my Experience at Casa....

the reason i went....

well i was pretty much a good kid. the only think that every really went wrong with me was that i smokes Cigarettes (but my dad bought them for me so that wasnt really the problem) smoked weed, drank sometimes, and ran away. well it seems to me that that is very normal.... all but the running away. the only reason i ever ran away was because my dad used to hit me all the time and i used to have bruses all over my body and the police would do anything about it.

the day i left for mexico

i had just woken up at home being arrested the night before for running away from my dads house again, and i got on the computer. i guess my dad thought (infact he told me) i would sleep in because i always do. but being a runaway i always stayed in place where i felt unsafe, so i always woke up early.

sitting on the computer talking to my best friend Amber online and my best friend Ray on the phone, i heard the front door open. i just figured if it was for me then my dad would have called me down right away. about 5 miniutes passed by and he called for me to come downstairs. i told Amber and Ray that if i wasnt back in 5 minutes that i was in trouble.... and i never came back. i went down stairs to see what he wanted and we was blocking off the front door so i could get out. 2 people walked out from behind the wall and made me sit down on the couch. they told me i was going to a school and that was it. i asked more qeustions but they told me that they would tell me later. and that was the last time i seen my dad before i left. he didnt even tell me bye or tell me that he loved me...nothing he just walked out the back door. i asked to go get my smokes out of my room and they told me no. then i asked if i could go get my bra, they aslo said no. i had no time the night before to put the shoe laces back in my shoes after i got out of jail so i was looking really funny. handcuffed to some lady who i had no idea who she was with no bra on, hair messed up and no laces in my shoes. they took me down a street i knew and (god i rememeber it so well) we were passing by cool cone (the ice cream place) and they told me that i was on my way to mexico. natural i flipped out. we drove down to Detroit Michigan, since i am from Lansing i guess my air port wasnt good enough for them.

my arival

i walked into the front door or the complex and was completely flabergasted. i had some mexican ladies asking me a bunch of questions in spanish. and i literally only knew taco, burrito and hola in spanish lol thats the honest to go truth. they took me in this small room and made me strip to my bra and panties (the people stoped by a store to buy me a bra lol) then made me take off my bra and panties. it was the most humiliating time in my life i had 4 mexican ladies staring at me while i was naked. then they let me put my cloths back on and they took me to this room with about 20-25 sleeping girls. they layed my mattress on the gropund in the middle of the room and i cryed myself to sleep.

mexico

i woke up the next morning to having a whole bunch of girls staring at me. (kinda weird for me) i was so embarressed i grew up with my dad always saying that crying was weak, and the girls where starring at me when i knew my eyes were puffy and red. they gave me my uniform which was hot kakis and a blue button up collared shirt. most of the time after that i kinda blurred out.

the night all hell broke loose

the night the program shut down was one of the best days of my life. i rememeber wakingh up that morning to hot breakfast (which we NEVER had) and to seeing health inspectors with the mexican police. i asked myself why health inspectors needed police and i had no idea why. i prayed that day just like everyother day for the program to be shut down but on that day i prayed even harder. they made us stand in the hot sun for 1 hour until we were aloud to sit down for 1 more hour. in mexico it is extremely hot (at least when you come from Michigan) and standing in the sun for that long was killer. finally they let us go back to what we were supose to be doing at that time. for my family (Glory) it was gym. all i remember next was being in the upstairs classroom and a man coming in saying that the program was shutting down. the whole room cheered. everyone started taking everyone's phone numbers and time after time the upper levels would take them and rip them up. so i had to rewrite phone numbers about 20 times that night. the first thing i did was grab my shoes. (we where no aloud to have our normal shoes in fear that we would run away i guess) then i walked and talked to my best friend Julia without a third person! it felt awesome kinda like i was sticking it to the man ya know? then i stayed up all night and got my hair braided which i wasnt aloud to do normally lol. i remember the tears most of all, every girl that went away it was hard on me, i had made some life long friends in there and they where going away one by one. the night of the second day came and the people who where left was put on a bus that was headed for the border. i remember tying my hair ties around my bag of stuff so i would know mine stuff from everyone elses. i remember seeing the first american stop sign in three months and i yelled, (LOOK!!! it says STOP not ALTO!!!!!) we where taken to a hotel where we where waiting the fate of being transfered, having our parent take us home, or being put in foster care. needless to say my father picked me up and told me that he was sending me to Iowa (Midwest Academy) and two days later i was in Iowa.

thats my story i hope it helps those who have been through it cope, and thoughs who have there children in the program rethink about what they are really doing. Sources: