A very promising beginning

It did not seem an auspicious turn of events that the eve before our departure on Nov. 4 the lights went out. In Ghana, it can get hot in a hurry without a fan or air conditioning. More troubling still was the thought that some evil juju could be at work that would, once again, cast a spell of unelectability on the Democratic candidate in the U.S. presidential race.

Our only recourse was to retire to a favorite restaurant in hopes that they had power. Thankfully, The Tasty Jerk, an air conditioned oasis of spicy chicken and crisp yam chips, was showing the BBC on its large flat-screen TV. We ate, drank cold beer and watched the election results.

Having to rise at 5 a.m. for our bus to Tamale, we reluctantly turn in before the results are known. Perhaps I dreamt. Perhaps it involved unprovoked war, the suspension of habeas corpus and the mandates of the Geneva Convention. Maybe it included more than 700 signing statements and the contravention of individual liberties. But I can’t say for sure.

I awake to find Shawn standing next to the bed. “He won,” she whispers excitedly, careful not to wake the others who are still sleeping.

“He won,” I say. It comes out with all the groggy excitement of a kid saying, “Santa’s been here?”

“He won.”

In the dark of the early morning, we listen to Obama’s acceptance speech huddled around Jeanne’s cell phone. Her sister has called and has placed the phone next to her TV. Everything else is quiet and there is a sense that we have woken to the real possibility of a new world.

Not until we reach the bus station at about 6:30 a.m. do we see it for ourselves on a small TV above a pile of bags. Along with a waiting room full of Africans, we watch the president-elect take the stage. One of the bus attendants chants “O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma!” his hands in the air. Another man is standing and clapping his hands above his head.

We are transfixed, at once sad to be so far from home on such a day, but glad to be in Africa on the occasion of this important step forward in the history of our own country. The reality of it makes me immediately feel closer to Shawn and those in our little band of travelers: Jeanne, Alice and Maria.

Unexpectedly, I also find that I feel closer to the Africans with whom we are sitting, and that, as a sign of hope restored, is the perfect kind of sympathy of spirit, it seems to me, with which to start our journey north.

(Picture: Waiting for the bus in Accra while watching the election results on BBC)