The day the President came

Today was the day that the President came to our humble little home of Arusha, Tanzania. President George W. Bush is here! As I am sure many of you know, he is making a tour of several East African countries with his longest stay being in Tanzania. We heard rumors that he might be coming to Arusha as well as Dar es Salaam but we were not sure when. A guy that came out to inspect the possibility of internet sent us a text saying today! I think that my invitation might have gotten lost in the mail to lunch. Oh well.

We heard that the main road into town was going to be closed for most of the day to the President, so we left early for work. Our office is right off the main road so we were excited about the chance to see the President. Every time a car went by, we would get excited. Keep in mind that this road is completely closed except for official business, for cars that is. People had to walk miles because there was no local transport. There were children with American and Tanzanian flags, people with shirts with the American Flag or a picture of Bush on it. They even had kitanges (material that women where as skirts) made special for the occasion with both flags and a picture of President Bush. I am doing everything in my power to get one of those! =) After several hours, we began to lose hope and decided to walk a little to see if he might be in another location. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of people all standing around waiting for the chance to see the president. AWESOME!

Eventually, he did come with quite a big entourage. There were two big, black SUV's with tinted windows that were in the middle. I am assuming that he was in one of those. I may not have seen him but I am pretty sure I stood out in the sea of black faces. So, now he knows me! =)