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Another Guyanese for Obama inauguration
TORONTO, Canada: The daughter of a Guyana-born woman from Canal Number One Polder, West Bank Demerara, and a Uganda-born man in Toronto is among the special guests invited to attend the inauguration of U.S. president elect, Barack Obama.
The fourth-year McMaster University health sciences student, Nadia Oryema, 21, told CaribWorldNews she is elated that she will witness history when the first black man is sworn in as the president of the world’s most powerful nation on January 20th.
Nadia Oryema
Oryema received her invitation in March last year, before the primaries and the general election, to attend the presidential youth inaugural conference in the U.S.
The PYIC is held every four years in January following the presidential election. Inaugural scholars take part in the traditional ceremony of the inauguration itself, as they witness the official swearing-in of the President of the United States, and view the inaugural parade as the president, vice-president and their families make their way from the U.S. Capitol to the White House.
“I feel very excited and privileged to be able to be there for this inauguration; it’s a very monumental and exciting one, so I’m looking forward to it as it gets closer and there is more talk about it in the news, like I’m getting goose bumps,” Oryema told CWNN, adding that she was following closely the election and was hoping that Obama would win, since her father is from the same tribe as Obama.
The conference, which runs from January 16 to January 21, is for university students from around the world and Oryema believes that because she participated in two leadership conferences in China and eastern Europe through an American organization called the Congressional Youth Leadership Council in the past, she was selected.
At the conference, the students have been invited to a special session with Colin Powell and Al Gore and Oryema is not ruling out any possibility of getting up and close with Obama during the Inauguration Ball.
“I feel given the high security and just the magnitude of the event, I feel that probably that wouldn’t be likely (referring to meeting Obama). I definitely feel there will be opportunities to meet important individuals within Washington, for example when we do have the talks from Al Gore and Colin Powell. That would definitely be an exciting opportunity to at least interact and be in the same environment with these individuals,” she added.
Oryema has applied to medical school and wants to pursue a Masters degree in public health. Her father is a medical doctor, who came to Canada as a refugee while her mother manages his office.
Her mother, Laleeta Oryema is excited. “I want Nadia to be a role model to other kids and me and my husband have been working really hard to provide for our kids,” said Mrs. Oryema, while adding that she has never given up her Guyanese roots, taking her children, despite their multi-ethnic background, to the Hindu temple, where they are involved in playing musical instruments in the Kirtan group.
Meanwhile, another student of Guyanese heritage is also set for the Obama inauguration.
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