<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Check back all week for blog posts and photos from WD editor-in-chief Jane Chesnutt. She&amp;#039;ll cover First Lady Laura Bush&amp;#039;s trip to Africa, promoting anti-malaria and AIDS efforts as well as clean water and education. In the parlance of the seasoned White House travelers I was with, at the end of the trip, I &amp;quot;dropped&amp;quot; in Kennebunkport, Maine, when Mrs. Bush got off there, she to host Russian President Vladimir Putin during his meeting with her husband, me simply because it was easier to get from there to where I spend my weekends in Connecticut than from Andrews Air Force Base, the last stop. Protocol is that Mrs. Bush and her staff debark from the front stairs, Secret Service and press from the rear. But I was told that the back door wouldn&amp;#039;t be opened, so I should go up front. I assumed Mrs. Bush had already left, and was chatting with her staff in the front cabin when suddenly there she was, coming out of the stateroom reserved for her and calling out goodbye. She saw me, and she was just so gracious, asking warmly how I&amp;#039;d enjoyed the trip, curious about whether I had a connection to Kennebunkport. (The airfield is just a runway, with not even a terminal; it&amp;#039;s not like you can catch a connecting flight there.) She is charming, and she is someone who seems genuinely interested in people. I was also truly amazed by how well she looked. This last day had been grueling: two long flights, with a frenzied four-hour stop in Mali in between, and by this time we&amp;#039;d all been up for almost 24 hours. Not to hurt anyone&amp;#039;s feelings, but we were a pretty sad-looking bunch. Mrs. Bush looked like she could get off that plane to meet still another welcoming party. It wasn&amp;#039;t makeup either. (The freshening up I&amp;#039;d attempted pre-landing had had almost zero effect.) It&amp;#039;s in the eyes, and hers still had the twinkle I&amp;#039;d seen throughout her African odyssey. Amazing. My admiration is all the more because, as the editor of a major magazine, I occasionally have to host events, which gives me a glimmer of personal understanding of what&amp;#039;s involved. For example, every year Woman&amp;#039;s Day holds our Red Dress Awards party, at which we honor those who make significant contributions to the fight against heart disease in women. This year, we honored Mrs. Bush, who&amp;#039;s the spokesperson for the government&amp;#039;s The Heart Truth campaign, so it was a major event, with a lot of advance work, press, etc. Still, it was only one two-hour party. And when I got home, I was so exhausted it took all my energy just to nuke a Lean Cuisine. In four days in four countries, Mrs. Bush attended\u2014and was the star of\u201421 events by my count, many of them with several parts. She started early in the morning, usually with a meet-and-greet for American Embassy staff and their families (these were closed to the press but were held at our hotels a couple of times, and it was charming to see everyone dressed up in what used to be called Sunday best). Our last night, in Zambia, the First Lady was guest of honor at a formal dinner, looking smashing, I was told by the CBS camera crew on the trip, in her evening attire. They had covered the top of the event, and when they came into the hotel restaurant at 8:30, they said, &amp;quot;They haven&amp;#039;t even started eating yet. They&amp;#039;re still on the toasts.&amp;quot; It would be another long evening for her. In between, she greeted presidents and first ladies, gave out scholarships, visited schools and AIDS clinics, religious institutions, hospitals and a garden. She made news, announcing $507 million in aid. She participated in several round-table discussions (a favorite format of hers), hearing upbeat accounts of women&amp;#039;s empowerment but also tragic ones of rape, and of being orphaned or infected with AIDS. She helped spray a house for malaria, and gave out mosquito nets to protect children and pregnant women from what is Africa&amp;#039;s leading cause of death. She also sat for several interviews (you may have seen her on one of the morning shows). And, of course, she had to be kept abreast of the news. I was clueless all week about what was going on in the world, but it wouldn&amp;#039;t do for the First Lady of the United States to say, &amp;quot;Gee, Tony Blair left office? I hadn&amp;#039;t heard.&amp;quot; She was pitch-perfect throughout, which is impressive enough, but there&amp;#039;s another thing: She chose to follow this crazy schedule. I mean, she&amp;#039;s the boss, so she could have opted for fewer events, fewer countries, downtime here and there. But she&amp;#039;s got an agenda she believes in\u2014actually, several of them, I think\u2014and so she&amp;#039;s willing to push herself. For one thing, there are the issues themselves\u2014on this trip, education, clean water, malaria, AIDS prevention and treatment, women&amp;#039;s empowerment\u2014all connected with helping people get out of unrelenting poverty. Like her husband, Mrs. Bush is clearly a believer in the power of faith-based organizations to make a difference in people&amp;#039;s lives, and she put a strong spotlight on such efforts last week. The First Lady is also very proud of President Bush&amp;#039;s African programs\u2014notably the African Education Initiative, the President&amp;#039;s Malaria Initiative and PEPFAR (on AIDS)\u2014as well as the total amount of aid that our country gives, far more than any other nation in the world. She wants not only the rest of the world to know what America does, I&amp;#039;m told, but us as well, and to take pride in it. I have no inside knowledge but also little doubt that Mrs. Bush will continue her humanitarian work after her husband leaves office. Still, she must have a sense of urgency, with less than two years left in his administration, and I think that showed in the pace of her trip. Tomorrow, I&amp;#039;ll do one last blog, on the fun stuff about being with the press pool on a White House trip. Let me leave you now, though, with one last serious thought. Yesterday morning, after I got back, I was brushing my teeth and suddenly stopped as I started to rinse with tap water. In five days, I&amp;#039;d been schooled not to let a drop of anything other than bottled water pass my lips, even in the nice hotels we stayed at. You truly risk getting ill, and, in fact, two people on the plane were reported to have come down with diarrhea, whether from the water or food. But even bottled water isn&amp;#039;t an option for millions of people. I know it&amp;#039;s a clich\u00A9, and again I apologize for using one, but we truly don&amp;#039;t understand how good we&amp;#039;ve got it. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/life/a40662/back-in-the-usa-6633/?src=shelter_footer>