Some other things happened, besides the visit by President Clinton

Hi All-

Last week wasn't that special, just working and going to the gym, so I think I will still write about the week before. Besides the big visit from President Clinton, many other things happened.

On the morning of his visit, I had already scheduled a testing day in a small village just outside Abuja called Kobi. This was done in partnership with a small NGO called the Children Under 5 Initiative. It was a big success, 140 people where tested, 100 children and 40 adults.

Look at all the kids so well lined up to go to the clinic.















Here I am with the head of the Children Under 5 Initiative.















Also, that day a small grant I am managing was being implemented. It involved training people to help the doctors to get more people tested and retain the patients that are already on treatment. Check it out, this is in Kano, where I am right now:

So, it wasnt all just work. We took out some people who were from the Clinton Climate Initiative who were in town. I took them to a place I like that has live music and dancers. As you can see, I learned a new was to drink a beer and kinda became part of the entertainment as well. Grandma, please don't print out these pics for Grandpa...

So I am in Kano State right now and that is what next week's post will be all about, there are already some great pictures. Hope you liked it.

Bill Clinton's Visit to Nigeria

Hello All-

President Clinton visited Abuja on Wednesday. The primary purpose of the visit was to speak at the ThisDay Awards. Here is a description of the event:

"Former US President Bill Clinton and former United Nations Secretary-General,
Kofi A. Annan, have confirmed participation at the 14th Annual THISDAY Awards Festival of Ideas. The Festival of Ideas aims to further good governance in Nigeria and throughout Africa by addressing current challenges. These include deepening democracy and democratic
institutions; strengthening leadership; and addressing poverty.

The conference will also focus on how to promote investment in Nigeria and in other African nations. The event which takes place in Abuja, Nigeria on 14 January 2009, will be preceded
by an awards ceremony where distinguished Nigerians will be honoured. Among
them: Cardinal Francis Arinze, the President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue at the Vatican; Chief Anthony Enahoro, the elder statesman who moved the motion for Nigeria's independence in 1952; and Supreme Court Justices, Chukwudifu Oputa and Kayode Eso.

Also speaking: Jeb Bush, Howard Dean, Andrew Card, and Karl Rove!

THISDAY Awards honour those citizens and corporate leaders who personify
integrity, hard work, innovation, sound corporate governance, excellence and corporate
social responsibility.

President Clinton is not being paid for this speech. THISDAY is making significant
contribution to the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) to support its work in
Africa. CHAI works to expand access to high-quality HIV/AIDS care and treatment
in the developing world. Currently, 1.4 million people are benefiting from medicines
purchased under CHAI agreements. "

However, before the event, we were lucky enough to have a chance to show him a hospital in Abuja that his Foundation supports. I met him there:















This one is funny, he put me right in front of himself in the picture:















This one is even funnier, the hospital staff kind of pushed me out of the way, so I popped my head up :)
















Here is how the newspaper described the visit:

"Minister of Health, Professor Babatunde Osotimehin has commended the work of the Clinton Foundation in Nigeria, describing the foundation as a worthy partner in the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country. The minister said this when the proprietor of the Foundation and former United States President, Bill Clinton paid a visit to the Maitama General Hospital, which is one of the sites where the Foundation provides paediatric care for HIV- positive children.

Osotimehin acknowledged the support of the Foundation in the identification and placement of over 22,000 children living with HIV/AIDS on treatment and providing quality care for 45,000 others. He expressed Nigeria’s appreciation to the Clinton Initiative for the donation so far of HIV/AIDS drugs and diagnostic commodities worth over N1.3 billion to the Federal Government of Nigeria through the National ARV Scale Up programme.

Responding, former President Bill Clinton congratulated Osotimehin on his appointment as Nigeria’s Health Minister, describing the decision as that of putting a round peg in a round hole. He expressed how grateful the Foundation is for the successful collaboration with the Federal Government, which has brought quality treatment to thousands of children and is strengthening the healthcare systems. He expressed the hope that the Opt Out Policy can be implemented across all hospitals in Nigeria that admit children. He also expressed his hope that high quality medicine will continue to be available in Nigeria.

The visit at the Hospital saw the former President interacting with children living with HIV/AIDS and their care givers. Even though, the interaction took place in camera due to issues of confidentiality for HIV patients, sources close to the Foundation indicated that he was impressed with the work that the Foundation is doing in Nigeria and he promised to do his best to sustain the work."



Here we are at the Awards that evening. There was a professional photographer there, so better pictures are to follow.

Here is the newspaper article about the awards show:

"Former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, arrived the country yesterday for the 14th THISDAY Awards Festival of Ideas holding in Abuja today.Also already in the country for the awards is the former governor of US State of Florida, Mr. John Ellis “Jeb” Bush.

Former US President Bill Clinton also left the United States for Nigeria last night for the ceremony which is billed to celebrate the best and the brightest of Nigeria and commemorate the longest unbroken democratic rule in the country that is now in its 10th year.

American pop star, Lionel Richie, arrived the country yesterday and is billed to perform at the awards gala. Nigeria's Dare Art Alade will also entertain the guests.

Jeb Bush will join Nigerian governors this morning at an early Breakfast Session entitled “Idea on Governance and Infrastructure” and tackle questions on the challenges facing Nigeria as it moves to consolidate democracy, enthrone sound governance practices and seek the right framework for building infrastructure to ensure and sustain economic growth.

With Bush leading the session, the discussants are ex-Cross River Governor Donald Duke, Governor Gabrial Suswam of Benue State and Governor Bukola Saraki of Kwara State. Others are Chairman, Intekea Corp, US, Bill Mundell, and Liling Chen of the Peoples Bank of China.

Jeb, who was born February 11, 1953, was the 43rd Governor of Florida. He is a prominent member of the Bush family: the younger brother of current President Bush; the older brother of Neil Bush, Marvin Bush and Dorothy Bush Koch; and the second son of former President George H. W. Bush.A star-studded international team will discuss the implications of the Barack Obama Presidency for Africa at the second session.

The team will lead discussions in Session II entitled “Obama is President: What Next for the World and So What for Africa ?”Members of the team are Howard Dean, the chairman of the US Democratic Party which produced Obama; Donna Brazile, Democratic Strategist and former Campaign Manager of ex-Vice President Al Gore; Card, former White House Chief of Staff; and Karl Rove, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Adviser to President George W. Bush.The session will be moderated by Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, Nigeria’s former Minister of External Affairs.

Entertainment correspondent for CNN’s flagship morning news programme, Lola Ogunnaike and senior strategist for the Democratic Party in the United States of America, Paul Begala, have been confirmed as hosts of the 14th edition of the Awards holding.

Ogunnaike who is based in New York will partner Bagala who was formerly co-host of Crossfire, CNN’s political debate programme to receive guests from across the world who will gather to witness the recognition of Nigerians and institutions with the most impact in year 2008.

She joined CNN in May 2007 and reports on pop culture and entertainment news as part of the network’s American Morning's daily news coverage. Ogunnaike has been covering entertainment news since 1999. Prior to joining CNN, she was the top culture reporter for The New York Times and spearheaded its entertainment coverage, writing profiles of celebrities like Jennifer Lopez, Oprah Winfrey and Sting for the paper's "Arts and Leisure" section.

Begala first entered the national political scene after the consulting firm he and fellow Democratic strategist, James Carville started, Carville & Begala, helped President Bill Clinton get elected in 1992. Serving in the Clinton administration as counsellor to the president, he was a close adviser to Clinton and helped define and defend the administration's agenda. He served the extremely successful American president as a principal public spokesman."

There is actually a great group shot of the whole CHAI Nigeria staff in the newspaper today. I will try to find a way to show you that pic.

It was pretty fun and inspired the staff. He also made an excellent speech about the importance and power of NGOs in an interdependent and globalized world. It was also really cool that he had a Q&A session afterwards. Hope you like the pics.

BOTSWANA 2008!

Hello All! Happy New Year!

This post is going to be all about my trip to Botswana over the holidays. Work this week is especially hectic due to a visit next week by WJC himself. I will write about that one soon.

Anyways, so I flew from Abuja to Lagos and then to Joberg. I have a friend there and I stayed with him a couple days before I went to Botswana. We just went to some bars and one day we went to see a movie with his children who I had never met. There are not any pictures of this, sorry.

Then I flew from Joberg to Maun. I could not fly directly to Kasane so I stayed in a little guest house in Maun, check it out, my room was like one of those little rodevel huts.
















From Maun, I took a bus to Nata. In Nata, I hitched a ride to Kasane. It was so cool because from there onward there were elephants crossing and walking along the road.















I spent Christmas in Kasane with a friend I met in Nigeria. He married a Motswana girl and they built a house in Kasane right on the Chobe River. He just had his second child so I got to see his sons also. Check out the view from his house:















See the across the river? That is in Namibia. Kasane is right at the border of Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.















Look, there are hippos in the river that come out and walk around. This fence was no match.
















Look at this sunset. The sky is so big here and there is little light polution so you can see so may starts.

The best photos of the trip are not yet here, I let my friend take them since he had the better camera. When I was in Kasane, I did a small day trip to Victoria Falls. This was amazing. Hopefully, I will be posting the photos soon.

While in Kasane, I went on a boat cruise and saw tons more elephants, hippos, and buffulo.















Look at how strange this is. Why is that hippo chillin with the elephant? Don't see stuff like that too often.
















This is a small island between Namibia and Botswana. I guess they were disputing ownership last year, and Botswana won. They put a flag to rub it in.

I also visited a croc farm. That was pretty cool, look at these guys:















This one looks like some kind of monster with all that moss on him. He really wanted to eat me.















Look at the size of this one! He is like a dinosaur or something.

From Kasane, I took a bus like 1,300 km to Gaborone, the capital. The next day I drove with a friend there to his familiy reunion in Molepolole. We ate a bunch of beef and drank some beers there.

In the middle, I slipped out and went to my old village, Letlhakeng, since it was close. I saw my old friend Same and her family there. Here is her in a Nigerian dress I got her.




















Here is the rest of her family. They fed me and kept an eye on me a lot when I stayed there almost 2 years ago.

















Some of you may remember I had a dog when I stayed there. Unfortunately, it got ran over by a car. But before she died, she had puppies. Same's mom kept one of the puppies and now that one had puppies. So here are my one of my dog's children and grandchildren. I hope they are ok, I think the father may be the dog's brother (gross!)

















So then I returned to Molepolole, and then spent the rest of my time in Gaborone. I spent new years eve with some old peace corps friends that are still there and some of the newer peace corps. I met the volunteers in my village. I guess I am still remembered there as they call them all by my name. Or maybe they just think all white people look the same :)

I visited my old language teachers and some other people from my village who had since moved to the capital. I hung out by the pool and ate beef and stuff like that. I went shopping got some batswana crafts. I also went to their natural history museum. Here a pic of me there with one of my friends. She obviously likes posing.

Then I had a long ride back. I took a bus from Gaborone to Joberg. Then I fly the next morning from Joberg to Lagos. Then had to wait several hours to get a fly from Lagos to Abuja. I am not much of picture taker, but I think this gives you a good idea of the trip (minus Victoria Falls).

I do expect to to more traveling with work this year, but do not expect any postings as interesting as this one for a while!

Hope you liked it, I had so much fun!