Druglords, kidnapping, violence... These are some of the stereotypes that come to mind when we think about the country Colombia.

Delicious food, kind people, pastors in need of training...
These are some of the realities I encountered during my time there last week. I traveled with 3 teammates from Sepal Guatemala (the mission organization I work with here in Guatemala) to visit some of our Colombian teammates in Sepal Colombia. We spent a week training them in material that they can use to train Christian leaders, pastors and Colombians who want to be sent as missionaries to other countries. We also took some time to do some sightseeing and appreciate the beauty of Colombia. The trip was a great opportunity for me to try out my skills as a translator (it's a tough job!!) and to visit a country that I had been dreaming of visiting for years! (I finally convinced my parents that just because all the news coming out of Colombia is bad doesn't mean that I would die there!)
The only dark spot in the trip occurred our first night there... I managed to eat some bad chicken salad on the plane on the way to Colombia, and so I was miserable our first night with our host family! I spent the whole night in the bathroom and by the time we got up the next morning, I was weak, tired and the farthest thing from my mind was eating breakfast. Well...our host family, being good latin hosts, had breakfast waiting for us, and would have been quite offended if we had rejected their culinary efforts our first morning with them! But, I figured I could stomach some coffee, bread, eggs - pretty much any "normal" breakfast food I could probably handle. Colombian breakfasts are quite varied, however, and I'm sure you can imagine the delight I felt when I sat down to the table and was served....FISH SOUP!!! I assure you, I had to fight with all my strength not to let the tears run down my face! I managed to get about half of it down, and it was actually pretty tasty (when I tried to forget that we were eating it for breakfast and that my stomach had been doing gymnastics all night!)!
Our time in Colombia was wonderful, in spite of my digestive difficulties, and the most dangerous thing we encountered was the fish soup! I truly enjoyed my time there, especially because we were able to encourage and fellowship with our friends in Sepal Colombia. I look forward to my next opportunity to return to Colombia, but this time I'll pass on the chicken salad...