If you know me you know I like to focus on the positive. You know I’m not the best at allowing emotions of sadness and seriousness to surface, but those emotions don’t seem so foreign while walking through Columbia in the city Manantiales where the people are enslaved to drugs, robbed of safety, and rejected the ability to dream. Living in America the idea that my dreams are obtainable and that I would be crazy not to chase them is shoved down my throat daily from my teachers, friends and family. Coming here my heart broke when I saw people who have experienced so much pain and suffering to the point where dreaming was as foreign to them as a life without technology is to us. Im glad God opened my eyes to the pain around the world because I always assumed that mission trips where positive that playing with children was fun and exploring the world was exciting, but I forgot that these children go back to broken homes after our programs come to a close. I get to experience these people’s joy for a couple hours a day, but thats all it is just a couple hours…. until the women go home and become victim to abuse and the men continue their job of dealing drugs and their children slowly lose their childhood and are forced to face reality.
Well there is some insight in to my feelings and emotions. So on the other side of things this Country really is beautiful it is home to some of the most diverse plants and flowers in the world. I’m currently living in a house where the ceiling is falling in and there are holes everywhere that expose the outside world, but it is already beginning to feel like home. I’m starting to like living in community which I’m sure none of your are surprised by because of my extremely extraverted personality. Today I found out that their happens to be a washing machine in our humble little home so Im pretty excited to stop washing all my clothes by hand. I haven’t really gotten to explore this country that much which makes me a little antsy, but we are going into the city today and I can’t wait to run around and soak up all the culture this place has to offer.
