Burgers, hot dogs, beer, fireworks, and good company. These are all quintessential elements of the celebrations that mark the day that the 13 colonies declared independence from British rule. Despite being almost halfway around the world, I managed to happily integrate all of the above into my celebration of the 234th anniversary of US independence, thanks to the current US Ambassador to Malawi, Peter Bodde, who had invited Americans all over Malawi to the US Ambassador’s residence in Lilongwe.

After listening to a speech given by the Ambassador and written by President Obama (by the way, Malawians here are CRAZY about Obama: Obama gum, Obama jeans, Obama T-shirts, etc), I had a great time meeting the many American expats living here in Malawi. There were probably about a hundred that attended, and the majority of them were young, probably no older than 35, which is not surprising as there were two busloads of Peace Corps volunteers that attended.

Again, the most memorable part of this experience was definitely meeting all the amazing, passionate people who were also doing service here in Malawi. I met:

• a nurse working at the US Embassy clinic for American diplomats in Malawi. She had been working there for 10 years, and when she found out I was Taiwanese, told us that the recent transfer of diplomatic relations from Taiwan to China had caused the departure of many Taiwanese volunteers who were doing good work in Malawi. Now, there are many Chinese companies here in Malawi employing Malawians in factories.
• Peace Corps volunteer from Pepperdine in charge of developing pit latrines for her community. This is important as lack of proper human waste disposal are a huge public health risk for any population. In her (approximate) words, it is definitely “positively affecting people at their most sensitive moments.”
• Peace Corp volunteers selling goods from the support groups they are serving and mentoring. It seems like the majority of the Peace Corp volunteers here are involved with microenterprise/income-generating projects. Some of the projects include selling music CDs, cloth sackey balls, and bags made of local cloths here which are so popular with tourists/volunteers here.
• Kelly, a Peace Corps volunteer from UCSD who was one of the other few Asian Americans at the event. She was responsible for setting up HIV support groups and managing community healthcare workers.
• Missionaries from Florida who were in charge of facilitating projects with a microfinance group called Tricord. They had so many inspiring stories about their experiences here in Malawi: they had adopted an HIV+ (now HIV-) orphan who was absolutely adorable and so lucky to have such loving parents, they had worked on projects specifically focused on women/girl empowerment such as working with mother/child prison populations who were living in absolutely squalid conditions and their children were now suffering because of the measles epidemic. We shared our frustrations with how education was so lacking here, and how that was the root of many social problems here in Malawi.
• James & Robyn Nottingham. Robyn has recently written a book in Chitumbuka (another Malawian language) to teach small business/savings skills to the community she serves up in Northern Malawi.
• Sam from UC Santa Cruz and his friend, both Peace Corps volunteers, who were speaking fluent Mandarin to each other. Sam had spent 2 years teaching English in Beijing and now was just starting his Peace Corps assignment here in Malawi. Sam and his friend’s Mandarin was absolutely amazing, and these are the type of people that my mom would show me and tell me that I should be ashamed at myself! He told me about that it has been a trend for Malawians to describe things “Chinese” as shoddy and low-quality. I’m not particularly offended by it, but find it quite interesting.

The one thing that I regret is not meeting more people and getting to know them better. The one thing that unifies the majority of the Americans here is their commitment to service and truly making a positive impact on their communities wherever they are, which is a common goal we all share. However, most of them will be here for the long haul (at least 2 years) to ensure the success of their projects. It’s definitely something that I would not be able to commit to, and I really applaud them for their commitment.