Resurgence of Kidnappings

At the clinic the other day, I worked with the most well-behaved class yet. I also had a chance to meet the girl to whom I gave some of the donated children´s clothes. Attached is a picture of this bright eyed and adorable child. She is underweight for her age, but she is getting stronger everyday and her aunt is taking good care of her.

Today, I started my official training to spread the health and nutrition message out into the schools. I still am desperately working on my Spanish, and look forward to the challenge of communicating out these topics in a new language. However, I had a difficult time explaining in English what a ¨right¨is. Apparently, after a mother burned a child´s hand as punishment, the clinic has added a class on the rights of children. This is one of the more difficult topics to explain in English let alone in Spanish. I think the puberty class will be the most fun to teach, but I have a lot to learn before then. Like usual, I am finding that I am juggling way too many things in my life.

Somehow, I have become the social coordinator for my Spanish school. Each day, Gladis asks me what I´m doing for the evening and for the weekends and she then tells all the other students about the activities I´m attending. I enjoy being inclusive and so I find myself rounding the cats each night to go out. However, with my volunteer work in the mornings, Spanish class in the afternoons, homework from both, and all my social activities, I can´t keep up. I ate my breakfast today on the way to work, completed my Spanish homework during work, and showered during my 15 minute break during Spanish class. So, tonight, I made a conscious decision to let the rest of the group head to the Salsa class without me so that I can catch up on my life a little. Although, I will head out later tonight to a benefit party for a group of indigenous women who make textiles as well as possibly hit a wine and cheese bar. I have a ton of other activities planned for the rest of the week and I´ll see if I can keep up with myself.

Still no word from the kidnappers, but I did find out that they want about $9000 from the family for the safe return of the girl. We are still awaiting for more news on next steps. In the meantime, another one of Helga´s friends at the University has been kidnapped. In the paper this week, I read how there has been a resurgence of kidnappings in the area. The newspaper reported 4 kidnappings in the last couple weeks, but did not mention either of Helga´s friends and so I would assume that there are many unaccounted for by the police. The other kidnappers in the paper asked for $40K for two kids and the parents gave the money and the kidnappers freed the kids. The other couple kidnappers are requesting about $250K for each kid and so the kids 15 years old in age remain missing for the last week. I can´t imagine that the families would have this much money unless they are indeed drug traffickers.