In one of the main bus depots in Santo Domingo, a very sweet-looking old man in a blue button-up shirt—buttoned all the way to the top—walks around and makes people think he's crazy.

He's the local evangelist (a silent and unobtrusive evangelist, but still an evangelist) for the "Asociacion de Ateos Dominicanos [Ateodom]"—the Association of Dominican Atheists. People think he's crazy because the Dominican Republic is about 0% atheist. Those who aren't part of the 98.75 percent of Dominicans who profess an organized religion are mostly likely into voodoo. (It's hard to know, since many people are shy about discussing their household voodoo practices.)

So this happy-looking old atheist wanders around the bus depot, not saying a word but handing out cards.

Try to conduct your life and not the way another conducts his, because nobody knows better than you do the value of your life and your ideas...

If people like what they see, they give him 10 pesos and keep the card. If they don't like what the see, they hand it back to him with more or less severe expressions of disgust.

Nobody liked what they saw.

The man walked around the depot, everybody watching as he was rejected by person after person. And when he came to me and I read his card, I thought of Dan for some reason—and gave a donation to the Association of Dominican Atheists (or the world's least effective bus-station scam) in Savage's name.

Only one other person in the bus depot gave the guy a donation. But his sweet, serene expression never changed, no matter how much people seemed to dislike him and his card.

Vaya con Dios—er, vaya con something—old Dominican atheist.