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Obama Inspires Hope in Father's Homeland
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On the televisions at the Camel's Joint Hotel, the convention-night biography skipped quickly past Barack Obama Sr., to stories of Obama's mother waking up at 4 a.m. to tutor her son and to glittering images of Chicago.
Omondi didn't seem to mind. "Do you see that place?" he asked no one in particular, looking at the far-away city.
When Obama finally appeared on the stage, Omondi was fetching coffee for the trade union official, Kefa Olala, who was sitting with a friend, a suitcase at their feet.
"Thank you! Thank you!" Obama yelled to the crowd in Denver, and in a way, to the people sitting and milling about the cafe at 5:20 a.m. As Obama officially accepted the nomination for president, Olala smiled and shook his head in amazement.
"Obama is the best!" one of the cooks yelled from the kitchen, as the senator spoke about dignity, respect and being his brother's and sister's keeper. "Do you think he will win?" asked Anthony Mwangi, 33, the electrician. "Is it possible?"
"You know, some people believe the White House was made for white people," he added.
As Obama moved onto health care, Omondi retreated to a corner and sat on a white plastic chair to watch one of the TVs. He was the one who had hung the Obama posters a few months back "to encourage people," he said. "To make people feel they are more respected, because he could be the first African president elected in that country."
Omondi works most days at the cafe, he said, and as the first born of five children, takes his earnings every Saturday to his parents, who are farmers. As Obama got around to Iraq and Iran, Omondi was tired.
When the senator from Illinois finished his historic speech, the young waiter from Kisumu was asleep in the chair.
