Oh, we are excited. More than excited. So excited that we got up at 3 a.m. to watch CNN and bite our fingernails until it was clear that our guy - almost-president Obama - would make it! At about 4, we went over to our friends Torkin and Charles's apartment where several other mzungu ex-pats gathered with champagne at the ready. There was a dog, a baby, and lots of sleepy-eyed, but charged-up mzungus. Bill and I were ready for anything; we remember other elections with bottles of champagne that stayed corked ...Thank the lord for CNN! Our Internet was down and CNN was our lifeline, holograms and all. Earlier in the night the power kept going off and we panicked a bit. But all went well: When Virginia went for Obama, Bill screamed and uncorked that bottle: He remembers a "coloreds" section in the local theatre not that long ago (okay, so we are old, it is a little long ago, but still!). And then when CNN projected Obama the winner, we went wild! Screamed, cried ... I mean, now we can stop pretending to be Canadians!
The Luganda version of New Vision today had a huge headline and even bigger picture of Obama. The headline says, "Ninze ntebe" or "I'm waiting for the chair."
This is one of those moments where years from now people will ask, "Where were you when Obama was elected?" And we will remember our friends, and the robin chat singing out the window in the big tree in Kampala during Obama's spectacular speech. And our tears as we breathed, "At last."
3 comments:
Hi Bill, This is just great. I so wish I were there -- or even in a newsroom here on this Election night. Interestingly Algeria is a "red" state, according to the Economist. Its people leaned toward McCain. I'm not sure why but suspect it had to do with being tough on terrorists. Hope you are both thriving and having fun! Rosemary
THANKS for the dispatch. Sounds like fun. It truly is a highlight of our lives. Our neighborhood gathered and there was a lot of champagne and a lot of crying and my kids were texting me every few minutes.
Now I wake up in the morning and wonder if it really happened and if it's still true -- and so far, so good!
The Prop 8 deal in Calif. is a dark spot -- I think leaving the rights of minorities up to a popular vote is a really bad idea. But now that we'll have real leadership, hopefully the whole tone will change.
Take care! Love, Becky
Hi Bill, it was a global celebration, or at least I thought so until Wednesday.
That morning I happened to be on the phone with a Dell call center located north of Manila. The operator was a friendly guy and asked me who I voted for. I told him and then asked him who he would have voted for if he lived in the U.S. He said McCain, of course. I asked why, and he said that he had heard Obama say that, as president, he would work to stop the outsourcing of American jobs. The rep then told me that such a policy would be a horrible disaster for his entire family and country!
Glad you're well. All of us here at The Seattle Times miss you.
Mark
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