The Allisons

For those of you that don't know, Mike has been in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania in Africa for the past two weeks. If you have been keeping up with your current events, you know that President Bush was touring several countries in Africa last week. Mike was at the airport in the capital of Tanzania, Dar Es Salaam to support the President by setting up equipment that enabled the Secret Service to provide air surveillance. Of course most of the time he was there was dedicated to the mission, but he was able to go into town one day to do some shopping. He brought us some great presents, but first, I'll do my best to explain the pictures. These pictures were actually taken by some of Mike's friends, so Mike is only in one of them. Mike is the 4th person down in the top right picture. It was taken on the C17 that they flew down there on. The top left is a picture of a couple of kids outside a shack. Under that is a picture of some street sweepers. Mike said the streets were incredibly dusty and these old ladies would be out there in the middle of traffic sweeping the streets. On the right is man in a red, tribal robe. Mike said (and he learned this from the drivers that drove him to work every day) that these men were members of a certain tribe that entered manhood by killing a lion with their bare hands. Mike said they usually carried a staff/spear or a very heavy wooden club. There is a picture of a lumber yard, in which the workers where bare foot and wore no gloves. Ouch! Mike said most ladies carried things on their head. There is one picture of a lady who looks particularly heavy burdened. Mike got to see Air Force One and the deversion plane land, and eventually, he was President Bush come out and get into his car. You can see from the huge billboard that the people of Tanzania were very excited about Bush's visit. All Mike's drivers said they loved Bush. There is another picture of a man pulling a cart loaded down with stuff. Mike said that there were people selling bananas at intersections. If you bought one, they just reached up to the basket on their heads and picked one off the cluster.

The last picture are of the presents Mike brought me. The first is a hand carved wooden box. It has 2 elephants on the top and a rhino on the front. The second is a plate with a elephant, rhino, and zebra. Then below, Ezra is wearing one of the two shirts that Daddy brought him. This one says American Embassy Dar Es Salaam. You can tell he was really happy to see Daddy!

I almost forgot the best part. Mike had a layover in Crete, Greece. He did spend the night, but he was only there for about 16 hours. They got to eat dinner in town and do some very brief but memorable sightseeing. He said it was BEAUTIFUL. I've been wanting to go to Greece for quite a while, but now he's saying, "We HAVE to go!"