My Trip to Colombia

By: Kayla

Age: 14

Oh, I never thought I would go out of the country, but I did!! It seemed like a dream until we actually got there, and even then I couldn’t believe it. It was amazing!!!! The scenery , the city, but most of all…the children! I couldn’t believe how happy they were. I mean, how could you be happy if you didn’t have any parents or you knew you had parents but they didn’t care about you?? And they were so…….loveable. You could make friends with them so quickly if you just smiled and at them and said “Hola.” Then they would smile back and hug you and be your friend. It was great!!!! You don’t see that in America. A lot of kids in America are too prejudiced to be that friendly. I liked the way they were in Colombia!!

The language barrier was very annoying, and how I longed to know more Spanish!!! I am planning to learn more Spanish so when we go back I’ll be fluent!!! Even with the language barrier, it didn’t prevent Jaci  and I from having fun with the children!!! We would stumble around, trying to communicate things and actually, that was kinda fun in itself!!! But we played soccer, played on the playground or just sat there and a child would  be there with you, either lying in your lap or with their arm around you. And they would say something and we would try to understand it but I think the thing we said most was, “No entiendo.”

Whew!! Hardcore work. I don’t think I’ll ever complain about doing dishes again after that!!! Oh, and washing clothes by hand!! I’ve never done that before!! Hardcore work, too! But it was kinda fun to try and get all the stains out. They had two washing machines and four dryers, but I guess the expense is too much to run them often. And dancing at the woman’s meeting. . . . I was so glad I did that. It was great!!!! And ya know, I felt at total peace with everything.  

I was surprised at myself that I didn’t even want to complain. Before we went I said to myself that I shouldn’t complain because we are going on a mission’s trip, and mission’s trips are all about working and so I shouldn’t complain about work. But even in my head I didn’t want to complain. I have missionary books and I read them again before the trip to see what I could possibly face in another country I don’t know maybe that helped prepare me or maybe it was just God. I could go on and on, but I would take up about 1,000 pages so I’ll close with this: I had an AMAZING time and I would LOVE to go back!!!!!