Needless to say, the decision to relocate there is not one someone in my position should or would take lightly. But impending financial ruin has a way of forcing one into extreme measures.

This was two years after Ingrid Betancourt's capture and two years into Alvaro Uribe's first term as president. While things for people like me had become miserable in the US, it was a time of great optimism in Colombia.

FARC violence and kidnapping had dropped to less than half what they had been under Pastrana. I know Uribe is not popular here, mostly because readers of this blog and similar sites tend to focus on rather filtered and oftentimes slanted information. But the reality is, that for all his faults, whether justly perceived or not, Uribe has been extraordinarily effective in improving the security situation there. There is a reason why he enjoys an 80% popularity rating.

The fact is that Uribe has had an enormous, at times seeminlgy insurmountable challenge to deal with there. And I will say that for us fat and comfortable Americans it's very easy to point fingers and chastise him for not meeting our standards of ideological purity. But the situation in his country had been quite dire for many years, and those kinds of situations sometimes make for undesirable compromises.

FARC and the drug trade have made that country a living hell for decades. Colombia is an entire nation living in fear of being kidnapped or murdered.

My own wife tells the story of a neighbor who found his 20 year old daughter's head 100 yards from the car she was in which was stuck in traffic next to a car that was blown up by FARC.

Then there is the story of her own cousin, a private pilot who's plane was shot down over the jungle by FARC, or her uncle who narrowly escaped being kidnapped himself when two men had broken into his car and lain in wait for him, or the family friend who was kindapped by FARC 10 years ago for refusing to reliquish his family farm to the rebels for the purpose of growing coca.

They then took his farm by force and demanded a six figure ransom which his entire family pitched in to pay. Then there is the story of the six year old child whose bicycle was loaded with explosives by FARC guerillas. He was then sent at gunpoint to ride his bike to an army checkpoint, and upon arriving at the checkpoint, they promptly detonated the bomb with the child still on the bike.

No one in that nation has escaped the situation. Either by direct personal experience, or by that of a family member, friend, or personal acquaintence, vitually everyone in Colombia shares a measure of it's tragedy and it's misery.

Ingrid Betancourt and the three American hostages represent less than one percent of the hostages held by FARC. They are the lucky ones who's profile is high enough to capture the imagination of the world. But they are just the tip of the iceberg.

Still, the exercise of their release is worthwhile if it can raise the awareness and personalize it in a way that makes the rest of the world sit up and take notice.

I can say that having lived in Colombia as a foreigner for an extended period, the Colombian people are a warm, family oriented, loving people who take great joy in life. I often marvelled at the indominable spirit of these people who have had to face so much. And I think I understand a little of it. There is something that just makes you appreciate all that is good in life a lot more when you know that every day could be your last, or the last that you will see your loved ones.

All in all, my experience there has made me appreciate what we have here all the more, and has given me great respect for the Colombian people.