Obamania

Though we can’t say we agree with the Nobel committee’s decision to award Barack Obama with the Nobel Peace Prize this year (the opinion that is was awarded to him based on oratorial skills not actions seems accurate to us), we are generally fans of his work. And though we had heard the news reports, along with everyone else in America, about how President Obama’s election had resulted in celebration around the world, we were not prepared for how ubiquitous his image would be in every day life throughout many countries we’ve visited.  We always seem to find these things when we’re walking about without a camera or in settings where it would be impolite to take a picture - but we've posted the few we have below.

His face is everywhere:

•  A large framed picture of Obama in a restaurant in Zomba, Malawi (see below):

• kangas (the printed cloth used to make clothing or used as cloth wraps), including a green one displaying the presidents front side on a woman’s back side near Arusha, Tanzania (see below)
  

• a side-of-the highway cart on wheels selling a little bit of everything called Obama Store (in red white and blue writing, of course) in Karatu, Tanzania
  
• a calendar in window of an HIV/AIDS education center in Jinja, Uganda emblazoned with his picture and the phrase Year of Obama
  
• Obama Pub on the outskirts of arusha, Tanzania - a bland looking building with the slogan ‘change is here’ painted on the wall
• Obama Mobile Take Away car in Kampala, Uganda - we saw this 4-door mini-Scion covered in pictures of Obama and the meals for sale out of this car in different parts of central Kampala (see below)

 

• A taxi driver who had been nicknamed/changed his name to Obama because he is such a big fan.  He had a plastic-framed passport-sized photo of Obama hanging with a cross on his rearview mirror in Kabale, Uganda.
  
• Obama Mini Market in a bustling part of Kigali, Rwanda near the shuttle bus garages
  

We’ve also had many people profess their enthusiasm about and adoration of Obama to us as soon as they find out we’re American. The first really memorable encounter was with the immigration officer as we were leaving Malawi for Mozambique who, while officially rubber-stamping our passports, told us how much he preferred Obama to George Bush. On numerous occasions when we’ve answered the question of where we’re from by saying “We’re American,” the first word uttered in response is “Obama.” For Rich, this has sometimes also been accompanied by a fist-bump.

For some, the enthusiasm over Obama’s election as the American president has gone even further. Our guide on the Intrepidmobile, MJ, mentioned to us that some of his friends were very hopeful that Obama’s election would lead to direct improvements in their lives in Kenya. While we’re skeptical about just how much Obama can or will do to this end, at least its nice for us, as travelers, to have a president who is regarded favorably by most people we meet.