I Voted!

November 4, 2008. Americans voted, Kenyans celebrated the new Obama Day and Tanzania? Tanzanians are pumped for America's new “East African American president,” as one of the four front page headlines about the U.S. election boasted in a recent TZ newspaper. :) I had quite the unique experience as a first-time voter this year and will probably never have an Election Day quite like it again...

While my parents called to say they were on their way to the polls Tuesday morning, my voting process began back in September when I registered to vote at the American Embassy. My absentee ballot arrived in early October, I voted and mailed it back, and my vote was in! No “I Voted” sticker, but I felt like a responsible citizen nonetheless, having had a lengthy process to make sure my vote was counted. On Tuesday, people all over campus kept asking us if we knew the results of the election yet, but we had to explain that given the 9-hour time difference, we wouldn't know anything until Wednesday. Tuesday night, some friends found other friends who had televisions that got CNN, and they stayed up all night watching election coverage, texting me at all hours with updates.

Wednesday morning, a few of us got up at 5:30 a.m., and despite the torrential downpours flooding the streets of Dar, we flagged a taxi and headed down to the embassy for the Election Day party hosted by Ambassador Mark Green. Between the time we left the dorms (at which point Obama had 200 electoral votes) and got through security at the embassy, Barack Obama had broken the 270 mark and been declared the President-elect!

Inside the embassy, the main hall was decorated like the 4th of July, complete with mini flags to wave, four different televisions with coverage from different stations, campaign materials, computers showing maps with live updates of which states voted which way, streamers and balloons, and of course, life-size cutouts of both Barack Obama and John McCain. There were a ton of people there – most of them drenched like us – and everyone watched the candidates' speeches streamed on a big screen at one of the the hall, then Ambassador Green spoke. Breakfast and tea was served, and after hanging out awhile longer and visiting with other Americans living abroad and hearing their stories, we headed back to campus for classes and lots of congratulatory well-wishes from our Tanzanian peers. We weren't allowed to take basically anything into the embassy, including cameras, so I have no pictures from the day but no doubt there are some Tanzanian newspapers (either The Guardian or The Citizen) online have photos from it. Like I said, probably the coolest Election Day of my life.

In the aftermath, Tanzanians may be even more excited about President-elect Barack Obama than we Americans are, interestingly enough. Everyone asks us what we think about it, if we voted for him, then want to hear how it is possible for us to vote if we're here. The political system here really struggles with a lot of corruption and division, so the idea of votes being counted honestly let alone the very idea of absentee voting is quite the privilege in their minds, as it should be in mine, I suppose.

Again, TZ has made me realize how easy it is to take for granted the opportunities democracy gives us as citizens. Election Day may be a bother for some, another item on a long enough “Things To Do” list. We grumble about having to drive to the polls, the slow pace of poll workers, the long lines to place your vote, the busybody children waiting for their parents to finish voting. But our complaints aren't about the riots that broke out, the bribes that were taken and broken, the people who were beaten, the threats from the ruling party. That “I Voted” sticker represents years of a nation's struggle to provide freedoms and opportunities to all American citizens, regardless of skin color, gender, class, origins, or education level. And even though we don't have everything right and have a lot of wrinkles yet to smooth out in our systems that marginalize people, we are a whole lot luckier than we oftentimes credit ourselves in being.

*Picture was taken inside the taxi on the way to the embassy (Wendy, Sara, Siri and me). It is a sad attempt at capturing the Election Day experience but the best we could do. :)