Although I will miss my first 4th of July weekend living in the United States, I’m thrilled to be able to join my country’s own national celebration this weekend. I’m sitting right now at a gate at Dulles waiting for my flight to Bogota to start boarding, and I cannot wait to get over there and talk to my taxi driver to feel the optimism that must be ramping up all over the country because of yesterday’s extraordinary news. I wanted to share this feeling with you before leaving and invite you to follow the coverage through your network of preference -- CNN [1], BBC [2], Economist [3], Globovision [4] or El Tiempo [5], just to name a few. Today a country is feeling that extraordinary things are achievable, which is something always worth sharing and celebrating.

So farewell until next Monday, when I’ll be back in Washington and rejoin the NextBillion conversation. Next week will be an exciting one for us at WRI and here at NextBillion. Our New Ventures Country Directors (from Mexico, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and our new partner in Colombia) will be in Washington for a week-long meeting to shape the program’s future and share experiences about the landscape for investment in sustainable SMEs in their countries.

Those of you in the east coast are welcome to join us next Wednesday in an open panel with our directors, so make sure to check for all the details here first thing Monday. In addition, NextBillion Staff Writers will feature a series commenting on Just Another Emperor? [6], Michael Edwards’ thought provoking book, and we will tackle the Compartamos debate featured in the latest Economist as well as the bank’s letter to its peers [7] concerning its commercial strategy.

Well, last call for my flight, so off I go. Have a great weekend!