Hillary Clinton sent out her second tweet around 9 a.m. EDT today.
Hillary Clinton @HillaryClinton
What an incredible Twitter welcome! In my hometown Chicago for #CGIAmerica. 11amET I’ll talk about my #BHCCF work http://bit.ly/CGIa13
Last night, folks in her new hometown were following her through Africa on her final tour there as secretary of state. Grace Bennett, of Inside Chappaqua Magazine, accompanied Secretary Clinton on that trip and shared her experience as a member of the travelling press corps with an auditorium full of her neighbors at the Chappaqua Library. Titled “Travelling with Hillary Clinton,” the event drew an audience of well over 100 causing the library parking lot to fill to capacity and overflow to a nearby lot.
Introduced by Chappaqua Library’s Program Coordinator Joan Kuhn, Grace provided some background on how this bit of personal history came about, explaining that she believes in listening to the inner voice that told her to start Inside Chappaqua ten years ago. She said that when she subtitled it The Magazine for New Castle and Beyond, she was thinking of beyond more as White Plains than Africa.
Like many Chappaqua residents, she encountered her senator, who later became our secretary of state, from time to time in town and requested an interview often. Hillary told her that she really did not have time, and Grace said. “Well, you’ll just have to take me along on a trip!” That remark set off a series of events that ultimately put Grace in one of the press seats on Air Mission 757 – Hillary’s Big Blue Bird.
Grace showed about 30 slides of the trip in no particular order explaining the significance of each and identifying the principals. Criss-crossing Africa from Senegal to Somalia and South Africa to Benin, the journey included stops in 10 African countries before the last stop in Istanbul where Hillary attended a meeting on Syria. Grace mentioned that in just about every African country, Hillary was greeted by dancers which she thoroughly enjoyed and sometimes danced along and asked for encores.
She showed photos of dignitaries in dazzling traditional dress. Here, Hillary is with Joyce Banda, first woman president of Malawi where Hillary had a lot of fun at a dairy cooperative and made a gft, via USAID, of a dairy bull named Emanuel.
Here, she is with President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria and other Nigerian officials. Nigeria was added late in the tour while security issues were being addressed. The Nigerians badly wanted her to visit since they knew she would not be returning to the continent as SOS.
Recounting her favorite moment of the trip, Grace recalled a 45 minute “drinks with the secretary” event with press and staff. When a staffer and reporter began debating who had a harder job and life, Grace suggested they trade places as in the movie “The Parent Trap.” Hillary loved the suggestion.
Ending her talk by reading the congratulatory letter Hillary had delivered to Grace’s 10th anniversary party in March, she then took questions from the audience. Yours truly, remembering that, while in South Africa. Hillary was given an African name, “Nimkita,” asked if she knew what it meant. Grace was very happy to answer that since, as a sort of outlier among the more travel-seasoned press, it was the one piece of information she had gotten that none of the others had, so they all had to go to Grace for the information. She said that the full name, correctly, is Namkita Nolegua which is Zulu for “She who shines light on all who follow.” We who follow agree, and especially enjoyed following her last night!
Thank you, Grace, for a terrific presentation!
Archives for the Africa tour begin here.
Sadly there is no text from the full event right? Since you are so good so you would have posted it I guess.
Thank you so much for the informations, I love love behind the sceen stuffs.
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Sorry, there isn’t any or, you’re right, I would have posted it.
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Namkita Nolegua which is Zulu for “She who shines light on all who follow.”
Love it, that’s a great name. It sounds like it was a wonderful event, I’m sorry I missed it.
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Awwww … you sort of needed to be on Facebook to know about it. It was by Facebook invitation.
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wow that gave me goose bumps. soooo true!
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“She who shines light on all who follow.”
What a perfect name!
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Thank you for including highlights from a very special evening for me in your wonderful blog! I especially like that you got the “parenting trap” story in! 🙂
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😀
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Congratulations Grace!! Very nice indeed!!! 🙂
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Re the full text question: The talk was in large part unscripted, but I opened it as what follows here….
Let’s take a moment of silence to contemplate the career of the anti apartheid revolutionary leader President Nelson Mandela and send warm wishes to his family and friends as he recovers…
On Facebook the other day, I mused about the power of the inner voice and how perhaps we should have a National Listen to Your Inner Voice day. Ten years ago when I launched this magazine, I decided to listen to an inner voice and call Inside Chappaqua: The Magazine for New Castle and Beyond. I thought maybe “the beyond” meant I might open the door to reporting from White Plains perhaps too, or maybe New York City? After all, us Chappaquans hardly live in a bubble. Still, I really was NOT thinking Uganda or Senegal or Malawi. And then along came Hillary Clinton…. Here is a woman who empowers millions of girls and women around the globe. How does one not admire her and all she has accomplished? Her stature as a role model to fight abuses of and disenfranchisement of women in every corner has led many, myself included, to stop viewing our contributions in our respective fields as finite or limited but rather as infinite and unlimited.
As many of you know, her new Twitter account’s popularity has exploded with reportedly thousands of new followers every few hours hoping to connect with this “Wife, mom, lawyer, women & kids advocate, FLOAR, FLOTUS, US Senator, SecState, author, dog owner, hair icon, pantsuit aficionado, glass ceiling cracker, TBD …”
Well, like this growing legions of followers, I too tweeted Hillary Clinton last night in fact: “Hope to do your mission to Africa justice at the Chappaqua Library. TBD too”
I really do. This introduction aside, I’ve decided to throw away the script a little. And just tell you the story of how it all happened and highlight the special moments…
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Congratulations, Grace!
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Thank you Jen!
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and P.S. You are welcome, Still! So glad you were able to attend!
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Way to go Grace!!! Welcome to this wonderful blog. Congratulations!
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Have you already seen this?
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This was just published today. Thanks for sharing!
“Too small to fail”
Wow!!! LOVE IT!!
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Thanks, Soph.
This is good news – she seems to have chosen her new specific spot to bloom where she is planted. It will also, hopefully, take some of the evil venom being directed at her away.
How can they visciously attack a philanthropist working for children and infants? I am sure some of them will be delusional enough to do so.
Hooray to Grace. Lucky woman.
And still4hill – you said you were pulling up your Africa archive for something – now we know what. Coincidentally WaPo has a Hillary in Africa slide show right now too…
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Wow! What a coincidence! Well people at the slideshow were interested in how the itinerary was scheduled, and this was a very unusual trip. It was supposed to be 6 countries in 11 days and ended up 11 countries in 13 days. There were so many leaks and rumors. Many countries wanted her to come, and DOS has to clear security issues before adding them. They knew it was her last tour on the continent as SOS and clearly they love our girl!
And yes, the haters will look very bad attacking a wife, mom, and women and kids advocate. Very bad indeed!
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[…] led a delegation of business leaders to this summit. Our friend Grace Bennett of Inside Chappaqua accompanied Hillary’s traveling press on this trip, and Hillary called […]
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[…] Congresswoman Nita Lowey and State Assemblyman David Buchwald both stopped by. Lowey accompanied Hillary on her final official trip to Africa as did Grace Bennett. […]
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