November 5, 2008 - Post-Election Day in West Africa

November 5, 2008 – Post-Election Day in West Africa

My election coverage has been from the BBC, and they had painted a story that the world was watching – people from around the world were calling in with their opinions on the election, and why it mattered to them. With the media’s tendency to blow many things out of perspective, you may be wondering if the world was really watching. I believe they were.

Yesterday, Election Day, I biked to the market and had tea in the tea house with many Guinean men. All they talked about was McCain and Obama. If this small village in a country most people can place on a map were talking about this election, I’m confident the whole world was too. On Sunday, I was stuck in a city for the day trying to get home from Halloween and men a man from Sierra Leone who was anxious to talk politics with me as many have been with our presidential election approaching. The problem I have is that I can’t carry on a proper conversation with the language issue. I always ask “why” when they tell me they support Obama but I get lost in the response. English is the language in Sierra Leone so it was nice to be able to really hear what he was saying. He told me he supports the American election in general because it is proof that a democracy is working. The fact that Obama is running for president shows progress that Guinea can learn from. (In 50 years of independence, Guinea has had only 2 presidents. Some might call them dictators. The next election keeps getting pushed back – the date currently is unknown.)

Hearing the world news each night makes me hope that this is true; we have set an example of a true democratic election where the winner was chosen by the people, and just as important, the loser conceded gracefully. The election happened as it always does, on the first Tuesday of November, no civil wars broke out, and I thought McCain’s speech was excellent. All of this I take for granted and today I realize even more so what freedom really is.

After listening for the past 24 hours (okay – I might have dozed off here and there) and walking into my ninth grade class this morning and being greeted with excited cheers of “Obama!” I am proud to be an American. Listening to Obama’s speech talking of HOPE and CHANGE as the elements that weave his ideas together, I’m willing to believe in what the future of America and the world will hold. I just listened to a really beautiful interview with Maya Angelou. She talked about that somewhere in all of us is a desire to belong to a great country and today I really feel I do.