N'DJAMENA, Chad -- Sen. Barack Obama departed this capital city Sunday morning on an Army military aircraft to Frankfort, Germany, to catch a commercial flight back to the United States.

MILE REFUGEE CAMP, Chad -- Janjaweed militias destroyed his house, killed his animals, took his food, closed his business and pushed him out of the Darfur region in Sudan where he lived. For the last three years, Tahir -- he did not offer his last name -- displaced from Darfur, has called home this refugee camp in an isolated section of Chad.

MASAI MARA, Kenya -- "Nice fresh kill," said Sen. Barack Obama to his family, mesmerized, as were a string of other people on safari, at the remarkable sight of a lion eating a wildebeest.

• Photos: The Masai Mara National Reserve

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Sen. Barack Obama delivered a lecture on Monday against graft and patronage hiring, ethnic-bloc voting that does not yield the best and brightest government leaders, and political families who hoard the spoils of power.

NAIROBI, Kenya -- The streets of Kibera, one of the worst slums in the world, are packed as thousands of people are running Sunday afternoon in a dangerous stampede after Sen. Barack Obama's almost 20-car motorcade.

• Photos: Wangari Maathai and Nairobi street scenes

NAIROBI, Kenya -- The African journeys of Sen. Barack Obama are paid for by U.S. taxpayers who foot the bills for hotels, food, ground transportation, commercial plane rides, military aircraft put at his disposal and Navy escorts who accompany him wherever he goes.

N'YONGOMA-KOGELO, Kenya -- It's late Saturday afternoon, and Barack Obama is standing with his grandmother in front of her house, on the Obama homestead, just yards away from the graves of his father and grandfather.

• Photos: Obama returns to father's province
• Photos: Nairobi's slum district, Kibera
• Photos: Barack Obama in Kibera

Phone rings. Barack Obama, from Africa. As if he's in the next room, as the cliche goes. My skin goes clammy, and I get a sinking in my gut, the way it felt when, as a kid, I'd get in bad trouble. Oh no. ...

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Watch your back in South Africa. They kill folks here. Murder them at a bewildering rate.

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Swamped by thousands of Kenyan fans at the memorial to victims of the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombing here, Barack Obama also pressured the Kenyan government Friday to refund what he said was shakedown money two Chicago TV crews were forced to pay at the airport to get their equipment out of customs.

• Photos: First full day in Nairobi: Obama sidelights
• Photos: Obama returns to father's province

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Streets leading from the Jomo Kenyatta airport closed Thursday for Barack Obama's motorcade in a visit to his father's homeland, where the Illinois senator is being treated as a head of state.

• Photos: Michelle Obama arrives in Kenya

PRETORIA, South Africa -- Barack Obama flies from here to Kenya today, and dispatches from a Kenyan medical student vividly describe the soaring expectations over the return of the almost native son. "Some think ... it's a great politician who is coming to bail them from their problems," Joseph Lenai told me in an e-mail.

PRETORIA, South Africa -- In this country, Sen. Barack Obama is having trouble getting a meeting with the president. When he gets to Kenya in a few days, his deceased father's homeland, Obama will be treated practically as if he were a head of state. "Now, I just have to remind everyone that I'm not a Kenyan politician,'' Obama said Tuesday.

• Photos: Soweto, South Africa
• Photos: Illinois Africa Trade & Investment Office meeting
• Photos: The signs tell the story: SA fights against HIV/AIDS

CAPE TOWN -- Sen. Barack Obama, in a dramatic gesture aimed at African men who won't confront the dangers of a deadly disease, said he will publicly take an HIV test in the village where his Kenyan father once lived. Also on Monday, he faulted the South African government as being in "denial" for advocating nutritional treatments over modern medical alternatives.

• Photos: More tours of South Africa

It took Nelson Mandela 18 years to travel round trip between the coast of this city and Robben Island, just off the shore. On Sunday, Sen. Barack Obama, after ferry rides of less than 30 minutes each way, saw for himself where the most famous opponent of apartheid was imprisoned.

• 1st up: Mandela's 27-year prison
• Sweet's Blog: Obama to take AIDS test

Very early this morning, Sen. Barack Obama travels from his hotel at the waterfront Table Bay here to take the short journey to Robben Island, where former South African president and international icon Nelson Mandela was locked up for 27 years

• Photos: A tour of Cape Town

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Barack Obama leaves today for a 17-day, six-country African visit, returning to his deceased father's Kenyan home, scrambling to retool the trip at the last minute because of the reluctance of Sudan to grant him a visa.

• Photos: Obama arrives in Africa

SPRINGFIELD, Ill.-- U.S. Sen. Barack Obama hopes the combination of his fame and his family will make his tour of Africa more than just another visit by an American politician.

• Photos: Obama arrives in Africa

WASHINGTON-- When Sen. Barack Obama heads to Africa for a five-nation tour this week, he will take with him a credential no other U.S. senator can claim--and one that may make Africans listen to what he has to say.

• Photos: Obama arrives in Africa