Obama Mania in Kenya

As most of you know, I was in Kisumu, Kenya last week. I was lucky enough to see an amazing HIV Clinic in action where my colleague Catherine is working. I got lots of ideas for my work here, and it helped me to know what is possible. This clinic is a definitely a model for HIV treatment in resource limited places. 

I must say, however, that my favorite part of the week in Kenya was seeing dear friends from the states at the end of the week. Darcie and Paul, who are working in rural Kenya for a year arrived on Thursday, and then Becky and Judi from Denver arrived on Friday. We all stayed at the same very nice hotel on Lake Victoria and had a grand time. Sitting and chatting with close friends, catching each other up on our lives, and exploring Kisumu together was just a delight. It was a quick and whirlwind visit, but rich and of high quality!

(I realize some of you reading my blog are not Obama fans. Believe me, I respect your political choices. And I hope you can appreciate the Obama phenomenon that is happening worldwide, especially in Africa, and that you can also appreciate this part of my blog! If not, feel free to skip this one! I love all of you, Obama supporters and not!) Now one of the things about Kenya, particularly this region, is how absolutely thrilled Kenyans are about Barak Obama's candidacy. See the fun poster above for a concert that is dedicated to him. I thought people in Tanzania were crazy for him. But, wao, nothing like Kenya. Because his father has roots in the Kisumu region, and he has relatives there, they truly see him as a son-cousin-brother. They are so proud of him. When Becky and Judi arrived, Becky was wearing an Obama shirt, and they brought us Obama campaign bracelets. My colleague, Catherine, had commissioned one of the local artists to make beaded Obama bracelets, so I had already been wearing one of those all week. Becky's t-shirt and our obvious support for Obama generated many comments from , and many conversations with, Kenyans. So many Kenyans were also wearing Obama shirts, and there were bumper stickers, posters, buttons galore. When we went back to the artist stalls where Catherine had commissioned the bracelets, we learned that these bracelets had taken off! At least 2 other artists had made their version of the bracelet. Some with American flags and Kenyan flags on them! 

My take on the Obama Mania here in Africa (besides the recent roots that he has here), is that Africans know that US politics and who is in power in the US affects the whole globe (PEPFAR and George W. is one example!). And they hope that having someone like Barak Obama in power will affect their lives in a positive way. I also have yet to meet a Tanzanian who supports how the US is managing things in Iraq and Afghanistan. The war almost always comes up when talking about Obama (and I'm not the one who brings it up). I am continually amazed at how knowledgeable many people here are about US politics. One thing that I hear repeatedly is that they would be really surprised if white people would vote for a black man, which makes me very sad. I tell them that many white people support, and will vote for, Mr. Obama. It is difficult for me to be so far away from such a big election season, but when I am here in Moshi, I do have TV that has CNN, BBC, and (gasp!) Al Jazeera, so I am catching a lot of the madness of it all (pigs and pit bulls wearing lipstick????). Go Obama Go!!!!!