The Orphan of Torundi - J L McCreedy - Bog

To find the truth, she must first uncover the lie....
Orphaned as an infant, Sam is raised by a pharmaceutical research mission in the rain forest of Torundi. She wields a mean machete, makes soap from candlenuts and is a fairly astute amateur entomologist. You know, the normal stuff. But a month before her seventeenth birthday, she is exiled to an American boarding school in Malaysia.
Armed with little more than her unusual upbringing and church-lady clothes, Sam must contend with her new existence as the world's most socially unprepared high school senior. Well that's just fine. Because Sam is determined to solve the mystery behind her banishment and return home tout de suite.
But when she discovers the unthinkable - that her banishment is tied to an enigmatic corporation with illicit designs on Torundi - she realizes the real mystery she must uncover is ... why? Soon, Sam is caught in a whirlwind of intrigue, danger and greed. As she chases this thread of truth to its end, she unravels a plot that threatens her beloved Torundi, her trust in the boy she has grown to love and her own existence.
THE ORPHAN OF TORUNDI is a quirky, cross-cultural tale of adventure, self-discovery and romance.