we just finished the movie and now we’re sitting and kind of digesting it. while we were waiting for the 30 minutes to pass, jon stepped in and pledged another $16.68, so we’re now at $501! yay!!

and nine more hours to go. i’m actually feeling pretty awake so it shouldn’t be too bad. it definitely helps to have more people here. we’ll look through the rest of the movies and see what’s up next.

the movie focuses on several different girls with different stories…all of them are coming out of a life of prostitution. some of them chose it…to the extent that manipulation and emotional abuse can allow someone to make a free choice..and some of them are physically forced into it. they talk about “being in the life” and all the ways that it’s difficult to leave it…some of them are convinced they’re in love with their pimps (they call them their boyfriends)…some of them are addicted to it.

i think it’s important to hear the individual stories. it makes it difficult for generalizations to be made about them…they’re all “whores” or sluts or whatever people want to call them. but they’re not. they’re girls…they have stories….they need to be heard. and they need to loved.

so the organization that this movie is about is called GEMS (girls educational & mentoring services) and i think we need one in denver. this is actually the type of organization that i would love to work for…..one of my dream jobs you could say. to work with girls who are getting out of this situation would be amazing on so many levels. i think i would have a lot to learn from them and a lot that i would want to give them.

but really, not just in denver…we need these types of programs everywhere….in a lot of cases, when survivors of sex trafficking are taken out of their situations here in the united states, there is no where for them to go because there aren’t many programs set up for them here. transitions global is an organization that is working toward opening safehomes in the united states (theirs was the yellow shirt i was wearing earlier today), but we still need so many more.

we had some technical difficulties, but we’re watching the movie now. it includes home videos shot by two pimps who made them when they were thinking they’d get their own cable show. the psychological aspect to this in how they really break the girls seems like it’s the same across the board, both in sex slavery here in the united states and sex slavery in other places. they beat them down, psychologically, physically, or both, and make them think that everything that’s happening to them is their fault and that they don’t own their bodies anymore.

the ages are all similar as well…12 years old…14 years old….they’re all so young.

i’m going to take the webcam down while we watch the movies.

supper is done and we’ve moved on to the cookies. both the lasagna and the cookies are a bit so i guess they’re both keepers. in fact adrienne said she liked this lasagna better as it was lighter than my normal stuff. so i’m happy.

we’re going to load up the first of our movies for the evening, very young girls. i’ll blog updates about it while we watch.

we just sat down to eat and i had to get up and update. i’m nothing if not dedicated, right? shellie has some ideas for things to post later, so more topic-related posts will be coming!

ah, i just realized that i should’ve taken a picture of the lasagna before we pulled it out of the oven. ah well. maybe i’ll take a picture of the half-eaten one.

and now i’m going to eat…finally.

adrienne is making a salad and corn and she and shellie just proclaimed themselves my two favorite people in the world. the lasagna is almost done and after it beeps, we’re going to sit down and have a feast. yay! then once the food settles in, i’ll succumb to food-induced lethargy and fall asleep.

nah…just kidding.

only $16 needed to get to the $500! spread the word!

shellie just called to let me know that she and adrienne are on their way. let the eating and movie-watching commence!

i did break down and turned on the A/C just because it’s okay to allow my husband and myself to suffer through the heat, but i can’t let my guests suffer. hopefully it’ll be cooler by the time they get here.

yay for more people to keep me awake!

do you like how all of these entries don’t seem to be related to each other at all? the cookies are tasty, by the way.

we’re closing in on six o’clock. it’s been sprinkling here for the past few hours, but no huge thunderstorms yet. i should take a picture of what the hail did to our patio garden a few days ago….but there isn’t much to take pictures of. as the night goes on i think i’ll need to find more things to take pictures of just to keep myself occupied. any requests (within reason, of course!). one of my sponsors, jon, sent me some pictures of himself watching me on my webcam (because he’s witty like that). i could post those….

i read on another blogathon site that the night doesn’t go nearly as fast as the day during the ‘thon and i can believe it. i was doing fine until about an hour ago, and then i started to slow down. hopefully i get another wind…or a pot of coffee…soon.

another aspect of love146 is their aftercare program. unfortunately, in many cases, these children are taken out of the brothels but then return to the lifestyle later as they don’t know of any other way to live or feel that they have no other options. the idea behind love146′s aftercare program can be summed up in the following quote from dr. gundelina velazco, the director of aftercare at love146:

“My idea of a safehome is where we nurse the bird’s broken wing. If we do well with our nursing, then the bird should be able to fly again and out of the safehome, and soar to the heights it was meant to reach. If it casts a glance at the safehome again, then it should be from above, among the clouds of its achievements.”

the idea isn’t just to rescue these children from the brothels and then that’s the end of the story. what love146 aims to do is to take these children out of the brothels and allow them to heal in a safe and nurturing environment. they also learn real-world skills which they can use once they move on from the safehome to keep them away from being trafficked again. in this way, not only are their lives improved but they are now examples of what can be done in these situations and evidence that these children can heal from the horrors of brothel life. they can also reach out to other survivors of sex trafficking and let them know that they’re not alone, as well as children who may be in high-risk areas for future sex trafficking to educate them.

love is hope.