Yes We Can!

HOLY CRAP! WE DID IT!!! It was so surreal waking up at 4:30 in the morning to go to Mbeya Regional Hospital to watch CNN on a giant projector with some fellow Americans and a lot of excited Tanzanians and see what happened today. Me, the non-crier, teared up about 15 times this morning. I'm in the most euphoric and hopeful and excited mood right now! It seems that American can only go up from where we are now, but hopefully we'll really turn a corner and get things accomplished and restore our image in the world. I'm so happy to finally have a president I can be proud of. I can honestly say I'm proud to be American today, which I don't think I've ever said before, and I still cringe at the cheesiness of the phrase and the conjured images of people wearing American flag shirts and singing "God Bless the USA" on the Fourth of July, but I'm saying it anyway. That's how much this election has inspired me. And if any ignorant bigot decides to destroy this radiation vibe that America is rolling on...Not so fast Lee Harvey! I will absolutely pull a Jack Ruby and make sure you get yours! Ok, so not really, but seriously, that would suck. We were discussing the John and Jackie-O/Barack and Michelle similarites and we certainly hope they will fall short of JFK's tragic end. OK, enough of the downer mood! Today is an awesome day in history! But you all know that, so let's move on.
In other fabulous news, I FINALLY received my solar panel yesterday! HOORAY! I'm hoping now I can stock up on pirated movies and watch them on my laptop in my village (and hopefully the CIA isn't tracking this post). I mean, the BBC on my crappy little radio has been great and all, but oh how I miss movies.
In keeping with the theme of awesomeness, GO GATORS! When I got the text message at 2:30 AM this Sunday that we had slaughtered the GA Bulldogs, I was reminded of matching pajama shirts that me and my sister had when we were little that said I Ain't Afraid of No Dawgs with a NO sign over a pound puppy. I wish I still had it because I definately would be sporting it this week! Keep it up Tebow and Co.! It really makes me miss college, but that has provided me with extra motivation to study to take the GRE around New Year's and start applying to grad schools next year.
In village news, not too much has been going on there. It torrentially downpoured all day on my birthday last week, as it always has. I was almost expected a hurricane warning here in TZ, it just didn't seem like my bday without one. So my bday was pretty lame in the village all alone, but I did go to a meeting with about 100 other villagers and my counterpart, Mwalimu Lupogo, presented my project ideas to them for me in Swahili and they seemed really excited about them. I'm actually really surprised by their willingness and idustriousness. I was expected to have to do everything myself, but I think what I really need to do is just improve my Swahili skills and just guide them in doing it themselves. I know I have tons of support back home in all of you, so stay posted for donating oppurtunities forthcoming.
I was able to make my little neighborhood gang of little boys very happy a couple of days ago with my fresh stock of cardboard boxes from packages to give to them. They absolutely love them. They come asking for them all the time, so I was glad to have a nice stock pile to hand out to them. You'd think I'd just give them all PS3's.
I feel like I had so much more to update on, but I'm just so flustered by the election this morning that I can't sit still anymore. Its awesome that we were able to get Obama into office, now I can't wait to see the progress still to come. I loved his little vignet about the 106 year old lady and all that she has seen during her lifetime. It brought tears to my eyes to think about how far we've come since the turn on the 20th century, but in seeing gay marriage ban ammendments passed in 4 different states, and admist hearing people calling Barack Obama a terrorist and even the Anti-Christ, I see that we have plenty of progress left to make.
And might I just say, for the sake of my more conservative readers, which I know is probably most of you, I really appreciated John McCain's concession speach. I don't hate him or anything, I just think Barack Obama is more of what we need for our country right now. I actually think that McCain is probably a good guy, and I hope that he will continue to show his ability to work across party lines and help move the US back in the right direction. Not so found of his creepy-looking-over-made-up-Barbie wife, and his false-accusation-throwing-creation-should-be-taught-in-schools VP, but McCain seems alright. ;)
My cheeseball factor is getting a little out of hand with this posting so I better stop before I get any worse. And might I just end up with a little..."YES WE CAN!!!" And yes, we did. :)