Emily's Worldview

So you may have heard that President Bush recently stopped by Arusha on his trip around Africa. Members of his 900+ retinue were visible a few days before, obvious military types hanging out in strange places, like the white man with a laptop in the maternity ward of a hospital Bush was to visit. (The head of this hospital is a minor tyrant who has threatened more than once to kick me and our organization out of his district; I am not looking forward to the new size of his ego with a picture of himself and Bush on his wall).

While local people were overall thrilled at the visit and engaged in a frenzy of painting and road grading to show an Arusha that was up to snuff, I was struck repeatedly by all the manifestations of American arrogance. At the start of one of his speeches, Bush greeted a crowd of dignitaries with "Mambo vipi?", the equivalent of starting a speech to a group of prominent African-Americans by saying "Wazzzzzup?". The thousands who lined the streets were miffed when the motorcade zoomed by without so much as a wave (on TV, he had been shown shaking hands with people in Dar). The Secret Service also saw fit to more or less shut the town down for his visit. About 55 kilometers of road were shut down from 8 am to 5 pm, with thousands of people lining them. Even bicycles weren't allowed to cross and there was a shortage of fresh milk in town because the dairy farmers in the hills could not cross into town. Trying to move in the opposite direction, we had to cancel a community outreach day in one of the hill villages. The local newspapers carried articles from miffed businesspeople in Arusha and Dar who wondered why it was necessary to close the roads.

Overall, people were excited and proud to have the visitor, curious to see him, and quick to trade gossip about his itinerary and what he did (jumping in imitation of a Masai dance was a favorite). Myself, I had a series of nightmares where I met the man and could think of nothing civil to say.