Karibu Dubya

I don’t know what kind of coverage it got back in the States, but George W. Bush’s week long tour of Africa included 4 days in Tanzania. Considering Bush doesn’t seem to go anywhere besides Crawford for that long, it was a pretty big deal. Not only was his smirking face on the cover of every newspaper for days leading up to his arrival, they also put up these giant banners with a very photoshopped, young-looking Bush all over the city. They say things like Welcome His Excellency President George W. Bush. We Cherish Good Governance or We Cherish Democracy. There are others that say things like Thank You George W. Bush for Fighting Malaria (or HIV/Aids or for the Millenium Challenge Account). These ones give the impression that George is personally donating the funding for these initiatives. We pretty much can’t go anywhere with out passing by at least 5 of these banners, even now over a week later. The upside of Bush’s visit is that all the trash lining the main streets downtown has been cleaned up. It was a dramatic change. We thoroughly enjoyed strolling the clean streets but I can’t help but wonder how long they will remain unlittered (given that the concept of throwing garbage in trashcans rather than the street is nonexistent, it probably won’t be long). There was a lot of buzz about Bush’s visit but from what we could tell it was positive. It’s pleasant change to be in a foreign country where people actually like our government. Although it’s kind of strange to see the American flag lining the streets when our daily experiences make it abundantly clear we’re not in Kansas or any of the other 49 states anymore.

The day Bush was to arrive we made the one hour, two daladala trek up to the university. I had gone up two days prior to find that the power was going to be out for at least the rest of the day and had to turn around and go home. So I was pretty antsy for internet on this particular day. Amongst my many emails was one from the American Embassy. I expected it to be another update about the situation in Kenya but for the first time since we registered with the embassy, this one was pertinent to us. Muslim Protest March of George Bush’s visit. Start time: less than 2 hours from when I was reading the email. Route: right down our freakin’ street. Awesome. So we frantically try to get in our internet essentials before hurrying back to get inside our house before the march gets there. Of course, frantically and hurrying need to be interpreted relative to Tanzania. There’s certainly no quick checking anything on the internet here and maybe I was imagining it but the connection seemed extra painfully slow that day. There’s also no hurrying when it comes to getting anywhere by vehicle on the massively congested roads. Fortunately, we were saved from having to decide to tear ourselves away from the internet because the power went out, again, about 15 minutes later.

By now the suspense must be killing you. Did we make it home in time? Or were we mobbed in a giant anti-American march? Brandt, having previously walked to our house from downtown because the daladalas were simply too full at rush hour for him to squeeze himself in, estimated it would take the protesters an hour to get from their starting point to our house. We were safely inside in time. In fact, it was so long before we heard anything outside that we were starting to wonder if the march was actually happening. But eventually we heard the steady beat of a

bass drum, followed by chanting and then the march arrived. We watched through a gap in our front gate. First came the men- marching, chanting, carrying signs. They were followed by the women, covered from head to toe in spite of the heat and long route through the city. I’m not a good judge of numbers, but maybe 2,000-3,000 people went by peaceful exercising their freedom to assemble.