Barack Obama Gets Start Treatment in Family Village in Kenya

[AtomicKitten]

Throngs greet Senator Obama in Kenya
By C. Bryson Hull Sat Aug 26



KOGELO, Kenya (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Barack Obama returned to his ancestral village in west Kenya on Saturday as thousands of cheering well-wishers thronged to greet the rising political star in America's Democratic Party as a native son.

After flying into Kisumu on the shores of Lake Victoria, Obama drove 100 km (60 miles) northwest to the village where his father was born and buried for the highly anticipated climax of his two-week African tour.

Unlike his last visit in the early 1990s when he traveled by public minibus with chickens in his lap, this time Obama reached the verdant village in a motorcade with police escorts.

"People of Kogelo, thank you!" he said in the local Luo language to rapturous applause as he stood on a table to greet thousands gathered on the football pitch of the Senator Obama Primary School, renamed in his honor.

A carnival atmosphere prevailed as residents banged drums, sang songs and waved flags reading "Obama we love you."

Weaving through the excited masses, vendors sold red popsicles to ward off the Equatorial heat, while others hawked T-shirts and calendars saying "Welcome home Senator Obama."

* snip *

On his arrival earlier in Kisumu, he took an AIDS test at a local hospital with his wife Michelle, setting an example for the tens of thousands of Africans who fear the stigma of being tested for the disease ravaging sub-Saharan Africa.

"If a senator from the United States and his wife can get tested, then everyone in this crowd, in this town and in this province can get tested," he told the crowd in Nyanza province, which has one of the highest HIV infection rates in Kenya.

more at http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060826/pl_nm/kenya_obama_dc_3

[wakeme2008]

1. AK you may want to edit your thread title

:rofl: