President Barack Obamarama!!

I'm Excited! I'm Excited! I'm Excited!

...and exhausted!

Today was a blast! First off, I was at work until 2am finishing my feature story on how Obama won the presidency. I chose to make it a nat pack, with the 'Yes we can' song composed by Will.I.Am running underneath. That ran in the primetime news show, the Big Story.





It's a good thing my editor, Chege Kariuki, told me I could come in a little later. This morning I had an in-studio interview with two political experts. Representing the Kenyan perspective was Robert Asembo, who's a lawyer and political analyst in Nairobi. On the American side was Karen Rothmyer, former executive editor of The Nation and currently a lecturer at Nairobi University. This was super cool, because we discussed US-Kenya relations and the possible future, amid the big economic mess President Obama has to clean up. Oh that sounds great, 'President Obama!'

But I digress.




It was also cool because it was like a talk-show format. The 30-minute interview ran in two parts in the afternoon. And I'll be honest, I hid in the cafe when it played, because I didn't want to hear it...whatever 'it' may have been. But when I came out, the folks here told me how comfortable I was. I did feel really relaxed, or perhaps I was just marveling a bit in what was to happen later that night...which by the way, Kenya is 9 hours ahead of the US.





Then for the night, I celebrated with the US Embassy. TJ Dowling, the Counselor for Public Affairs over at the US Embassy held an Inaugural watching party at his home--this beautiful estate on the tip of Nairobi.



A funny thing happened when I was getting interviews after the swearing in. I'm talking to all kinds of people, but one woman who my camera man grabbed for me spoke about her pride for witnessing this moment. At the end of our conversation, I asked her name and she is Eva Muraya, CEO of Color Creations Ltd.. Now how I met her is through about 2 degrees of separation.

When I told my Fabulous mentor Donna Gutman, Director of the Chicago World Trade Organization's Women of the World, she connected me with Mary Schnack , CEO of PR works, who travels regularly to Nairobi. Then Mary connected me to Eva, who lives in Nairobi.

But anyway, it was a great historical night. I must be honest I'm a little Obamaed out, but I love it!!

Stay tuned...