Article from the Rutland Herald. My colleague informed me that her son took my Obama signs to Africa-I wish I had given him more!
'We are watching' Vermonter helps African village witness Obama win November 6, 2008 By Kevin O'Connor Herald Staff
 
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Vermonter Andrew Cunningham joins his African host mother, Mama Eunice, and host brother Dani this week in displaying a Barack Obama bumper sticker in the president-elect’s ancestral homeland of Kenya.
Photo: PHOTO PROVIDED |
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How far would a Barack Obama supporter go to celebrate his historic win? For Vermonter Andrew Cunningham, nearly 7,500 miles to the president-elect's ancestral homeland of Kenya.
When Cunningham flew to Africa earlier this year to help build the first girls' boarding school in Muhuru Bay, the 22-year-old Rutland native knew the rural village had neither electricity nor running water — only a few solar generators.
But those were enough for Cunningham to power a television and laptop computer early Wednesday morning — the country is nine hours ahead of Vermont — so villagers could follow the election returns on the Internet.
"We are watching as the sun rises with all of our solar gear!" Cunningham e-mailed on a BlackBerry handheld wireless device. "The day is historic. And from a rural village in Kenya, I already feel the change."
Kenya has followed Obama's campaign with fascination, and not just because Cunningham's parents sent their son posters and bumper stickers from home. Obama's late father, Barack Obama Sr., was born in Kenya and his 87-year-old paternal grandmother still lives there.
"Kenya is ecstatic and nervous," Cunningham e-mailed earlier this week. "Everyone has made sure I voted early, and before almost every meal, someone sends up a word of prayer for Obama's safety and well-being."
Cunningham and villagers not only saw Tuesday's election results but also Obama's victory speech.
"It was one of the most moving experiences of my life," the Vermonter e-mailed Wednesday. "When he finished, all the men and women in the room extended their hands to wish success to America."
Then everyone spilled onto the dirt roads and danced.
"Imagine: a village just erupting in celebration!"
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, declaring Thursday a national holiday in his country, sent a congratulatory message to Obama.
"I am confident," Kibaki wrote, "that your presidency shall herald a new chapter of dialogue between the American people and the world at large."
Cunningham, for his part, has worked to foster global relations ever since graduating as co-president and salutatorian of the Rutland High School class of 2004.
One of 38 Robertson merit scholars at Duke University in Durham, N.C., he used his free tuition and travel opportunities to double-major in Chinese and international comparative studies and to volunteer at Mother Teresa's homeless shelters and soup kitchens in New York, Calcutta and Nairobi.
Upon graduating from Duke summa cum laude this year, Cunningham has worked as executive director of Muhuru Bay's nonprofit Women's Institute for Secondary Education and Research, which aims to enroll its first class in January 2010.
"Girls will be challenged to lead, serve, make decisions and reduce the gender equality gap in Kenyan society," the school says on its Web site
www.wisergirls.org.
Cunningham, like the president-elect, is on the move. He is one of 65 students to receive a $30,000 Harry S. Truman Scholarship, which he plans to use to pursue graduate studies. But first, the Vermonter will finish the Women's Institute as Obama starts in the White House.
"It is incredible," Cunningham e-mailed of his election experience, "and definitely beats CNN."
Contact Kevin O'Connor at
kevin.oconnor@rutlandherald.com.
