Watching Proudly from Afar

People kept asking me what I wanted for my birthday, but since it was on Election Day, I figured that was a no brainer.  Let’s just say I got my wish.  What an incredible night.  I'm still taking it in.  

As soon as we got home from school on Tuesday, Brian and I forced ourselves to go to sleep; we managed to get about 5 hours, which we figured was respectable.  Around 10:30 pm, several of the teachers went over to our director, Nanci’s, house, and we stayed until it was time to get ready for school the next morning.  She made a big pot of chili, some hummus and pitas, and brownies, and we all loaded up on caffeine to try and make it through the long night ahead.

Here’s our fearless leader at the beginning of the evening.  

And here’s Brian enjoying himself with our friend Marianne, a science teacher from South Africa. 

Our grades were due the next day (a cruel twist of the calendar), so many of us had saved vocab quizzes and other mindless correcting for the hours of waiting. Teachers really know how to have a good time. :)  Katie—a preschool teacher who has been at ASOY for 3 years but is originally from Michigan—was one of the more diligent workers. 

I actually had more grading left than I should have because I hadn't been using my planning periods very productively (unless you count reading political coverage productive).  In fact, the day of the election, I was busy compiling a

viewer's guide to the house and senate races.    I tried to focus while we awaited the first results, but spent most of my time chatting with Anjana (2nd and 3rd grade teacher from New York) and Shirley (swim instructor at ASOY and wife of the ARSO at the US Embassy). 

Watching the coverage was great (we only got CNN though, so no Keith or Rachel).  My proudest moment was when John King was analyzing the electoral map, looking for a way for McCain to get 270 midway through the night, and he passed right over Iowa saying, "No way, Obama's had a double-digit lead there for ages."  Woo-hoo!

When the Pacific polls closed, I knew it was going to be soon, but I didn't expect the announcement to happen so quickly--it just felt surreal. 

I couldn't stop crying! 

I would have been emotional anyway, but David Gergen read the excerpt from Martin Luther King, Jr’s final speech when he said he’d been to the mountaintop, and while he may not get there with us, he's seen the promised land, and we'll get to the promised land.  I lost it.  I was even teary during McCain's speech because it was so decent and just reminded me of the person I admired during the 2000 primaries.

Obama's speech was amazing, as you already know, and as Dad said, the visuals of the whole family were so compelling.  (Another teacher and I were talking about how Barack and Michelle look at each other with such mutual respect and admiration—so refreshing in a political couple.)  Obama’s line where he addressed “all those watching tonight from beyond our shores” made us all cheer, of course, and as someone living abroad, I also appreciated his choice of words when he said, “To those who would tear this world down—we will defeat you.  To those who seek peace and security—we support you.”  It’s wonderful to hear a leader of the US recognize that we’re facing GLOBAL crises, and it does no good to think only along the lines of nation states.  As we’ve seen with the financial struggles lately, the world has a stake in the US economy, just as the US is safer when students in other countries receive balanced educations.  That global connection felt immediately strengthened as soon as he appeared with the words “President Elect” beneath him.  In that one instant, the international goodwill for our country split wide open—I’m trusting President Obama to capitalize on that and start healing our alliances, so we can get some work done. 

In terms of the reaction in Yaounde, it's about what you'd expect--mass hysteria. :)  Everyone is so excited and proud (I've mentioned they like to claim him, right, because Obama is a Cameroonian name?).   When we left for work that next morning, our security guards were cheering with us as they opened the gate, and the local staff at the school had TVs tuned in to news coverage (in French, of course) all over the campus.  As soon as our students arrived, they started chanting and dancing around, all wearing their Obama shirts and hats.  (We wore our buttons proudly—thanks, Mom!) 

I told my family a while ago about a writing assignment I did with my seventh graders back in early September.  It was a simple free-response question about whom they considered their heroes, and it was meant to be a five-minute lead-in to a story we were reading.  Instead, we spent half the class discussing their answers—their number one response: Barack Obama.  I asked why they thought of him as a hero, and they all gushed about how he proved that people were truly equal in America.  They said he showed them they could be anything if they worked hard enough, and they admired how smart he was and how kind he seemed.  I stood there watching the faces of these twelve-year-olds—mostly from Cameroon, Nigeria, and South Africa, but also from Greece, France, Togo, and Germany—light up as they explained why this man in a country most of them had never visited inspired them, and I felt more hopeful for the future of our little planet than I had in a long, long time. 

Just as hopeful as I felt when I actually saw him get elected.  Quite a night.