So my stay in Tanzania is coming to a close pretty soon, but the longer I stay here the more rewarding this trip becomes. I’ve spent the last few days at the Leon H. Sullivan Summit VIII, "The Summit of a Lifetime,"
and it certainly lives up to its name. “The Summit of a Lifetime”
– that’s almost an understatement. Looking around at what basically is a Who’s Who list of influential people worldwide, it’s humbling to know that we are all here for the same cause – and that is to focus attention and resources on Africa’s economic and social development.
The summit afforded me the opportunity to meet with several members of the Tanzania Basketball Federation. They made a nine-hour road trip just to meet me, so I felt very honored, and I was happy to provide them with some basketball shoes. Among those I met was UConn center Hasheem Thabeet,, and I have a feeling I’ll be seeing him in the NBA in the next few years. He was the Big East Conference Defensive Player of the Year this past season and at 7-foot-3, I’m pretty sure he would garner the interest of just about every NBA team.
After meeting with the basketball players, I ran into more members of the Maasai tribe. Just like the other day, they were extremely friendly and very gracious. In fact, they even brought me a tribal gift and posed for a few pictures with me.
After that, I was on a panel for a special forum that focused on the role of youth in Africa’s future. There were a few hundred kids between the ages of 15 and 24 in attendance, and joining me on the panel were Frank Ski, an Atlanta morning radio show host, and CNN’s TJ Holmes. We answered various questions for the youth and allowed them to speak about various things they wanted to address. Our objective was to give these children hope and motivate them to keep going and believing in their dreams. I found it interesting that there were so many teens that wanted to be doctors. It seemed like the profession to be.
Luckily for me, there was no language barrier. The kids here learn both English and Swahili in school, so we had no trouble understanding one another. The forum may have lasted three and half hours, but I swear the time absolutely flew by.
Following the forum we went out to dinner. The food here has been pretty good. They cook with a lot chicken and a lot of rice, which is fine by me. They also have a lot of soups that are very tasty, but I must say the banana soup was the best! As far as beverages go, Coke is everywhere, and all sodas are served in a glass bottle.
We had dinner at a great restaurant called Pepe’s tonight. The restaurant made great wood oven pizzas. The pizza was a little bit different than ours in the U.S., but I have to say we loved it.
