The scope of President Bush's visit to Dar

Yes, it is true that President Bush was in Dar last week, and we even got a glimpse of him…


Ok, so it was a very photoshoped picture of him on a billboard…but it still counts, right??

The word on the street is that Bush arrived in Dar with not one, but three Air Force One planes (so no one knows which he is in, I guess??) and ten cargo planes to carry the bullet proof cars that he brought all the way here. Interesting, isn't it??

We were hoping that Bush would speak at the embassy or something, but when we could not find any information out, Melissa and I decided to go searching in town one day for the hotel that we knew Bush was staying in. We were not exactly sure where the hotel was but all along the way there were signs or flags announcing his presences in Dar.

There were several of these billboards around town

These lined the streets and said something about a partnership between the US and Tanzania

This is the hotel that Bush was staying in...at least we think so...we were told that his entourage filled all three of the 5 star hotels in town...thats a lot of people!


It might not be a picture of Bush, but at least we got the to see secret service people searching a car. We took the picture quickly through the back window of the car! We later learned that Bush was not even in Dar the day we went searching for him.

Even though we did not actually see Bush, we did benefit from his visit – the road in front of the American Embassy was repaved and they even painted lines on some of the main roads (not that they really help, but it makes the roads look nicer!). He also gave a considerable amount of money to Tanzania and we all pray that the money is used to help the country develop.

A reporter from the Washington Post contacted a HOPAC parent while he was here with Bush and went with him to visit the village of the head cleaner at school. William is an amazing man who not only works all day at school, but then rides his bike 30 minutes home and spends the night teaching school to the children in his village. He has also set up a small church and is the pastor of it. He wrote a good article about his visit and if you are interested you can read it on this link: http://video1.washingtontimes.com/fishwrap/2008/02/a_memorable_day.html