commentary about it now.
That's it. I'm off to a Swahili lesson. It's all cool, Mr. Bush.