4th of July

My first 4th of July overseas may have been the most patriotic I've ever felt. I've been cynical about our government since I began learning about politics in high school when my brother gave me a crash course on US-Middle East relations at the time of the invasion of Iraq (Joe, you probably don't even remember but we were driving to Danbury in Miguel listening to Rage Against the Machine... that eventually led to my studying political science in college, which led to an interest in human rights, which brought me to Rwanda. Are you regretting teaching your little sister now?).

George W. Bush has been our only president in all those years,so it's not surprising that "celebrating our indepence" has been a laughable venture to me, considering that I see aspects of our country as anything but independent: we're dependent on foreign oil, women's rights are at the hands of predominately white male Supreme Court justices, and our economy relies on the greed and/or generosity of bureaucrats and billionaires. I've always accepted that these thoughts are a Catch-22: by virtue of being able to voice my opinion, things aren't as bad as they are elsewhere, so I should appreciate my country and all its downfalls. However, just because I can say that something is wrong, it doesn't minimize the problem.

So why the sudden patriotism? For one thing, at the American embassy's 4th of July party there were Dr. Peppers for sale (if I'm not my father's daughter...), and the selfish American in me is sick of only drinking Coke and Orange Fanta. The best part, though, was seeing so many kind-hearted Americans who are living in this tiny African country, devoting their time to restoring education, health, and hope to people with whom they may have nothing else in common except humanity. We met one family in which the daughters are trilingual at the ripe ages of 5 and 7, the mother received an MPH from Johns Hopkins, and the father is a Harvard law grad; they have the potential to do anything, but they spend their life almost nomadically, traveling to the most remote countries to network with small unheard-of non-profits in order to advance those groups' efforts and ideals. Amazing. Inspiring.

As a (shocking) side note, I was so swept up in being American that I officially tried my first-ever hamburger. And it wasn't even so bad! Maybe even good... Africa is changing me!