Troubles

Well, even though I was only back at El Alfarero for four days, I think that it is fair to say that it was not an easy four days. The Saturday that I was gone was a particularly dramatic day, as after the girl who left on Friday (lets call her Jane) confessed that she had been bringing drugs into the home a lot more confessions came up. Salustio and Yany found drugs stashed in at least five places around the home, including in the rooms and on the volleyball court. It turns out that four girls had been taking drugs up to three times a day, one of them ever since she arrived in the home over a year ago. Jane had been selling drugs on for her dealer in school, and exchange for this he gave her drugs for her own personal use which she then shared with the four other girls. It turns out that even on the nights when one of us was sleeping in their room they were smoking drugs, completely without us ever noticing - the drug that they were smoking has no particularly distinct smell, and if we were sleeping then they were careful not to do anything to wake us up. Although looking in retrospect, there were nights in that room where I woke up every hour seemingly for no reason: I'm now beginning to think that there may have been a reason for that that I didn't quite twig in my half asleep state. Basically what Jane has done is jumped ship, leaving four drug addicts behind her: it all becomes even more poignant when you realise that she has not yet turned fourteen, and also left ten habitual drug users in her class at school.

It is unbelievabley disapointing, especially for Yany and Salustio who have been here for so much time, because despite all the time and energy that has been put in for them, the girls quite consiously deceived us. One of the girls who was using would literally be dead if the ministry hadn't paid for her operation and taken care of her during her recovery. Jane had been in the home for two years, and Yany and Salustio had placed quite a lot of trust in her, which she just threw back in their face. Although I obviously still do really love the girls and want to help them, this has left us all with little desire to organise activities and do things to help them. Especially since despite the fact that only five girls were taking drugs, its fair to say that all of the other girls knew about it, and some of them actively helped them to hide the drugs and conceal their behaviour.

Obviously, all actions have consequences, and the discìpline for the three girls that remain is quite strong: none of them will go to school next year for the entire year, they will only learn from the teachers that come to the home. The reasoning behind this is obvious: the ones who were already in school were taking drugs in school, and the ones who weren't are not trustworthy to go to a place where there will be temptation to take drugs. As a discipline for all the girls, we as a home are not going to go to Kids Games, a sports day event that they normally go to every year.

In other news (sorry that I can't bring you anything happy!) Another girl (we'll call her Val) left the home on Tuesday with her one year old son, to go to live with her grandmother. In some ways it was actually a good thing that she wanted to go, because if not we were going to have to throw her out of the home because of her unbelievable manipulative behaviour with the other girls. But on the other hand, we are not sure how long she will stay with her grandmother, as she alawys struggled to control Val, and was the victim of her manipulative behaviour. What Val used to do, was if her grandmother told her to do something she didn't want to do, like wash her babies nappies, she would go tell her uncles (her grandmothers sons) that her grandmother was beating her and wasn't giving her anything to eat, which they would react to by going to her house and beating her grandmother. Clearly not a great situation for her, but she's willing to take Val back, if only to ensure that her son is well taken care of.

To close, I would like to tell you all that I am sick! This has not been the happiest of blogs, so I might as well finish on a piece of unhappy news. I've had a stuffed up cold for the last few days, and I had a fever last night. It is rubbish, but don't worry, I am taking plenty of paracetomal! It does make everything seem a little more rubbish though, when having a cold takes away all your enery. You need to send me loving messages to cheer me up!