Today I presented for some of Mares's friends at her house, it was a lovely group :)
After four or five go-throughs, I've realized I need to put more photos of children and food in that Powerpoint.
Here are a few I discovered recently from Al Aqaba...
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| Kindergarten girls singing a doctor song |
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| More kindergarteners, doing a more traditional dance |
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| Big platter of maqloubeh! yummmm. |
Tonight I went with Mares and Chuck to the Democratic party headquarters in Brighton to watch the election. I ate a lot of pasta and cookies, and Mares introduced me to all of her friends, who had taken a picture with her holding Pinwheels for Peace at the last election party in 2008. The photo campaign was to save Al Aqaba's kindergarten, which was (and still is) under demolition order. Mares did a great job of introducing me to people as the teacher who lived in her little village of Al Aqaba. They had all been getting her e-mails over the years! Walla, Mares is amazing.
There wasn't a lot of hope for the local Democratic candidates, since Livingston County is really conservative, but I got to meet a lot of the candidates, including a newly elected township trustee (Michigan has townships within its counties!) who nabbed a position held by Republicans since 1958. They were all really nice folks. One of the state representative candidates was, I'm almost positive, younger than me. yowza.
My Facebook mini-feed was inundated with woohooo's and get it's and such, I'd say 99% of my American Facebook friends voted for Obama. Then there were the handful of people talking about Obama's war crimes, and that the lesser of two evils isn't something to celebrate.
I'm happy about keeping my parents' health insurance for another 10 months. I'm happy about Washington State legalizing gay marriage and marijuana. I'm happy about Wisconsin electing the first openly gay senator.
I don't know what I expect from Obama's second term. My expectations were too high for the first term. I thought his Cairo speech meant he had a backbone. I guess he's not allowed to have a backbone on the Middle East, whatever AIPAC allows him to have. But I can't complain if I don't act. I'm looking forward to the lobbying conference in D.C., maybe I'll learn a thing or two about communicating with Congress. This is all a learning experience.
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| Watching Rachel Maddow at the HQ |
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| Patriotic cupcakes |
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| Election 2012 is called. |
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| ...for Barack Obama |
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| Now to pack out of my basement lair...onward to Detroit! |
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p.s. I got Helen Hunted today.
