And the winner is...

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Writing from Stone Town, Zanzibar Archipelago, Tanzania, we have safely evacuated Kenya. Seeing headlines such as "tension building in Mombasa" has made us quite glad that we did so. After 5 glorious days in the town of Lamu, we headed south to Malindi, a region heavily developed by Italians and full of the typical touristy holiday problems that I used to love, and now loathe. Being constantly approached by people selling useless trinkets was a lot more fun in Mexico when I was 12. After a few memorable day trips, one to the ancient ruin town of Gede, we decided Mombasa would be a better place to spend Christmas and witness the elections. Christmas in Kenya this year was extremely uneventful, due to the fact that 97% of the population decided to forego holiday travel to remain in their voting districts for the Dec. 27th elections. Election day was loud, and only a few blocks away was an elementary school that had hundreds of people in line all day long waiting to vote. That night there were sporadic car-horn honking outbursts that lasted up to 20 minutes, although only 3% of the total votes had been tallied at that point.
The next morning we crossed the border into Tanzania, and spent one night in Dar es Salaam before taking a ferry to Zanzibar. Already shocked at the volume of travellers and back-packers we have seen, we're spending new years in Stone Town where we both hope we can stay up past midnight, before heading to the isolated beach paradises that cover the entire island.
For those who have been out of touch with international news, or bombarded with analysis on the assasination of Bhutto, the Kenyan election is not short on excitement as we speak. The ECK (Electoral Commission of Kenya) has delayed the announcement of the President due to there being less than 40,000 votes between the two main candidates. This is interesting because the aspiring President Raila Odinga was leading by more than a million votes at one point, and the incumbent seems to have made an unbelievable surge to match the vote total. Of course talk of rigging and such is very prevalent in the media, and we are expecting an announcement to be made today about the winner. Could cause quite an uproar, no matter who is victorious. At least we're safe, and the coverages is solid in Tanzania, as Kenya is seen as the leading economic power in East Africa. Anyways, sorry there is no pictures, it has been more than frustrating, and I know how boring reading about places is without being able to see pictures of it. Zanzibar is relatively easy though. Crystal clear turquoise waters, white sand beaches, palm trees, and endless sunshine. I'm sure you can all picture that. Happy 2008,
-Graham

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