Sunday Afternoon..

I'm not really sure what to do right now? I have had a friend visiting me this weekend who is being Abused at home by family members! She is a grown woman and to escape moved from the UK to The States.. but sometimes she has to return here on business as in this visit..

Naturally when she is back she likes to visit her mum, but there are other members of the family i.e Uncles and Cousins who seem to get pleasure in Raping and abusing her..
She arrived in the UK on the thursday before easter and went to her mum's house, by the Sunday her Uncles called and told her to go round where they raped her again, she has the bruises on her thighs to prove it! By tuesday she left on business and then came to see me for the weekend.

My dilema now, is that this morning she had to return home, and I took her to the train station! knowing that when she gets back it is very likely that she will be raped again! Before she left I gave her all the options open to her, from stating NO! this ends now! reporting what is happening to the police, calling me to collect her, going home to The States early, or just not going back to her family at all! I even gave her a help line number and made her promise me that she would do all she could to prevent this happening again.. So why do I feel so bad? Why do I feel so angry? I really do not understand how people can be so damned cruel? They tell her that she is evil and she beleives them? But I know her to be a kind caring person with a heart of gold.. obviously this is their way of keeping control over her, by telling her she is evil and they are cleansing her? What the hell! As if being RAPED cleanses anyone? in fact it makes you feel extremely dirty used and horrible...

I know its likely that by about 6pm tonight my friend will be raped once more by so called caring family members yet there is nothing I can do to stop it happening to her! I had told her that I would call the police, so she won't give us her full address in the UK, all I know is that she is in the leeds area of England and this terrible ordeal awaits her! I feel so helpless right now!

There are no agencies I can call on for advice, the police would think me crazy and probably lock me up if I called them and said 'I think my friend is about to be raped' So what can I do other than sit here trying not to think about what might happen? I'm tearing myself apart as is my friend who lives with me.... there seems to be nothing we can do to help her except be there to pick up the pieces afterwards!... and that is so hard to do when we sit thinking about what we have done! we took her to the train station, we let her go knowing what awaited her! but it was the choice she made as she explained if she didn't go back it would be worse for her in the long run! So we sit it out and hope that she is strong enough to stop it happening again, strong enough to say 'enough is enough'....

We did ask her to send us daily text messages to let us know she is safe, if we don't get those we will try to contact her.. but if we can't! Do we assume that something has happened? or do we wait for her to contact us, if she does? Do we just sit here knowing what may have happened and do nothing? WHAT CAN WE DO???