Day two in the red light district. I'm not quite sure how to word everything that's zooming around in my head. I keep replaying every conversation every smile, every stare.
My friends and I headed to the district just after dark. I was more nervous this time as I knew what to expect and the heart strings it would pull. The bar I sat at was pretty packed this time but somehow I was still able to talk to one of the girls after buying her a coke. She was incredibly sweet. She spoke english really well and told me her story of how she had to start work in the industry after her husband died. Before that she and her husband had been world travelers and had even lived in Europe for a while. She told me about some of her old dreams and aspirations but how now none of it will probably happen. She said all she has time for is working, sleeping and cleaning. That's right, most girls only get about two days off a month and "you can imagine all the spider webs that come after a few weeks!" (lol yes she too had a deep loathing for spiders) My heart went out to her as she recalled the pain of her husbands death, and said her only friends now are at the bar. It's like what can you do? How can you show her how much she's loved? We talked for just under an hour and when I left we hugged and she asked if I would come back. "Nobody talks to us. Well, they talk but they don't want to hear us talk" All I could do was tell her that our conversation meant a lot to me and just how valuable she was, hoping she caught it.
It's so frustrating. They do their job and you see them dancing and working the guys but when you actually look in their eyes you wonder how people can't see the pain oozing out of them. "It's their choice, they like it" can be the debate but really, most of them are working in the bars because in Thai culture the women must support the family and when it's not them paying the bill the families can work up massive dept. One girl was 19 and had only been working five days. This was her story as she had a nine month old baby at home and her parents dept to pay off. In desperation she turned to her last resort as most of the girls do.
Uh. Everything inside me wants to cry out for justice for the girls, how long will we let this issue go on, why the heck are we all so silent!
lol. I was planning on just saying some stories and leave out my emotions but haha, I guess i'm not there yet. We're heading out again tonight and probably every night until we go. lol my apologies for the randomness of it all, guess that's the nature of a blog.
Everything else is going great. I'm in love with Thai food even though my mouth hasn't stopped burning since I got here (slight exaggeration but it's still very spicy) My team is also amazing and we're having a blast everywhere we go. Oh! Please continue to pray for the kids. They're amazing and were totally blown away when we told them our God was nice and really liked them. However...translation has been quite the challenge. Only a few days left with this batch so please keep us in your prayers!
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