Creepy Creepers...

Everyday I have pool duty with either Hannah or Amanda (two other volunteers from Southern). Today when Hannah and I were walking out to open the pool, there were two Honduran guys talking to Stephen (visitor/volunteer from Germany) and Stephen was like, “hey, these guys want help with their English homework. Can you girls help them?” I got a really bad vibe from both of the guys, and felt like I had seen them before in Santa Barbara or on the bus… Hannah knows Spanish way better than I do, so she went up and started talking to them. I proceeded to open up the pool for the kids to swim. I had been in the pool for maybe two minutes, and I looked up and the two guys were talking to Hannah, but they had surrounded her to where she couldn’t easily get into the pool area. I was starting to get a little concerned, but she got away from them by saying that she had to go watch the pool. The older of the two guys asked if his son could swim, but while he was asking, his son was already getting undressed down to his underwear to go swimming! So, Hannah didn’t really have any other choice but to say, “yes”.

When Hannah got into the water she was giving me very strange looks, so we both went over to the deep end furthest away from the creepy guys, and she said that they were asking her if she could teach them English, and that they wanted to come back for lessons. Hannah and I both know that we’ve seen them before in Santa Barbara, or somewhere near here, and it’s scary that they know where we live. One of the older boys here once told Hannah that guys in Santa Barbara always ask about the “red haired girl” and always ask if she lives at the Hogar! That’s scary, but the scarier thing is that he told them, “yes!”. Yeah, not too great for our safety…

So, Hannah and I were too scared to get out of the pool because the guys kept staring at us… we told some of the kids to go tell the staff that we were really nervous about these guys, but the staff didn’t do anything… Their kid swam for an hour, and it was time to get the kids out, so I asked Stephen if he could ask them to leave. They weren’t too happy that they had to leave, and before Stephen went over to them, the older guy went up to one of the girls here, Tania, and said, “yeah, we’re just going to sit here and enjoy watching these little gringitas swim…”.

Well, Stephen asked them to leave, and they did within about five minutes of him asking them. One of the head staff came in to swim after they had already left, and we told her the whole story. She said not to let their kid swim, and she said that it was really weird that they wanted us to give them English lessons… Hannah and I started our “creeper” video blogs this afternoon after we got back to our room, and I’m sure we will have many more of those blogs to come…

I don’t even feel safe going into town with Hannah and Amanda anymore. It’s getting pretty bad because the guys in town recognize us now, and they’re getting bolder and bolder. Next time I go to town I want to take a guy with us. I don’t know what to do because they all know where we live, and that doesn’t make me feel very safe at nights, even when my door is locked.

Please pray for our safety… I know God will protect us, but I still want to take every precaution I can…