The Tooth Is Dead, Long Live The Tooth

After weeks of "fiddlin" around with it and complaining about it all it took was a bite of the apple and we have our first empty space where a tooth once was. He's very excited. "Does the tooth fairy know where Kisumu is?" Our baby is growin' up, sniff sniff.

ahhhhh

We are vacationing this weekend in the Nandi hills. Only an hour from Kisumu but a totally different environment.

Mzungu

Mzungu is a swahili word that means foreigner or white man. We hear this alot as a greetings shouted by little kids as they run and wave to keep up with your car, especially in the villages where they don't see too many Mzungu. But lately we have noticed a change. Now little kids run and smile and wave next to our car and greet us with "Obama, Obama!".

Dear Esther and Max;

When I was about five or six, in the early 1960’s, we moved from the desert of California to Atlanta Georgia. Before then I had never seen many African Americans so I was naturally curious. One distinct memory of that time has come to me a lot lately: I was going shopping with my grandmother and we were taking the bus. When I got on I moved all the way back to a seat in the back to sit in an empty chair there. Several people with angry looks motioned me to move out of that seat then I noticed only black people was sitting around me and my grandmother grabbed my arm and sat me closer to the front of the bus. It was then I saw only blacks were seating in the back and I ask grandma why. She didn’t answer.

In the 1960’s there seemed to be a lot of moments which one could consider“tipping points” for a culture, a time a culture would be elevated to the next stage of its consciousness. But I haven’t witnessed many since then. In the last few months we have watched with amazement as culture moved ever closer to one of these points. The fact that Americans have overwhelmingly voted for a man of color, a minority in the community, to govern them is one of these points. It is, of course, a culmination of many years of hard work and sacrifice by many people and because of them my children will never really think about a persons color or ethnicity in quite the same way as in the past.

What is most weird and wonderful to me is that at this historic moment in time we find ourselves living in the heart of Africa, and not only that but living in the ancestral home of the new president! With the polls showing he was ahead for so long if he had lost people here would have immediately suspected that the white man had rigged the election, and we were a little bit worried. After we heard the news that Obama was elected some of us decided to pile into a car and drive around town whooping and hollering and making all sorts of celebratory noises. We were met with the thumbs up sign and lots of smiles. Soon our car was being buried by people rejoicing with us. Starting a street party in the middle of town was probably not the brightest thing we ever did, considering you can never tell which way the mood of a crowd would swing, and frankly I was terrified at times but it all turned out ok. At one point, using tree branches, people began sweeping the street in front of our car as we slowly worked our way through the crowd. This is usually reserved only for dignitaries and is considered a sign of respect. There were some international press photographers there and the photos even appeared around the internet.

I have no idea what sort of president he will be; for sure he can’t be worse than what we’ve had, but in a broader sense it won’t matter. Americans are different today, my faith in the American system was restored just a little bit more today, and they are showing the rest of the world, and themselves, what it really means to be an American. People wonder how is it that America can elect someone like George Bush, twice, and then turn around and elect a Barrack Obama just after that! Democracies are fickled and a messy way to govern. Many of my Kenyan friends have said how they admire us now, that we are “so far ahead” and that we have now set an example for the rest of the world.

There is a photo slideshow at:

CLICK HERE

VIDEO TOO!

What a day!

So much happened here today. Have lots of pic's and video to upload but they will have to wait til tomorrow to go up. In the mean time that will give me time to compose something.... Wow!

Too Good To Be True

So it turns out that grandma's house was off limits. Too much going on out in that little village. So they have all returned to watch CNN here.

update 10pm

Received SMS from Kayla that security at grandma's house would not let them into her compound! Dang! Guess they will be hanging out with the Press until morning.

Halloween

Kenya in carnival mood ahead of U.S. elections

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/04/content_10306514.htm

Gigantic Billboard

To GRandma's House They Go!

They are selling these hats in grandma Obama's village. There are hundreds of international press in this little African village. kayla has been shuttling back and forth from there all day. Now she and several others are on there way there to spend the night.

Tuesday afternoon

i suppose many of you are on your way to vote today. Congrates, you
survived. We are all waiting as you are to hear how it goes. Most
everyone here will be awake at 3am tomorrow as the results come in.

i will try to send lots of entries to this blog from my phone
beginning at that time, GMT+3.

--
Sent from my mobile device

Here we go....

Well I suppose we are on the brink of a historic moment in America. I am thinking back now when Obama came to Kisumu to visit his grandmother. I had a chance ride with them and I felt I got to know him just a little that day. He is a member of the local tribe, the Luo tribe, and right now they, along with other Kenyans, are as excited as if they were in America voting themselves. There are enormous billboards of Obama going up all over. The newspapers are filled with stories about him too. There are international journalists everywhere in town now. And grandma’s house is surrounded by satellite dished trucks and video cameras and bored journalists looking for anything to write about.

But what if he looses? We hear rumors. There is a little bit of apprehension about what will happen here. Especially having lived here through the post election violence in January. We are all a little jumpy. So once again we are stocking up on food, backing up the computers, charging the portable VSAT battery and we shall see….

So Kayla and a few other expats at CDC have become friendly with grandma Obama and have been invited into her compound to watch the election results, the only people she has invited, no journalists inside. So the plan is if he wins they’ll slaughter a bull and have a three day party. It ought to be amazing, look for pictures to appear here soon after. And if you’re watching the news and they cut to Kenya you might see them then as well.

Me? I’m not going. Yea, I know, it’s a once in your life kind of thing but I feel more comfortable staying home with the kids and just watching from my living room. I’ll be ready with plan B incase we need a plan B.

shopping day

Having a big Halloween party tonight.