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.
