Election and travels!

So, as everyone in the entire world is aware, Tuesday was election day!!!

The bigger deal here was Wednesday though, as we're 8 hours ahead of East Coast time. I woke up at 5:30 in the morning to get ready and catch a cab to the US Embassy for a "Results Return Party". The party was scheduled to go from 7 to 11, but when we arrived at approximately 6:53 Obama already had 283 electoral votes.

I can't say I wasn't a little disappointed that we didn't get to watch any of the build up, but it was amazing to be there and gather with all sorts of Americans and Embassy workers to watch both Obama and McCain's speeches.

I have not been that happy for such a long time. I wore my "Tanzania for Obama" T-shirt all day long, and everywhere I went people would yell "Yeah! Obama!" All of the people that would usually annoy and harass me were congratulating me and wanting to talk about the election - it was amazing!


I don't know if you can get a feel for just how excited the rest of the world is about this election from America - but the love for our next president is incredible!

After doing a fair amount of celebrating I packed up my stuff and a group of 5 of us left Thursday morning for Uganda. We passed through Kenya on the way, and I was secretly hoping that at one of our stops we would find ourselves in the midst of a "National Obama Day" celebration (since the Kenyan president declared the 6th a National Holiday) - but we didn't. :-(

I actually was sadly only awake for approximately 3 hours of our trek through Kenya - but they were a beautiful 3 hours. The area of the country that we drove through was lush and green and gorgeous! There were all sorts of farms and foliage and small villages everywhere and the whole place just looked peaceful and happy. I realize that I am basing this judgment solely on the amount of green things that I saw - but I loved it.


Uganda, is much the same. Kampala is not nearly as big as Dar, but far more developed and westernized. I'm hoping that we will get to explore the city more before we leave but our future plans are pending.

As of now here's what my next week looks like: Tomorrow we are getting picked up by our rafting company, driving the hour or so to the river and spending the day on it. We stay the night in the town neighboring (Jinja??) and then head back to Kampala on Sunday. Then, I THINK, we are staying here again on Monday.

Tuesday is where our old plans derail completely. We are hoping on a bus and heading to Rwanda! AH! When we arrived at our hostel this afternoon, we met two girls from Canada who have been traveling around East Africa for the past two months - and after hearing a bunch of their stories and highlights we decided that we would travel back through Rwanda instead of going back through Kenya again.

The main reason for our going to Rwanda is to check out the Genocide Museum in Kigali. The Canadians said the museum alone was worth the trip. SO WE'RE GOING!

After Rwanda we re-enter Tanzania and are thinking about taking a 48 hour train ride back to Dar. That's up in the air still, but we've got time to work that part out.

(Me and Mandi - Classes?? What classes?)

Now I know some of you are sitting thinking "What about your classes young lady?" and honestly, this was conflicting in my mind to... until I realized that it would be absolutely INSANE of me to pass up the opportunity to go to Rwanda just because of an assignment or two that I have to do at the University. I didn't come here for a purely book-education!

I will keep you posted!