OBAMA!

I would like to say something profound about how excited and happy I am that Obama won, but the hangover is still lurking with a vengence. So all I can really say is, THANK GOD.

On the night of the election which given the 9 hour time difference essentially began at 3am my time we all got up and went to a hotel to watch the election returns. When it looked assured that Obama would be announced winner we went to the Kenyatta International Conference Center where celebrations were rumored to take place and apparently a video of us all dancing when Obama's presidency was announced made it to CNN. Let me know if you see this...I am still looking for the clip.

It was an amazing experience to watch Obama's acceptance speech with the Kenyans and look around and see that everyone American and Kenyan alike had tears in their eyes.

After the speeches we went and celebrated with champaign in a closed restaurant that was opened up to us just because we are americans and celebrating Obama. (Well, mostly americans. Actually our posse included one brit and one aussie who were both more committed to the election than many americans I know).

I recommend you look up the Barack Obama song - reggae style from Kenya. It has been playing non stop here and is hilarious.

Then we slept and woke up and celebrated some more. I am still recovering from this. Jim, the excited Aussie, ended the night by bringing home 3 women who he believed to have attracted through looks and attitude alone but then was quite surprised when he was told he would have to pay them - they were equally surprised to see his 1 person tent. Eventually, they were forced out by the guard and the hostel owner as prostitues always cause problems and apparently these 3 prostitutes didn't want to share the 6 dollars that Jim had to offer. Amazing.

People here are really excited about Obama. Yesterday was a public holiday. I spent that public holiday lolling on a couch watching our THREE NEWS STATIONS and wondering if all of my agony was brought on by alcohol or whether the probable worms in my guts worsened it, or since I was not the only one who was so violently ill - whether the ice in the drinks had actually contained some giardia or whether the meat that we had consumed earlier wasn't cooked well. Either way, I am so excited, but it HURTS SO BAD. Today is a bit better though. I may be heading back to Arusha tomorrow.