First Lady Michelle Obama in South Africa, including push-ups withTutu, visit with Mandela (IMAGES)

[jefferson_dem]

U.S. first lady Michelle Obama (R) does push-ups with Archbishop Desmond Tutu (C) as they participate in youth activities raising awareness for HIV prevention, at Cape Town Stadium in Cape Town, South Africa, June 23, 2011.


U.S. first lady Michelle Obama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu (C) talk with South African soccer player Matthew Booth as they participate in youth activities raising awareness for HIV prevention, at Cape Town Stadium in Cape Town, South Africa, June 23, 2011.


First lady Michelle Obama meets with Archbishop Desmond Tutu at Cape Town Stadium in Cape Town, South Africa, Thursday, June 23, 2011.


U.S. first lady Michelle Obama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu (back to camera) kick around soccer balls as they participate in youth activities raising awareness for HIV prevention at Cape Town Stadium in Cape Town, South Africa, June 23, 2011.


U.S. first lady Michelle Obama listens to former political prisoner on Robben Island and anti-apartheid figure Ahmed Kathrada (L) as she visits the District Six museum in Cape Town June 23, 2011. Founded in 1867 as a mixed community of freed slaves, merchants, and immigrants, the apartheid government in 1965 declared it "white" and forcibly removed 60,000 residents and bulldozed their homes. Also pictured are (3rd L-R) Michelle Obama's mother Marian Robinson, daughters Sasha and Malia, niece Leslie Robinson and nephew Avery Robinson.


U.S. first lady Michelle Obama stands with former Managing Director of the World Bank Mamphela Ramphele (5th R) and high school students after answering students' questions at the University of Cape Town in Cape Town June 23, 2011.


First lady Michelle Obama reacts to a student's question at the University of Cape Town in Cape Town, South Africa, Thursday, June 23, 2011.


First lady Michelle Obama hugs a high school student after answering their questions at the University of Cape Town in Cape Town, South Africa, Thursday, June 23, 2011.


First Lady Michelle Obama arrives with Nelson Mandela's wife, Graca Machel, in Soweto, South Africa. Speaking at Regina Mundi church, once a haven for activists fighting white-minority rule, Obama invoked the memory of leaders of the American civil-rights movement and South Africa's liberation struggle to encourage young leaders.


Children from nearby daycare, holding placards, wait for U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama for a wreath-laying ceremony at the Hector Pieterson Memorial in Soweto. Pieterson became a symbol of the apartheid struggle in South Africa when he was killed by police during the 1976 student uprising in Soweto.


Michelle Obama and daughters Sasha, center, and Malia take turns reading to children from "The Cat in the Hat" during a visit to a community center in Zandspruit Township, Johannesburg, South Africa.


Michelle Obama, Sasha, left, and Malia march with children at Johannesburg's Emthonjeni Community Center.


Nelson Mandela and Michelle Obama visit at his home in Houghton, South Africa. The first lady, her daughters and her mother, will be traveling in Africa through Saturday.

[jaxx]

1. Looks like a very productive visit.

Thanks for the great pics!!

K&R

[CakeGrrl]

2. Wow, Archbishop Tutu hangin' in there. Good for him!

[Wait Wut]

4. My thoughts, too.

Just glad she didn't give him a heart attack. May have been some backlash on her husband.

[Cali_Democrat]

3. Malia really looks like her dad and Sasha really looks like her mom

Sasha and Malia don't even look like they're related.

[Cracklin Charlie]

14. Malia looks like her Dad's Mom

[ClarkUSA]

5. As our First Lady, Michelle Obama is an unparalleled global inspiration for so many.

She, like her husband, is the living embodiment of the American Dream.

The prickly ambivalence that South Africans often show toward the United States, which is often perceived here as an overbearing superpower, seems to have been suspended for Mrs. Obama... Donald Gips, the American ambassador, who has cultivated friendships with a wide range of South Africans, said he believed that Mrs. Obama’s visit would contribute to a further warming of relations between the United States and Africa’s leading democracy.

“When I talk to people in government, business and civil society, there’s an incredible love for President Obama and the first lady,” he said. “This trip has solidified that.”

<snip>

“People are fascinated by the fact that we have a black woman first lady,” said Jay Naidoo, a cabinet member in Mr. Mandela’s first government who became a businessman and is now a philanthropist. “There’s a fascination that a black couple is in the White House. It’s unbelievable.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/world/africa/23michelle.html?ref=world

[monmouth]

6. Beautiful photos and I really, really want that jacket. Mrs. O always

looks so great..

[GoCubsGo]

7. She did those push-ups on her toes.

No girl's push-ups from the knees. I'm impressed. I have never been able to do the "boy's" push-ups.

[Tarheel_Dem]

8. Thanks JD. Excellent pics. What an education for the girls. (nt)

[jefferson_dem]

9. A couple video clips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yuv3w-RYRU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEXkRl0k_rw

[ensho]

10. kick

nt

[bigwillq]

11. Great pics.

K and R

[Number23]

12. kick!

[blueclown]

13. Wow.

Malia is tall. Almost as tall as her mother.

[politicasista]

15. Kick

:kick: for nice pics.


And a week from Monday, Malia will officially be a teenager. Time flies!

[CBHagman]

17. Poor Mr. and Mrs. O.

Ah, the teenage years...:crazy:

[calimary]

16. Damn! Can't believe how tall Malia has gotten!

I'm too used to thinking of them as little girls. No more. Sigh...

[juajen]

18. I can't believe how much I like her now. She has really grown on me, as we say down South.

I am sick of republicans accusing her of being a dilettante, who vacations all the time and spends too much money. Perhaps their unfair picking on her will backfire on them. She is a charming First Lady.