Carolyn in Cartagena

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.…