Since Secretary Clinton's visit there's been very little downtime. Bill did go to Pretoria the week of August 17
for a check up with the South African doctor. He's doing very, very well. All the numbers that were "near death" in
June are now in the "excellent" to "almost perfect" range. So his clean living has paid off! The doctor said his
gall bladder, pancreas & liver are still swollen. The urologist is convinced the pancreatitis was
caused by the damage done to the bile duct when Bill passed a gall stone. He advised that after the swelling goes down
completely (probably another 6 months), Bill may have an occasional glass of wine, but not a cocktail every night and
it would be best if he waits a bit longer than 6 months. Bill also has to stick with a lower fat diet to protect
the gall bladder. Bill is committed to his "clean living."
Since he returned to Kinshasa on 22 August, Bill has been very busy. There is lots of follow up to the Secretary's
visit. The DRC generally has reacted very positively. We've had visits from key State personnel who are helping
look for solutions that will help Congo to get rid of corruption and general violation of women's rights "with impunity."
This week we were visited by an anti-corruption specialist who is connected to Transparancy International. He's met
with a number of civic, business & national government leaders. I'm sure we'll have more visitors in the future.
We are scheduled to depart for Washington, DC on 23 Sept, arriving 24 Sept. Bill has at least 4 conferences he
will attend and at some he also will speak. The main purpose of our trip is the African Chief of Missions conferenece,
hosted each year during the first week in October by the State Department.
We are going to take the opportunity to visit our families in Michigan -- just for a long weekend. Also, I've made
doctors, dentist, eye doctor, and mammogram appointments. I just hope we don't have any surprises this year!
I hope we'll see many of you while in the States.
Until next time...
