02 December 2018

George Bush bought a giraffe, so I did too

All the retrospectives about and tributes to former U.S. president George H.W. Bush (Bush-père, as he is sometimes called in French) has brought back good memories for me. After several years of living and working in Paris in the late 1970s and '80s, I had moved back to the U.S. in 1982 and settled myself in Washington DC to start a new career. I ended up — long story — working with my friend CHM as a translator/editor at the U.S. Information Agency for a couple of years, and then in 1984 I moved over to the Africa Press Service in the same agency as a writer, editor, and reporter.

In 1985, my boss asked me to accompany the U.S. vice-president —George Bush at the time — on a trip to Africa as a member of the press pool that would travel with him. I was thrilled, of course. I'd never been to Africa, although I had been working in African affairs for a few years, and three of the countries where Bush and his retinue would be spending time were French-speaking. For me, it was a great opportunity.

 We flew on Air Force 2, which is what the U.S. president's airplane, Air Force 1, is called when the vice-president is using it for official travel. George and Barbara Bush were both on the trip, and the vice-president briefed reporters on the flight from the U.S. to Africa and several other times over the 10 days we traveled together. Bush's purpose for going to Africa was to support U.S. relief efforts there during a major drought crisis, consulting with local leaders and touring development projects and famine-relief camps. Here's a photo Bush's office sent me after we got back to the U.S.

That's me (at age 36) in the middle seat of the row of reporters with George Bush on Air Force 2.
The others were reporters for the Associated Press, the Voice of America, the Houston Chronicle, and Time Magazine.

It was all very official, and I can't claim that I got to spend a lot of time with VP and Mrs. Bush. However, on a Saturday mid-trip we were in Niamey, the capital of the sub-Saharan country of Niger, and one of the main events of the day was a guided tour of the city's zoological park. I was wandering around, just observing, because as a government employee I didn't have to file a report that day — our agency was closed on weekends. At the zoo, I stepped into the facility's gift shop to have a look around. I was the only person in the shop besides a couple of employees. Everybody else was out in the park trying to catch a glimpse of the Bushes, I guess.



Suddenly, the Bushes walked into the shop, and security people sealed the entrance. I couldn't leave and nobody else could enter. George and Barbara didn't speak French — or much French — as far as I know, so I served as the interpreter between them and the shop employees. We each had a cold Pepsi, right out of the bottles. The three of us looked around in the shop for a few minutes, making small talk and oohing-and-aahing over items we liked and wished we could take back to the U.S. as gifts for friends. I guess I told them I worked for USIA, but I don't really remember if that came up. They just seemed to accept my presence and assistance, or maybe they took such service for granted.

Finally, VP Bush decided to buy a giraffe! Not a live one, of course, but a brass giraffe that was at least three feet tall. He could of course take something like that back to the U.S. with him. I certainly couldn't. But not one to miss an opportunity, I spotted a miniature version of the same giraffe and decided that it should be one of my souvenirs of the trip and the experience. I still have it, and I just took a photo of it for this post.

31 comments:

  1. What a delightful story! I'm so glad you decided to share it. I've never pictured you traveling to AFrica with vice-presidents and buying a brass giraffe. A great photograph of you!

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  2. jolis souvenirs... merci à vous de partager...

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  3. There were a lot of other interesting things about that trip. I guess I should write them down before i forget them all.

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    1. And share more with us! This was just fascinating for me to see! In fact, I am going to share it with my students, as an example of how learning another language can give you all kinds of opportunities you never imagined you could have. Wonderful!

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    2. I second the idea of writing them down while you are remembering them now, Ken ;) Thanks for sharing this one! What an adventure.

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    3. Exactly, Judi - I am going to repeat the story tomorrow in french class and push studying french!
      What other exciting things have you got to share, Ken? And...that is a very nice photo of you!


      Mary in Oregon

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  4. What a great reminiscence!

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  5. A life filled with great adventures, is a life well lived.

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  6. How nice of you to share that. Great story. I always liked him!

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  7. love that story and also the giraffe

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  8. Even though I didn't participate in this trip, this brings back so many good memories of the life at the Agency. As a matter of fact, it is the first time I hear about the giraffe story. Looking forward to hear more about that trip; with your writing talent it will be quite an epic story.

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  9. Thanks for telling us this story. The signed photo is a wonderful keepsake and the giraffe also. Someone in the Bush family may have that larger giraffe. I remember visiting DC with my family in the 80s and seeing GHW Bush presiding over the Senate. He was a good man.

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  10. This story makes a nice start for the day.
    Thanks so much!

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  11. Please write down and share your recollections. History customarily focuses the memories of the great and that is not what the past, which includes everyone, is about. Roderick

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  12. Great story Ken and you look so handsome in the photo on the plane. I feel like the man on the far right was a well known reporter, but I can't think of his name.

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  14. Quelle superbe histoire ! Je suis si heureuse et si fière de vous avoir, Walt et toi, dans ma vie ! Quels amis formidables vous êtes ! Et quels merveilleux moments nous avons vécus ensemble dont ceux partagés avec vous, Evelyn et Lewis, en France ou aux USA !!!

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  15. That's a great story, and what a spectacular experience.
    Going the other way, there's a State Department program that brings rising leaders of Francophone countries to the US and tours them around; a friend has worked as a translator for it for years. Yay for cross-cultural understandings.

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  16. Thank you sharing this special story.
    It is so very interesting.

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  17. Great story Ken...first that you were invited on the trip and then to be able to help out in the gift shop... wow, splendid.!

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  18. Great story, and I love the photo!
    I went to Africa in 1985 with the Peace Corps. It was the height of the famine. Changed my life.
    Do tell more stories!

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    1. Who was the director of the Peace Corps in 1985? She was on the plane with me, but I can't remember her name.

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    2. I think I found the name: Lorette Miller Ruppe, from Wisconsin but her husband was a congressman from Michigan.

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  19. I remember the story. What a nice experience. Thanks for posting the giraffe. It is very nice. It looks three feet tall in this photo.

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    1. It might be 15 inches tall. I wonder how I managed to get it back, undamaged, to the U.S. Especially since the last stop on that trip was Geneva in Switzerland, and I had time to go to a supermarket there. I filled a huge bag with treats and lugged it all back with me. Since we were part of an official delegation, we didn't have to go through U.S. customs to get back into the country.

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