Sometimes I miss driving. There is something so liberating about controlling the vehicle you are traveling in, listening to the music you want to hear, singing as loudly as you please, and arriving at your destination in the same vehicle you left in.

But then again, there is something equally as exhilarating about boarding a bus marked “Valparaiso Community Schools,” watching the men/women/children board the bus and pass out free samples of their biscuits in hopes that someone will purchase, count the number of Jesus stickers/flashing neon lights that pimp out the bus, be stared at by children because they don’t know any better, and travel amidst people for whom this is their life. They will never blog about traveling to Tegus. It would be about as interesting as me writing about a trip to Ann Arbor.

The strange thing about straddling two cultures is the ability to see the beauty and the ugly in both. The US is synonymous with money and I think almost everyone I know has a relative working there. And if not their relative, they surely know someone. But those people don’t live my life, they serve my life. And the people even more above me. And then they get sent back and work as taxi drivers and speak to the gringos in English.

And it’s hard to talk with people whom plane travel is a mysterious phenomenon that will never be possible for them and try to convince them that money doesn’t buy happiness. It does make some things easier and nicer. But buying in to that myth too fully means making everyone envious of their neighbor and only want more. And that’s the tricky thing about more. You can never quite satisfy it. You never have enough. And that’s why it’s hard to explain to the people who don’t have these things why they won’t actually make them happy. I want to tell them, “I know people who have want you want and they’re not any happier than you.” But it’s hard to believe words.

Because it breaks my heart when people can’t pay for simple doctor visits or when their kids have to beg if they’re going to eat that day. But it breaks my heart in a different way when they get jealous of my computer or camera. Because as nice as it is to have email and save memories, I find so much more joy in be exhausted from freeze tag and neatly parting their hair to make pigtails and cuddling even though I know it will give me lice. And it’s cliché and I’m sure we already know it … but I’ve really found that the best things in life are free. And although I could bribe them with gifts and all things money can buy ... that doesn't really buy love :0)