Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Hail to the Chief!

Its Tuesday, and I'm sitting in the FH office here in Kigali listening to helicopters patrol the sky. On the way to work, there was a much heightened presence of military personnel strewn along the streets. President George W. Bush is coming to town today.

A bunch of us Americans here in Kigali are kinda pissed that we won't get to meet him. He won't be here long; he's just cutting the ribbon on the new US Embassy in Kigali, visiting a genocide memorial, and heading out in his Air Force Ones. But the Ambassador could have at least invited us to the Embassy for tea and cookies or something. Part of me wishes I would have camped out at the front door of the embassy, waiting to get a look at him and his wife. But then again, this isn't the premier of Star Wars; its probably one of the most heightened security situations in Rwanda's history, and even though I am from Texas, I just don't have enough vigor to resist or enough smile to charm the secret service today. The best I can hope for is that he makes a detour to the FH office on his way back to the airport.

Either way, here I will be, sitting at my desk, hoping the sound of 'American Pie' can drown out the beating of choppers overhead and reveling in the fact that this is possibly the closest I'll ever be to the president of the United States of America. Who would have thought it'd be halfway around the world in the middle of the poorest continent on earth?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! That's awesome Sam - I hope you get to meet him and take a pic then we can compare our pics =) I hope you are doing well!!!

Shelly

ps - tu beat a&m pretty bad the other night... but tu also beat my beloved baylor too =(

Casey said...

It's funny how you stumble into things on the Internet... The sheer amount of blogs alone are staggering.

Some blogs are mostly mindless drivel--then again, 99% of the WWW is better served to waste our time.

But your blog certainly is not in either category.

A fascinating read from oldest post to newest, it's awesome to read your vivid first-hand accounts of life outside the borders we call home--borders within which we get all too comfortable.

Best wishes from one old classmate to another.

-Casey S.