insight from a dirt road

I'm beginning to learn that to "know" a place, a country, a city, it's not all about how many places you see, but rather about how many people you meet, how many stories you hear, and about how many relationships you build.

This past weekend, I went to visit mi tia (my aunt) in a little (and I mean little) city called Jesus Maria, that is about an hour in bus away from Cordoba.  Mi abuela, mi nueva hermana y yo left early in the morning, took the bus, and arrived in Jesus Maria by about 10:45am.  The first thing I noticed was the tranquility of the place, the land, and of course the dirt roads.

It quickly made me realize how much of a city person I've become.  I've gotten so used to the sounds of traffic, cars honking, people talking, phones ringing, and men making crude comments that I don't even hear them anymore.  I think I might have heard more in the silence of Jesus Maria than I hear here in the city of Cordoba on a daily basis.  I've become so accustomed to noise, that the silence was almost deafening, but not in such a bad way.

It was in that little city full of dirt roads that I realized when, where, and how I learn the most.  I remember getting ready to come to Argentina, and thinking about all the places I was going to travel to - everywhere in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, ect. I was so full of those big dreams and so under the impression that seeing those places would make me a more intelligent, well-rounded person.  How wrong was I.

I'm here with a little more than two months left and weekends that are filling up very fast, and I haven't been to half of the places I thought I'd go to.  In fact, I think I've only been to places I didn't think I would go to because I didn't know they even existed prior to coming here.

As of now, I've been to the northern provinces of Jujy, Salta, and Tucuman, and I've been to the eastern province called Entre Rios.  I've been close to Bolivia, and I've even seen Uruguay from across the river.  I've been to Alta Gracia, and now Jesus Maria.  I have a trip planned this weekend to a place called Villa Mercedes, and two other trips planned to Buenos Aires and Mendoza, but that's it.  It may seem like a lot, but it's no where near half of what I thought prior to coming, and many of the places are somewhat unknown, so there's not much to see but dirt roads and the people who live there.

But I would have never met this little girl and this tiny puppy had I not gone to a place like Jesus Maria.  I would have never gotten to see the smile on her face as she introduced her puppy to me, and I would have never gotten to take a peek inside her life, see where she lives, and hear about how she rescued that puppy from the streets.

That's one of the many reasons why it doesn't bother me one bit that I haven't traveled as much as I thought I would.  I have most certainly without a doubt learned more discovering dirt roads, cooking with mi abuela, and breaking bread (literally) around the table with my new loved ones than any trip to sight-see could have ever taught me.  I have been humbled and felt love in new, more hopeful, and more encouraging ways. 

That's what that day in Jesus Maria taught me.  A dirt road is nothing glamorous, it's nothing any normal person would take a picture of, but for me it has a deeper meaning.  It's the road that one of my loved one's lives on, it's a road where bread is broken, laughs are had, and families are together.  It's a road yet to be paved, yet to be discovered, and yet to be messed with...much like the culture and love I've learned about here.  It's genuine, pure, and intimate...and I'm so glad that it is the one thing I have discovered.