The U.S. Election...from Madagascar

On November 4th, 2008, I was lucky enough to be in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, for the U.S. presidential election. The U.S. Ambassador to Madagascar invited the Peace Corps Volunteers that were in town, along with many other Americans and Malagasy, to his house to watch the election results via satellite t.v. His palatial estate was decked out with any and all election memorabilia you could think of, including life size cut-outs of both presidential candidates.

There was also a nice breakfast, which us poor PCVs appreciated. The event started at 5 a.m., since Madagascar is 8 hours ahead of Eastern Time in the States. We learned that Barrack Obama won enough votes to become the president elect of the United States of America around 7 a.m. I found McCain's concession speech to be well-spoken and handled with grace and Obama's to be downright moving. Many of the Peace Corps Volunteers were in tears!



Although I sometimes find myself wishing that I could be in the States right now to witness these exciting times, I have found experiencing the presidential election from Madagascar to be memorable as well. Many of the Malagasy people were surprisingly in the know about the election. I say surprisingly because the only news I can get is BBC, sporadically, on my shortwave radio. After the results came in, there were as many Malagasy cheering as there were Americans. Not only is Obama bringing hope to Americans, he is bringing hope to the most remote corners of the world.