Saturday we had our fundraiser for trafficking victims for the Salvation Army. I don't think the turnout was as good as they had hoped, but I haven't heard any of the totals from the auction or donations.

I hope they were able to raise a bit; funds for victims is something that we need. Thursday night I visited with three of our victims from Latin America who are staying in a shelter. No one speaks Spanish at the shelter, and they don't speak English, so I went over there to help them figure a few things out, and call their families to set up a meeting time (phone calls have to be monitored so they don't give away the location of the shelter). These ladies each had a toddler. For each of them, it was a case of smuggling (they agreed to be smuggled into the States) that turned into trafficking when they got here (they weren't free to go, and were forced to work without appropriate pay). This is really REALLY common.

Anyway, Saturday...Ruben and I were all ready for our presentation, and I wasn't really even nervous. (Either I was in denial, or I was in denial.) However, a woman from one of the organizations that awarded the grant for our positions was present (the "trust me, I'm an expert" type), and essentially took over the presentation. In an inappropriate way. So I didn't really do much. It was frustrating and threw us both off, and we talked about it afterward with her. She apologized for about 20 minutes, and Ruben informed her that she could take us out for a steak lunch to make up for it. :) Yay for the trafficking outreach team:Charity from NightLight had a booth (she's the blonde, with her interns) set up: And here is Monica, my other Salvation Army coworker, talking to a reporter.
So the day was kind of stupid, but I really like the people I work with! :)

In fact, I am actually hanging out with Charity and Ruben right now somewhere in LA doing outreach to day laborers. I set this thing to publish without me. Sneaky!!!