I have come down to my country's capital city for four days of meetings to work with Peace Corps staff to prepare for the next group of volunteers that arrive in October, do some shopping and enjoy a hot shower. After the work was done, I was walking around looking for a place to grab a beer and watch a little BBC, when I stopped by a little place around the corner and struck up a conversation with a middle-aged man native to my country named Azariur. I found it funny that one of the first things the man said to me was "Go Bark Obama!"
Zachery Scott writes: Go Bark Obama!
Letters from Southern Africa: Go Bark Obama!
A Gay Life in Transition, from Weho to Southern Africa
By Zachery Scott | Article Date:
9/01/2008 9:51 AM
It's a little after 4 a.m. and I have tears in my eyes.
I have come down to my country's capital city for four days of meetings to work with Peace Corps staff to prepare for the next group of volunteers that arrive in October, do some shopping and enjoy a hot shower.
After the work was done, I was walking around looking for a place to grab a beer and watch a little BBC, when I stopped by a little place around the corner and struck up a conversation with a middle-aged man native to my country named Azariur. I found it funny that one of the first things the man said to me was "Go Bark Obama!"
Letting pass his mispronunciation of my candidate's first name, I asked him what he thought about the current U.S. Presidential election. He told me that he didn't know much about President Bush (a saving grace, as far as I was concerned) but that he was excited to see a black man running for President. He was even more surprised when I told him that Obama's father was born in Kenya, and Obama had been back to Africa to visit his grandmother.
We spoke briefly about politics and what it means in our respective countries. Despite him living in a country with a pretty strong one-party system, he kept emphasizing the importance of change and new ideas.
Talking to Azariur, he seemed to focus less on the fact that Obama was the first black nominee and instead noted that he embodied overall change.
After speaking with him for a few minutes, I realized what Obama's nomination means not only to me, but to people around the world. You don't have to be a liberal or conservative, or even know what has happened in the last eight years under President Bush to realize that this is a historic moment for our generation and our country. It made me feel a little disappointed not to be in the states where I could volunteer or do more to get involved.
But I also noticed a greater sense of pride coming from myself being an American. As big a critic as I might have been at times in the past, I have learned that I really appreciate so many aspects of our country.
My buddy Jeff, who recently got back from a stint in the Peace Corps in Ukraine, told me that he would cry whenever he heard the American National Anthem. I thought this was silly until, during the Olympics, I found myself tearing up when the Star Spangled Banner was played.
So this morning I have woken up at 4 a.m. to catch the live broadcast of Obama's acceptance speech in Denver; marking not only a poignant anniversary of the "I Have a Dream" speech and of Obama's history-making with his nomination.
Instead, the feeling that is rushing inside me, causing my eyes to water and a huge smile to come to my face is the pride of belonging to a country where all this is possible, and witnessing all this with the backdrop of a country where so many people look to America as the bar in which to raise themselves up.
In the Peace Corps you have good days and bad days. Today is a good day, though I'm a little disappointed I can't be closer to the action. Guess I will have to keep watching from afar with the rest of the world.
