August 28-2009- Yurai, Madisons Brother

Well it is Friday night once again and as you know I will be missing another game. We play Central Hardin who is a 6A team and we are a 2A we are a 3 point favorite acording to the goofball at CJ. Its a guessing game for thoose guys. GO COLTS.....Well we had another great day, the one and only showed up for work today and did her job so we will have a passport in a few days.(one and only- read yesterdays post) We left out of the passport office and went back to the apartment and made lunch and studyied English, Madison learned a few new words and so did I. I told her what a frown was and she told me alot of words I will never learn. She is all girl no doubt. We really had a good day, we went to Gargarina at 1:00 so I could look at two wash machines that were broke and visit with Tonya. The wash machines were the easy part it was crawling with kids today, I dont know where they are coming from. I have seen in the last 3 days 60 plus kids I have never seen before. School starts next Tuesday . Madison, Tonya and I are sitting there and a group of boys I have never seen walk by and go in and Madison says that is my Brother and I look and he is not the same kid from before, I say that was not Alex and she says no that is Yurai. When I got here we had a referal for Madison and Alex but he is 14 and ran away from school the week before summer break, and from what I hear he does it once or twice a year. Yurai is 16 and he apears to be a good kid, he graduated in May and will be going to State school next Tuesday. When he graduated they would not let him out and made him go to summer camp so he ran away from there 3 or 4 days before we got here. He went to his brothers house who is 19 and stayed with him until it was time to go back to school. These kids have sibling that are in the same home with them and they know they are family but they dont seem to look out for each other like most kids do, Madison knew her brothers were out on the streets the whole time we were here and she never mentioned it or talked about it and if you ask they are not really concerned. If you find a sibling group that has a child that is 3-4 years older than the others it tends to be diffrent but if they are seperated by 1-2 years between each they dont take care of each other as much. It is a diffrent world when you are struggling to survive and exist in a world that is not very Loving or caring. Well I got Lanna the translater and Madison and went and found both brothers because I wanted to meet Yurai and talk to him and Alex, they did not realize Madison was leaving in 4-5 days and I wanted to let them have a chance to talk to her before she is gone. We had a good conversation, Alex and I talk almost daily so it was mostly Yurai and I and he had alot of questions and I asked about a way Madison could communicate with him and he didnt want any part of that at first and by the end of our conversation he gave me his address and seemed eager to hear from us and Madison. It is hard to understand what theese kids feel and go through and what is going on in their minds. After you talk and find out each situation you start understanding why they act the way they do some times. It is a very diffrent world for them and for most the future looks bleak. When I arrived there was a couple sitting on the bench and I did not stop and talk I needed to get to the washing machine before they closed the building. So when I got back and met them I found out they were from Italy, Scicily to be exact and they had a referal for two sisters that didnt really want much to do with them. So I asked the two girls why and they said they are not American, i told them Italy was a great place and a family was the most important thing not where they were going. I stopped and thought abot it and ther has been 5 familys there in the last two months and all were from the U.S. so I guess they thought they needed to go to America. Everyday is a new experience some good some not so good, it has been a long two months and it will take a lot longer to digest all of this. Tomorrow the girls and I are going to act like it vacation time we all need a break so off to the beach, and like I said yesterday the blog will be short and to the point from here till monday.
Love
Jeff , Madison & Tonya