Vaselena.

Васельіна (Vaselena) is fifteen years old, and to be brutally honest, I wasn't all that fond of her at first. I found her antics to be rather obnoxious, and thought that she was acting out on purpose due to a need for attention. I did not want to fan the fire (or as Gayla would say, "Don't feed the dray-gon...").

But think about that need - ALL of these girls are in desperate need of attention. I've said it several times before, that because of the way that the Internat is structured, negative attention is still attention. And negative attention is still better than recieving no attention whatsoever. So, let me reintroduce you to Vaselena.

At fifteen, Vaselena is grouped with the second class of girls. I have yet to see an angry or upset version of her, as she is always in the best of moods (sounds impossible, but it's true). She is an intense and energetic girl, and she is LOUD. Vaselena is easily excited, and the smallest things seem to thrill her - for example, painting her face, a hug, stickers, bubbles. Things that may seem insignificant to me are treasures to Vaselena.

Vaselena does not have an extensive vocabulary or particularly strong verbal skills, but she makes up for this by the wide variety of noises that she makes. She tends to be the first person that we hear when we arrive in the morning, and she gives us a royal welcome daily. The three of us thought that the girls would be used to us, maybe even bored of us by now. Nope. Every single morning, we hear a mix of crazy noises and see Vaselena bolting across the park, just about bowling us over with her hugs.

We were able to recognize Vaselena from the pictures taken by previous Beyond Borders alumni. She has a twinkle in her eyes that never disappears, and a smile that is too big for her face. Her blonde hair is buzzed short, and is all limbs - very tall and lanky. Obviously very mischievous, Vaselena also is incredibly affectionate ...to the point where it could be borderline inappropriate. I often scold her, trying to convince her to stop swatting my butt (I appreciate the flattery and all, but really, it's getting old) or to simply let me go.

Vaselena has so much energy, she doesn't seem to know what to do with it. It is a shame that there is not more organization or programming at the Internat, where this restlessness could be channeled positively and productively. We have initiated a few different ideas with Irena; the problem is working around The Director (side note: capitalized intentionally... he is very mysterious and also rumoured to be very corrupt. I feel as though I am introducing an evil character in a fairy tale, like Ursula the Sea Witch or the Wicked Step-Mother).

Lastly, Vaselena's favourite place appears to be the park on the Internat grounds. She seems happiest when she is outside, hanging upside down on monkey bars (or anything else, for that matter). She also loves using the swings (another important side note: swing time can be quite competitive - this will be discussed/explained in the future).