Happy Fourth! I hope everyone had an excellent 4th of July. I, for one, really missed my family today, especially after receiving a phone call from a family reunion, in which I spoke to family members I haven’t seen in quite a while.
Volunteers celebrated the 4th in different places. Some went to the south to Bahia de la Aguilas (which is what I did last year), some to Samana, a few to Puerto Plata, and others, like myself, just stayed in their sites. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been here for so long or if it’s because
I’m not as social as I used to be (too much alone time, maybe?) but I just wasn’t feeling a big celebration this year. The idea of traveling for more than 6 hours to hang out with a bunch of drunk Americans just didn’t appeal to me (no offense, fellow volunteers). So I decided to stay my site and celebrate with my close Dominican friends. But when the day came, none of them was very interested in celebrating. So I ended up taking Abbie Mae to a bar on the beach in the afternoon and hanging out alone… for a while.
After a couple of glasses of wine, I heard someone speaking English to the bartender, asking him about any parties around Bayahibe for the night. I thought it strange, considering the very few American tourists that come to Bayahibe, but I decided to investigate anyway. Sure enough, a fellow American had decided to spend his 4th of July in the small pueblo of Bayahibe. In a last minute decision (literally, he bought the ticket 10 hours before his flight), Steve, a Korean-American from Connecticut, had chosen to come to the Dominican Republic. Of all places in the world he could go, he showed up in my little town just in time to celebrate with me… and exactly on a day when I was really missing American companionship! The universe is a crazy place sometimes.
Volunteers celebrated the 4th in different places. Some went to the south to Bahia de la Aguilas (which is what I did last year), some to Samana, a few to Puerto Plata, and others, like myself, just stayed in their sites. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been here for so long or if it’s because
I’m not as social as I used to be (too much alone time, maybe?) but I just wasn’t feeling a big celebration this year. The idea of traveling for more than 6 hours to hang out with a bunch of drunk Americans just didn’t appeal to me (no offense, fellow volunteers). So I decided to stay my site and celebrate with my close Dominican friends. But when the day came, none of them was very interested in celebrating. So I ended up taking Abbie Mae to a bar on the beach in the afternoon and hanging out alone… for a while.After a couple of glasses of wine, I heard someone speaking English to the bartender, asking him about any parties around Bayahibe for the night. I thought it strange, considering the very few American tourists that come to Bayahibe, but I decided to investigate anyway. Sure enough, a fellow American had decided to spend his 4th of July in the small pueblo of Bayahibe. In a last minute decision (literally, he bought the ticket 10 hours before his flight), Steve, a Korean-American from Connecticut, had chosen to come to the Dominican Republic. Of all places in the world he could go, he showed up in my little town just in time to celebrate with me… and exactly on a day when I was really missing American companionship! The universe is a crazy place sometimes.
We hung out the entire day and I taught him a lot about the DR, the Peace Corps, and my life here in general. He seemed just as grateful as I to have someone to relate to on this day of celebration.
And to top off the evening, I got to see a short display of fireworks, which was very exciting, considering it had been 3 years since I’d watched fireworks on the 4th.
I hope each of you had a wonderful 4th and truly took some time to consider how fortunate we are to be Americans, when there are so many less-liberated alternatives.
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