I'm going to do my best to tread lightly in this particular blog entry. Tis a dangerous subject, but I don't think I can let it go by without saying something.
On Tuesday I got up early and left Lusaka to hitch my way up to Mkushi, a town in Central Province where i was going to ATB Lodge to meet up with about 35 other volunteers to witness history, for better or worse. Peace Corps Volunteers tend to be current events/politics junkies, and if they're not when they leave the states they usually become one while they're here. As most of you already know Peace Corps tends to have a reputation of being a group of liberals, and while I can confirm that there are in fact conservative Republicans in Peace Corps Zambia, every one at the lodge was an Obama supporter. So as you can imagine, it was a fantastic night. Sleep was of course not an option, seeing as how the first polls closed at about 1 am here. Things first got interesting around 3, when Pennsylvania was called for Obama. As the next three hours rolled by and state after state turned blue it became clear that Obama was going to win, and not only win, but win easily. At 6 am, when thousands of Chicagoans in Grant Park erupted, a group of smelly, dirty, and above all tired 20-somethings in the middle of nowhere in Zambia had our own celebration, maybe lacking in quantity but certainly not in quality. Two things came to my mind at that point that I thought I would touch on. I know that everyone who reads this has widely varying political views, and many do not share the same views as me. And to you guys, I'm sorry. I think the American people invested themselves more in this election than any in a long time, certainly in my lifetime, and when you do that, only to feel you came up short, it's pretty devastating. I know I'd be pretty down this week if things had gone the other way. But, regardless of your views, I think there are two things all americans can get excited about.

1. We just elected an African-American head of state. And yes I know we all know how important this is and historic this is, but seriously folks, no other major world power has done something like this. It's a pretty amazing testament to how far our country has come concerning racial reconciliation. The highest job in the land is no longer out of reach for people who aren't white males. This was one of those events that everyone kind of figured would happen eventually, but it also seemed like it would never come (it's like a 16 seed beating a 1 seed in march madness). This is something that all Americans should be proud of, the fact that we live in a country where Obama's story is even possible.

2. Tomorrow I'm going to go back to my village and everyone, EVERYONE, is going to want to talk about Obama. I'm sure you all saw the clips of the celebrations in Kenya. All of Africa is excited. Obama hasn't just given hope to African-Americans but this entire continent. And I really think that this election will, for the first time in a while, remind the rest of the world of why they used to be on friendly terms with America. The last 8 years turned global politics into "us v. them", we became unilateral renegades who did whatever we wanted for the most part, regardless of what the rest of the world thought, a dangerous attitude if ever there was one. But now that we have a president elect who seems intent on fixing broken relationships instead of pushing our former allies farther away from us, maybe we can take our place again as the watermark for democracy and good governance and freedom and justice, not because we tell the world incessantly that we're a great country, but because we actually do great things. Imagine if the rest of the world decided by themselves that America was an ok place by themselves, without us having to constantly remind them. We can't afford to push the global community away anymore, and Tuesday night was a good start.