A Girl at Kay Timoun

I'll tell you about this girl, M, that I'm caring
for. The situation is so pathetic that to deal with her I
have to look at her with humor. It's not funny, it's sad, but you
know "gallow's laugh"--that's what this is. A little
background...shortly after I opened Kay Timoun I went out the back
door to find twin girl babies, almost naked, lying on the floor. My first
thought was "Oh no! somebody left me twins"...they were tiny, scrawny,
and 2 months old, I later found out. "Who left these babies here?" I
shouted, and found out that their mother would soon be back. Well, I
ended up feeding these babies for about a year. They grew into
healthy toddlers. The mother was and is still grateful for what I do
for them and brings a five gallon bucket of mountain water every day.
We still, by the way, are feeding the family. So...on to M.
One day, vacation time, I guess last summer, this girl shows up. She
is skinny, straggly, but as sweet as can be. She's hanging out and I
say she has to go. She doesn't, and mumbles something about her
mother. I ask the other kids, who is she...She is the sister of the
twins, just returned to her mother and had been a "restavec" (child
slave) with a family. She asks if she can stay. I couldn't understand
her but the kids told me. I said no, she couldn't stay. I thought
she would cry, so I said she could come in the daytime and eat here
and go home at night. As time went on, I wanted to get to know her
better...she didn't know how old she was but thought she was 12. Her
mother didn't know and didn't have any identification for her. She
said she had been to school, the first grade, but didn't pass. In the
meantime, she doesn't have clothes, shoes, nothing...I provided. So,
after about a month and school is ready to begin, I think that
M should go to school so I ask Mom for her papers to prove that
she is a "person" and can enroll in school. No papers. My house
mother, Cawol, knew what to do and arranged for a person to come here,
paid his bribe, and got identification so M could begin first
grade at the government school. Then one day at church, she went
forward at birthday time and said she was 14!

So, she is in first grade, 14 years old! She cannot read the most
simple words. She has been working on "li li, le, le, lo, lo, ma, ma,
mo, mo, pa, pa," since school began.  She carries her torn book with
her, points to these small words and guesses what they are. She
doesn't have a clue. I work with her every day and she just cannot
get it! Writing is something else...I have her writing "lo, li, etc."
and she tries really hard but has no grasp of what to do. Trying to
teach her to write her name is exhausting! She is so sweet, and tries
so hard! I met with the teacher and administrator...he said that he
thinks there is something wrong with her brain...I do too! And this
part isn't funny at all. Her mother is pregnant again and totally
undernourished. I give her prenatal vitamins every week. I'm sure
that the mother was so malnourished when she was pregnant with
M that the brain didn't develop and then add that the baby, if
anything like her twin sisters, didn't get nourishment.

So, M's story is tragic...I'm teaching her basics about life in
general..."blow your nose!" She is the first one to chip in with the
cleaning, a throw back to her life as a restavec.