No matter which way you all are voting this election, thought it would be interesting to share a little bit of what it has been like being here during the election season. Disclaimer up front though: I am voting for Obama. Though I am a bit sad to be missing it can't say I am sad to be missing all the political ads and and waste-of-paper pamphlets that go along with the election.
As may be expected, here Obama is much more popular than McCain though we have run into supporters of both candidates among Tanzanians. People here are very informed about what is going on with the election and the candidates. Whoever is president affects every country around the world and you all being in the U.S. with the focus now so much on the U.S. economy, I guess I am your reminder that the entire world is closely watching this election because of the impact the next president will have on their lives. We have seen cars with Obama bumper stickers, T-shirts with slogans and such and random reminders of the election on cars, vendors' stalls and buses. It shows just how far-reaching this election is.
When we introduce ourselves as U.S. Americans, the conversation more times than not quickly moves to who we are voting for. Some just move on from there but many are interested why. I have had a lot of people ask if I am voting for Obama because he is black and that they think this is a bad idea just to vote for him because of that. I assure them that is not my reason and it is because like his policies. With so much focus on Iraq and the world economy it is sometimes hard to articulate energy or education policies however.
The actual act of voting here is an interesting process. Back in July I filled out a form for citizens living overseas so my ballot would be sent here. However I never received my ballot for Washington's August primary so went to the Embassy in Dar and filled the form out again. These past few weeks I have anxiously been checking the mail at the international office for my ballot. A couple of days ago it finally arrived. If it hadn't, and what others in our group did, was to go to the Embassy and fill out this write-in ballot with only the federal offices listed and then a bunch of blanks for you to fill out the position in one column and the person you are voting for in the other.
But my ballot arrived along with a voters pamphlet so I could figure out who I am voting for for insurence comissioner and such, I filled it out yesterday and dropped it in the mail with four stamps on it. The rule on time is the same here as for absentee voters in the States: postmarked by election day and, for Washington at least, arrive by 21 days after the election. It should arrive just around election day so I am good! The only difference was that my envelope was a bit different and I had to sign that I was in fact a U.S. citizen residing overseas.
As may be expected, here Obama is much more popular than McCain though we have run into supporters of both candidates among Tanzanians. People here are very informed about what is going on with the election and the candidates. Whoever is president affects every country around the world and you all being in the U.S. with the focus now so much on the U.S. economy, I guess I am your reminder that the entire world is closely watching this election because of the impact the next president will have on their lives. We have seen cars with Obama bumper stickers, T-shirts with slogans and such and random reminders of the election on cars, vendors' stalls and buses. It shows just how far-reaching this election is.
When we introduce ourselves as U.S. Americans, the conversation more times than not quickly moves to who we are voting for. Some just move on from there but many are interested why. I have had a lot of people ask if I am voting for Obama because he is black and that they think this is a bad idea just to vote for him because of that. I assure them that is not my reason and it is because like his policies. With so much focus on Iraq and the world economy it is sometimes hard to articulate energy or education policies however.
The actual act of voting here is an interesting process. Back in July I filled out a form for citizens living overseas so my ballot would be sent here. However I never received my ballot for Washington's August primary so went to the Embassy in Dar and filled the form out again. These past few weeks I have anxiously been checking the mail at the international office for my ballot. A couple of days ago it finally arrived. If it hadn't, and what others in our group did, was to go to the Embassy and fill out this write-in ballot with only the federal offices listed and then a bunch of blanks for you to fill out the position in one column and the person you are voting for in the other.
But my ballot arrived along with a voters pamphlet so I could figure out who I am voting for for insurence comissioner and such, I filled it out yesterday and dropped it in the mail with four stamps on it. The rule on time is the same here as for absentee voters in the States: postmarked by election day and, for Washington at least, arrive by 21 days after the election. It should arrive just around election day so I am good! The only difference was that my envelope was a bit different and I had to sign that I was in fact a U.S. citizen residing overseas.
So I have been following the election through various online news sites (BBC, CNN, FOX) and have been able to watch the debates through YouTube so we all here are pretty informed. And of course like all of you I am sure, can't wait until November 4: for us to watch the results come in nicely in the morning and afternoon instead of the middle of the night, for you maybe for the end of political ads. No matter what the result, the election will be changing our world come January 20th and even here the world knows it well.
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Election day was exciting here. (Of course I mean November 5th, not 4th, because of the time difference. I woke up at about 6, planning to watch results come in on the TV a girl down the hall owns. I also woke up to torrential rains and thunder and lightning which made everything a little dramatic. The power went off, then on, then finally off for most of the day (a usual occurence even when there is not a storm outside). The internet worked for the first part (until the power shut off) so followed the last bits of the reults before I tuned into BBC on my roommate's radio and heard the declaration of Obama the winner. I spent most of my day listening to their commentary from around the world and of course the two canidates' speeches, both of which I was very impressed with.
Listening to election results and commentaryPersonally, I felt a warm glow when he said: “And all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular but our destiny is shared. A new dawn of American leadership is at hand.” I was glad to be one who was literally huddled around a radio in a storm in a corner of the world American rarely hear about and in a city only a half a percentage or so could not place in its correct country.
At that moment I was very glad I had not gone to the Embassy, to celebrate on a big screen with other Americans as if we were the only people who mattered in the election. Instead, I was in a university dorm room, thunder and lightning outside, a large city laid out in front of me obscured by the swirling clouds of rain, in a developing country, in a country of black Africans, a neighbor to the place Obama’s father made his humble beginnings. I can truly appreciate here the impact the American president has on the world, and the greater impact and excitement the world, and this region of the earth in particular, has for Obama. After everything, I was very glad the power went off and I got to experience this through a little hand-held radio running off two humble AA batteries.
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