Obamanos!

Just another night in Lima where Americans were being loud and causing a scene. The only difference on tuesday night was we actually had a legitimate reason to celebrate.

Me and my Lima crew have been supporting Obama from the get go. I only knew one PCV and one Lima friend who was cheering for Hillary. Needless to say, there is not a single Bush supporter among us. Like many Americans, we were counting down the days till election night. For the past month, it's been impossible to have a conversation and not have the presidential race come up, even when talking to Peruvians.

This is my second consecutive election abroad. In Spain, there was a 9 hour time difference and my host family didn't have cable so I couldn't stay up to watch the results. I also wasn't a fervent Kerry supporter as I have been with Obama. And as much as I didn't want Bush to win, there wasn't the electricity in the air as there was this time around. The next day, Spaniards were pissed. Some even decided to take it out on me. I was hoping this year would not be a repeat of '04.

There is one American sports bar in Lima where on any given night you are bound to find a group of obnoxious Americans watching a Football or Basketball game. There is always a guaranteed crowd for events like the Oscars or the presidential debates. We had been planning for months to ring in the new era of American politics with our US comrades at this bar. It ended up being the perfect location to watch the results. We ate, we drank, we cheered and chanted. Some cried, some smoked cigars and we all took celebratory tequila shots. It has been the only night so far in my time abroad, that I have made it known to my host country that I am proud to be an American.

For those of us working and living abroad, this election meant the world to us, literally. What the US does effects the rest of the world so greatly and it seems as though most Americana's don't take that into account when casting their vote. Four years ago in Spain, 90% of Spaniards opposed Bush but some how he still got re-elected. The international community has rallied around Barack Obama in hopes that foreign relations with US will improve. Being a Peace Corps volunteer is like being a mini ambassador to the US and so I feel the outcome will effect me greatly. The day after the elections in my site, I had complete strangers walk up to me and congratulate me on our big victory. Come January, I will have a new boss. I really hope the President elect focuses more on peace than on war, and puts his money where his mouth is.

To top off the night, my friends and I headed to the cliffs over looking to ocean and opened a bottle of champagne. It was a night to celebrate and to never be forgotten.

I will add that I came home from downtown high on life only to find the results from California. I have always been so proud of being a Californian. So much so that when asked what I am, I will respond with Californian instead of American. It has been an interesting turn of events now that that has changed. California has always been a leader in advancement and modernity. I hope in the next decade we will see this prop h8ate overturned.