During lunch on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, I heard two
very tragic stories that come from the happiest, hardworking,
and generous people I know. The first story came from my cleaning lady. She
works 6 days a week at the high school where I taught and then comes to my house
on Sundays. One day, as we were eating lunch, she began to talk about her
hometown of 500 people in the mountains of Santa Marta. As a child she worked
in the fields, but had to leave due to FARC and paramilitary forces. They
overran her town killing her brother in the process. He didn’t want to give up
his land and animals so they shot him. As she was telling her story, a friend
who was visiting nodded her head with compassion as tears welled up in her eyes.
She told the story of a fellow colleague of a private bilingual school in
Valledupar. They taught kindergarten together until one day her friend was
kidnapped by the FARC. For three years, her young students asked when their
favorite teacher was coming back.…
A Close- Up on Cartagena, Colombia