Runaway and Tooth Fairy

Tomorrow night Honduras and Canada play so I am heading to La Ceiba with a couple of other volunteers to go watch the game. It will be nice to spend a bit of time away from the orphanage. Although things had been going really well the oldest girl who is 16 years old tried to runaway on Wednesday. They found her with her boyfriend trying to get onto a bus to head to another village. Unfortunately they think that one of the live in Tias helped the couple plan their escape. I do not know all of the details yet but possibly the girl and her 2 sisters may have to go back into government custody. A couple of the other volunteers and I are going to try and get a better understanding of what exactly is going on and if the organization has a say in what happens to the girl or if it is just in government hands now. I think this really goes to show that the kids need to be in a public school in the city as opposed to a private school on the property of the orphanage. I think what would be best for the kids is to be interacting with other kids in a more social environment. The girl slept in the volunteer room when she was returned and I sat with her trying to talk to her as best as I could to understand how she was feeling. She just said she loved the orphanage, the kids, the people, the food, but didn't feel that she had enough freedom. I think every 16 year old girl can understand this, but also, most 16 year old girls have mothers they can go home and talk to and who are always there for them. This 16 year old girl sat on a bed in a room with 2 volunteers from foreign countries who weren't speaking their native language who have families they will eventually go home to, trying to console her. Thinking about this I knew there wasn't really anything I could say to her. I have no say in what happens to her and even if I sympathized with what she did it was still wrong and something out of my hands will still happen to her. I just knew if it was me and I was feeling as she was, the comfort of my mom would make all of the pain go away and she does not have that same luxury. Instead she has always been the tough one that her two younger sisters have depended on. I just held her while she cried until she told me she was ready to go to bed. I crawled into my bed and laid there listening to her cry herself to sleep. This happened Wednesday evening. Today is Friday and she is still at the orphanage and hasn't been sent away yet. There are still waiting to hear back from the government organization as to if/when she and her sisters will be leaving... It will be interesting to see what happens and how long it takes to happen. This girl had just aced her English test a week ago today, last Friday, and as a present I made her a necklace. Also, she eagerly ran with me Sunday in her sandals due to her infected ingrown toenail...

On another note, talking about moms... I want to thank my mom. I am the designated tooth fairy and living with 20 kids it seems I find myself having to stay up late every other night to put money under pillows! I usually get up around 5:30 am and I am in bed around 9:30 pm. The other day a boy came to my door and said he and another boy had lost their teeth 3 days prior and hadn't received any money yet. I hadn't been notified that they had lost their teeth so I said we should write a note to the tooth fairy. We wrote a note to put under the pillow with the 2 teeth. They boys asked me what would happen if the tooth fairy still didn't come even with a note... I said that I would call her manager if she still didn't come. All the kids loved this, knowing that I had the tooth fairies manager's telephone number! Needless to say that night a very tired tooth fairy arrived and left money under the pillows. I had to wait until all of the boys were asleep which wasn't until 11:30!

I hope all is well! Sorry this is short we are headed to get some licuados!