US Elections in Namibia

We stayed up most of the night last night to watch the election results from our African vantage point. There has been a huge amount of interest in the United States election since we have arrived here in January. By far, the question I have been asked most often since I've been here was what I thought about the elections, particularly about Barack Obama, but also about Hilary Clinton and Sarah Palin. The amount of details that people know about American politics is amazing. We were at a party last week, and one of our Zimbabwean friends said, “We must not forget about the Truman/Dewey election in 1948”. I thought that was so funny, as most people my age in the United States would not know what he was talking about, but other Africans at the party did!

Last night we went to an event at the American Cultural Centre about the U.S. elections, and they had the largest turnout that they had ever had at any event in Namibia. Many of the Ministers were there, including the Prime Minister, and the Secretaries of various departments. The Namibian mock vote at this party was 78 Obama, 2 McCain, and 2 for the write-in candidate, Hilary Clinton. There were some very interesting discussions about US and Namibian politics. We went home to nap for a few hours, and then woke up at 3 am to watch as the polls closed across the USA. When Obama was declared winner, along with getting goosebumps, we also got text messages and calls right away from Namibian friends who had also been up all night or woke up early in the morning to watch the returns. We had a small early morning party at our house with coffee and a few friends where we watched the concession speech and victory speech, and there was not a dry eye in the house during either speech (probably a mixture of staying up most of the night and the historic night).

After I finally made it to the office this morning, I have had a steady stream of well-wishers. It seems that most of Namibia was up at 4:00 am watching the returns as well as the Americans. To a person, Namibians are excited about Obama being president, and loved his victory speech and the general sense of hope Obama's win brings to people in Africa. Most have also commented on the honorable and gracious concession speech of John McCain, which was quite touching.

I am very, very proud to be an American today.

Halloween in Namibia

Halloween is not a holiday that is normally celebrated in Africa. But, as we are big Halloween fans, we made the most of it. The kids first went to a Halloween party at the U.S. Embassy, where they trick or treated in the offices. Even though the U.S. Embassy has not received any threats in Namibia, it is like a fortress! Even though I’ve been there a ton of times, I have to have a guard follow me around at all times when I’m in there. However, for Halloween they did let in a pirate (Ruby), a ninja (Alice) and Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt (Maxine). I also was allowed to bring a camera in, as I told the guards that it was a U.S. custom to take photos on Halloween (then after I went to all that trouble, I hardly took any photos). The kids also got to wear their costumes at their international school, which was experimenting with celebrating Halloween this year for I believe the first time. Finally, we had a Halloween party at our house. Our Namibian friends and friends from other parts of Africa were very curious about Halloween, and I think they had a good time at our party. I kept getting text messages before the party: “what is Halloween?” “why do you wear costumes?” “what do you do at a Halloween party?” They seem to like the concept of Halloween, and we had fun trying to explain the whole thing to them. We’ll have to leave them our meager decorations when we go. At the witching hour, the kids all took off their costumes and jumped in the pool.