The US Ambassador had a 4th of July party last night. We were invited, as recipients of USAID funds, to set up a stall at the event. Guess who got to man the stall? It was a hot and muggy afternoon of setting up our materials and hoping it wouldn't rain. But once people started coming to the stall, I began to enjoy myself. The first visitors were our stall neighbors, many of whom were from faith-based organizations. It was fun to earnestly explain that the pretty boxes on one side of our table were contraceptive pills and contraceptive injectables. Those visitors usually took an involuntary step back and moved on before I could talk about our condom promotion materials on the other side of the table. Hee, hee. I didn't know any of the dressed up invited guests (well, other than the ubiquitous Sean Penn) so it was fun to deliver my blithe spiel on our work and see what kind of reaction I got. In some cases, people lost interest when they realized we weren't giving anything away, which is a good screening mechanism, I discovered.
We were released from duty for the speeches, anthems, Marines doing their color guard thing, and.....FIREWORKS! Not just a few token fireworks, but big, splashy, bang-y fireworks that went on and on and on! My first thought was that I hoped no one in the city would think this was gunshots. My second thought was how thankful I am to the ancient Chinese for inventing fireworks. My last thought, before my brain stalled out from the pure enjoyment of the display, was that I bet in places where there is actual mortar fire, fireworks are not so popular.
The packing up phase was made more agreeable by the champagne and the discovery of micro burgers. That's right - micro! The size of a large marble! Complete with pickles! Amaaaaaazing!
Happy birthday, America!
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