The mind/brain is an amazing thing
My girlfriend worked (past tense since all her project's funding was just cut... more on that later) with at risk youth as a career counselor. Recently she's been transitioned to a office in the Orion Center, a facility that has, among other things, a "drop in center." That means that homeless kids can come in and shower, read, chill get advice... etc.
The whole funding being cut thing has been REALLY rough on her, it's the only project she wants to work on and there aren't any others like it in Seattle (prompting us to think about (we're 90% sure) moving to san francisco), so her job is basically cleaning out the case files of her previous job while working in the Orion Center.... calling kids that were in the program and "exiting" them. Exiting just means finding out where they are, if they finished their program or whatever, so basically all her interactions with these kids is telling them THIS IS OVER.
So, on her second day after moving all the files and whatnot to the new office, this girl comes to the drop in center and freaks the fuck out. She doesn't speak any english so they get someone who knows Spanish to translate. The girl says she escaped from a ring that smuggles girls into the states and forces them to be prostitutes. When you work in "the system," there are a lot of procedures that have to be followed, so authorities are called, she may be underage so CPS is involved, SPD is there to find out who this ring is... the girl has bruises and cuts all over her and the word "whore" is carved into the skin of her stomach. The center is pretty much pandemonium all day while people try to figure out where she's from and who she is and police are ready to bust some heads.
She finally gives police a phone number of someone who knows her. It's her counselor. Turns out the girl is 18, from south america and is an airline stewardess. And she has multiple personality disorder. This was one of her personalities... she cut and bruised herself as part of it. She was on a plane 24 hours before on a layover in Seattle and had a break, and she hadn't had a break in over a year.
This stupefies me.
The whole funding being cut thing has been REALLY rough on her, it's the only project she wants to work on and there aren't any others like it in Seattle (prompting us to think about (we're 90% sure) moving to san francisco), so her job is basically cleaning out the case files of her previous job while working in the Orion Center.... calling kids that were in the program and "exiting" them. Exiting just means finding out where they are, if they finished their program or whatever, so basically all her interactions with these kids is telling them THIS IS OVER.
So, on her second day after moving all the files and whatnot to the new office, this girl comes to the drop in center and freaks the fuck out. She doesn't speak any english so they get someone who knows Spanish to translate. The girl says she escaped from a ring that smuggles girls into the states and forces them to be prostitutes. When you work in "the system," there are a lot of procedures that have to be followed, so authorities are called, she may be underage so CPS is involved, SPD is there to find out who this ring is... the girl has bruises and cuts all over her and the word "whore" is carved into the skin of her stomach. The center is pretty much pandemonium all day while people try to figure out where she's from and who she is and police are ready to bust some heads.
She finally gives police a phone number of someone who knows her. It's her counselor. Turns out the girl is 18, from south america and is an airline stewardess. And she has multiple personality disorder. This was one of her personalities... she cut and bruised herself as part of it. She was on a plane 24 hours before on a layover in Seattle and had a break, and she hadn't had a break in over a year.
This stupefies me.