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:

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VIDEO TOO!