Obamaland

At various points in our traveling past, Jeremy and I have discussed pretending to be Canadian instead of American. Normally, we were in Europe during the presidency of George W. Bush. It just sometimes didn't feel very *cool* to be Americans...

Well, traveling throughout Africa this summer is an entirely different story. Wherever we go, people ask us where we are from; and the second we start to say, "United States..." everyone with whom we are speaking shouts in unison, "Obamaland!"

We received this response most often throughout Tanzania, where we were also reminded of Obama's roots in Kenya, Tanzania's neighbor to the north. I must say that with regard to most topics, Tanzanians often spoke of Kenya as if they had a bit of an inferiority complex. Not so with Obama - they love that he has ancestry to another East African, Swahili speaking nation. In addition to seeing Obama shirts for sale by many street vendors, we saw people wearing Obama hats and selling Obama brand pens.

However, Ghana has really taken the Obama fascination up a few notches. In addition to selling all that is also for sale in Tanzania, Ghana has billboards with Obama's picture. Small food stores also sell Obama brand biscuits (cookies) with Obama's face on the wrapper. And cookie. Finally, our favorite, even the children's copy books at schools are covered with Obama's picture, like the one below. I hear that some of the schools even use a picture of him from his vacation when he is wearing swimming trunks. Thankfully, he is wearing a shirt and tie in this one!

We must admit, we are starting to count down the days until we return to Obamaland... Less than a week!