Meeting Barack Obama's Grandmother

Last Thursday when I visited APECC we were near the town of Kogelo where Barack Obama's paternal grandmother lives. As we drove into town we saw the sign posts for the Senator Obama Secondary School that Barack Obama founded during one of his visits to Kenya. We got to one intersection in the village and didn't really know where to go. There were about a dozen men all sitting under the shade of a tree who all started pointing and saying "White House this way!" when they saw us. We made the turn and drove on a little further and when we got to the house, we could just tell that we had arrived. The house compound has a newly installed barbed wire fence and large gate. Just inside the gate we saw two tents where the security guards sleep. 24 hours a day a security guard from the Kenya Police monitors the compound. We started taking pictures but were stopped by the security guard who told us we couldn't take photographs until we signed in. So he opened the gate for us and we signed the guest book. He then told us we were free to walk around and take any pictures we wanted. Someone else directed us to sit in some lawn chairs that were set up near the house. We just kind of sat there not really knowing what we were waiting for. Just outside the home we saw the grave sites of Barack Hussein Obama (Obama's father) and Hussein Barack Obama (Obama's grandfather).

After a few minutes of waiting a security guard in a suit came out and welcomed us into the home! We entered the small home and saw Mama Sarah, Barack Obama's grandmother sitting on the couch. They welcomed us in to sit down next to her. She only spoke Luo and Swahili so our driver did a lot of the talking. We all just kind of sat there in awe at the whole situation. She had a few pictures of Obama's visit to her home in years past. She also had a large cardboard cut-out of him and a large Obama calendar. I took 6 weeks of Swahili when I got to Kenya, so I introduced myself to her, told her I was a student and that I was from Chicago. I also introduced all of my coworkers. She was very impressed with my Swahili and even told me that I know more Swahili than Barack!

We were allowed to take one group picture with her and then we left the home. When we were outside we talked with one of the guys who was in the home with us. He introduced himself and we found out that his name was Roy Obama, Barack Obama's cousin. Basically everyone in Kenya claims that they are Barack Obama's cousin but I think we met his legitimate cousin. He was surprisingly interested in us and where we were from. I told him that I was staying in Kisumu until April and he said that he comes to Kisumu a lot. We exchanged phone numbers and he wants to hang out soon.