Ategelua Barack Obama

("I voted for Barack Obama" in Kimaasai)

When I'm traveling, I usually don't tell people where I'm from unless I'm asked. But in Kenya, I'm VERY proud to be an American. (I don't think I've ever told so many people who I've voted for!) In case you didn't know, President Obama's father is Kenyan, from the Luo tribe in Kisumu. Everyone in Kenya LOVES Obama. When I was here in 2006, Obama was here, too, visiting the country for the first time. Even then, Maasai men living in cow-dung huts were asking me about him and wondering if I would vote for him. I didn't know much about him at the time, but I said I'd vote for him, and I kept my word.

So now when I tell Kenyans that I'm from the States, they almost always make some coment about our President. When I was in Kisii, I attended an HIV/AIDS seminar for high school students. I was asked to introduce myself, so I told them my name and my nationality and said that I voted for Obama. I got a very warm response from the crowd. (Many fo the studnets wanted their picture taken with me, and that might have been part of the reason.)

I've beent old that the entire country stayed up to hear the elction results (they're 8 hours ahead of EST) and that the government declared the following day a national holiday. No joke. And I've been in several rural huts with Barack Obama posters and calendars on their walls. He's a rock star.