Clinton On Safari: March 29

President Clinton closed out his historic visit to South Africa at a Catholic church in the heart of Soweto. During the apartheid years, the church was a rallying point for black South Africans fighting for freedom.

"I came to South Africa, first, to thank God you have your freedom now, to thank God for the life and work of the President Mandela, and to so many others who walked the long road for so many years," the president told a cheering crowd.

Mr. Clinton said Sunday that the challenge for the new South Africa is to make the most of that freedom.

"It is one thing to be free and another thing to do the the right thing with your freedom," he said.

From South Africa, Africa's newest democracy, Mr. Clinton went to neighboring Botswana, Africa's oldest democracy.

Botswana boasts a vibrant economy and the longest average lifespan in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Clintons found a chance to finally relax when they headed five hundred miles north over the Kalahari desert to Botswana's Chobe National Park. The park is an area of African wilderness teeming with huge herds of elephants, hundreds of species of bird life, lions and grazers like the kudu, impala, and Cape buffalo.

But even on the president's day off, he focused on one of the themes of his trip—stewardship of the environment. Mr. Clinton will no doubt refer to this experience on Tuesday when he talks about conserving the environment, an issue calculated to have wide appeal in the United States.

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