spoiler alert.

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A heads up for you: over the next two months or so, I am going to try my very hardest to provide you with an accurate look at what we are doing at the Internat. In particular, who we are building relationships with --- the gang of girls who are providing us with joy, with frustrations, with laughter, and with tears.

Back in Waterloo, I had many conversations with Ruby that were both insightful and inspiring. Thanks to her advice, my head was (and still usually is) bursting with ideas. One such idea was to provide the girls of the Internat with a voice - something which they've never really had. I am hoping to tell their stories, as best I can and to introduce them to the world (even if that world is only made up of curious family and friends back in Canada, it is still a world outside of the Internat walls).

Up until this point, it has been difficult to gather any definite information about any one of the girls. As Jessica has recently explained, the three of us may know the same girl by three different names. Many of the girls are non-verbal, others have little to no communication skills. And then there is the whole language barrier to think about. Plus - each girl has arrived at the Internat under unique circumstances. Some have been there less than a year, while others have been there as long as they can remember - the Internat is their whole world.

Yet after a meeting last week with Irena, the general supervisor (...or, as Miri says, the house matron) we found out (through our translater, Orest) that there are existing records and documentation of each of the girls, which we are surprisingly welcome to go through. This is a pretty big deal - and will hopefully provide us with some answers to our endless questions. Starting next week, Orest will be joining us at the Internat to help us translate the records.

In the meantime - I will post what I can. Bear with me. And fall in love with these precious, awesome, crazy kids.