Happy belated birthday, America!
Holidays have been one of the hardest parts of my Peace Corps service. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, birthdays, Mother’s Day and anniversaries are are times when I get homesick, reminisce, crave traditions, and just miss me some good ol' USA.
I love the Fourth of July! This Fourth of July I was reminiscing on past celebrations in Idaho watching a town parade with horses, politicians, rodeo queens, etc. I thought about the times I went to the rodeo to watch baby calves get roped or attended a friend’s barbecue with ample beer and country music. Or I’d be antique show shopping with my mom and working at a pizza restaurant in my mom’s old cowboy boots in the evening. Or I’d be hiking a mountain with a friend and watching my little brother win a bike race. And as much as I was craving country music, hot dogs and cold beers, cold alpine lakes and lazy rivers, it was the one day here when I’ve felt most proud to be an American.
Many volunteers remarked that they never knew how patriotic they were until we left America. It’s similar in a way to the saying “You never know what you have until it’s gone.” Now that we’ve been dropped into an environment so different from our own little piece of the American pie, we have had to learn to appreciate what comes from being a citizen of the US of A.
There’s the comfort things like internet and air conditioning, craft beers and customer service. But there’s also the deeper things like our education system, our diversity, our work ethic and our justice system. There are our job opportunities, our democracy, our efficiency, our accessibility, our history and our freedom – of religion, of speech, of expression. It’s not yet perfect and there are some Americans who have less access to these deeper freedoms than others, but there is progress. We have forward momentum to become a better people and a better nation. And there are so many people fighting and working hard everyday for just that. To allow those who cannot access the education, healthcare or justice systems to get there. That in and of itself makes me so proud.
It’s this and so much more that makes a person like me, on a tiny island in the middle of the Caribbean, jump up and sing “America the Beautiful” at a bar full of volunteers who have given 27 months of their lives to serve others. It is a pride that propels a group of 60 volunteers to sing “Party in the USA" on a catamaran sailing through crystal blue waters, wear American flags in our hair, pin a mint wrapper that says “Made in America” to our clothes, high five and scream “’Merica” and reminisce on the good ol’ USA.
Peace Corps has three simple goals. Goal #2 is “to help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.” This means I get to tell people that American is more than Nueva Yol, explain how to make a simple grilled cheese sandwich, emphasize I don’t personally know Miley Cyrus or Justin Beiber, describe what snow looks and feels like and teach my nail lady how to paint the American flag on my toes. But more importantly, I get the chance to talk about equality, women’s rights, political leaders who are not corrupt, democracy that works, scholarships for academic achievements. I get to talk about equal opportunity, work ethic, the Supreme Court, and a president who doesn’t give empty campaign promises. And most of the time, they don’t even care if I know Kanye’s newest baby’s name or what the bathroom looks like in Obama’s house.
So yes, on the Fourth of July I missed America more than usual. But I am proud that each and every day I get the chance to represent it. I am honored that I was given the opportunity to serve the country where I was lucky enough to have been born, in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Peace!
Bronwen
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