DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (CNN) -- President Bush gave Tanzania's president, who played basketball as a youth, a pair of Shaquille O'Neal's shoes Sunday, along with millions of dollars to help combat disease and poverty in the east African country.President Jakaya Kikwete, next to President Bush, looks on as Bush greets a boy at a Tanzanian hospital Sunday. The gift of the American basketball icon's size-23 hightops spoke to the lighter side of Bush's visit.
President Jakaya Kikwete presented gifts, too -- a stuffed leopard and lion, a Zebra skin and a wood carving for the American president who was enthusiastically welcomed on the second stop of his five-nation African tour.
The Tanzanian president later artfully dodged a reporter's question on the potential that the U.S. might elect a black president, Sen. Barack Obama, whose father is Kenyan. Kikwete looked at Bush before demonstrating his political deftness, saying, "Let him be as good a friend of Africa as President Bush has been."
But there was plenty of serious business to tend to as well, namely the signing of a compact under which the U.S. is to provide a $698 million grant to Tanzania. This was one of many U.S. funding compacts intended to help African governments buy mosquito netting and insecticide to prevent the spread of malaria..unfortunately the Bush adminsitration still isn't entirely sure where Africa is.
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