Una vida tonta, ¿no? (Friday December 3 - Day 24)

Friday December 3: Day 24

I laugh every day. Every single day. I know how lucky I am and I know how absurd this lifestyle may appear. It really is silly. Today at lunch, I was able to sit back and just watch what was happening around me. It was like watching a movie through someone else`s eyes. Sitting around one table, in an adobe house on the outskirts of some small town in Northern Argentina, there is a girl from South Africa, three Germans, a French man, a guy from England, a young woman from Switzerland, an older woman from Canada, and a retired Argentinean couple from San Juan. There are four languages being spoken simultaneously, although usually everyone is trying to communicate in broken Castellano. We are all so different. Language. Culture. Body type. Body language. Personality. Passions. Looks. Skills. Reasons for traveling. Goals. But we`re here. Together. And no matter what the differences are, we are family. We clean up after each other. We joke around. We share food. We rest together. We sit in silence together. We watch the news together. And through it all, our true personalities manage to shine through. The South African is charming. The Germans are free spirited and wide eyed. The Swiss is strong and confident.  This wouldn`t work for everyone. It isn`t easy to be yourself in an unknown group in a foreign country. I think it takes that sparkle in your eye.  That genuine integrity and that self confidence. It is touching to realize how passion, intensity, sincerity, curiosity, and integrity can outshine any language and cultural barrier.

Later that night, we all went to town for a beer. We sat around small tables in front of the local phone station near the town`s central plaza. Families passed by on their way to the tango show that had come to town. Young boys sat on their motorbikes and whistled at the girls as they walked by. Old men sat together and smiled large, toothless grins. Packs of dogs roamed the streets looking for anything new and exciting. And we sat amongst it all. A town that, in reality, would not attract internationals without Granja Tia Nora`s WWOOFing network.  A town that, in reality, I would never have been lucky enough to see without Pedro and Lucia`s invitation. A family that would not exist without our personalities. This is absurd. Beautiful. Silly. Unexpected. Wonderful.