As I read and tried to work through what was happening in The Colonel during class today, I found myself confused. I wrestled through questioning whether they were at war, or whether the people of this country were living under a dictatorship. I was excited when Professor Corrigan announced this piece of literature and said that he thought it took place in Nicaragua. This allowed me to feel more connected to what I was reading because I have done missions work in Nicaragua on two separate occasions. At the beginning of the piece the description of the atmosphere resonate deep within my soul. When I left Nicaragua and came back and spoke in front of several groups at church and school, I kept saying, “I left part of my heart in Nicaragua.” In the piece of literature it says, “Broken bottles were embedded in the walls around the house to scoop the kneecaps from a mans legs or cut his hands to lace.” This is the exact picture that I got when I was in Nicaragua. For protection in their houses, the people literally embed broken bottles on the top of the cement walls surrounding their houses in order to keep people from climbing over the walls and breaking into their house. This just shows me the poverty that people in other countries are living in every day. We take so much for granted living in the United States. We truly do no know how much we are blessed until we go and see how other people are living, or have our blessings taken away. Although this piece of literature was not centered on the culture in which it took place. I think it is important to understand the culture in which our literature is taking place. Every culture is so extremely different, that it is vital that we learn, explore, experience, within the literature, where the people and situations are coming from. I think that it will make the literature come alive within us.