Night in and night out we overload a 10 passenger van and make the 25 minute drive over the hill to Bangla Road. In our ‘long’ skirts or jeans, flip flops, and faded shirts we traverse the overcrowded streets and alleys and dodge presumptuous grabs from beckoning girls to find ‘our girls’.
While we’ve only been going to Bangla road for the last 6 nights we all have girls that we have made relationships with. These are the girls whose names we cry out to God with, who we pray will be sitting alone waiting for us when we make it to their bar, not off with a customer, who we spend our nights visiting, who are our friends. We fight to see these girls, we risk rejection and embarrassment and the fact that they generally think we are lesbians, all to ask them to go to dinner with us or to go shopping or get coffee. Many tears have been shed on our part from failed appointments and broken engagements but we continue to go see our girls, night in and night out.
Despite the late nights and exhaustion, we continue. Someone on my team commented this morning that even when they were partying and living a crazy lifestyle back home they never went to the bars 5 nights a week. They would go for ‘one good night’ and sometimes two during a particularly exciting week; But us, we go 5 nights a week. We spend hours under the neon nights, nearly screaming over the pulsing music just to ask our friends how their son was when they called that day or if they are still tired like yesterday.
Last night you could see the exhaustion on all of our faces. I saw more of our small groups wandering Bangla road than I did sitting in the bars. We are worn out. At our nightly after midnight debrief, an exhausted silence seemed to cover the room. No one really spoke of the usual triumphs and failures, they didn’t’ have the energy; no one had to say they were tired either, it was understood. We just sat for a while and processed internally, prayed, and crawled into our beds. No one woke up this morning to exercise like usual or get a jump on the day. Until after 9:00 our bunk room remained still.
Rejection is tiring. Bars are tiring. Loving is tiring. Being tired is tiring. But today we got to taste the fruit of that which is to come and it made it all worth it.
Two days a week SHE specifically opens its doors for lunch and a time of fun and fellowship for any girl working in the bars. It is our job to invite our friends from the bars and get their phone numbers at night. The morning of, one of the Thai women who works for SHE painstakingly calls each girl and re-invites them to come that day and tells them where and when they will be picked up. All we can do is sit and wait to hear how the morning phone conversations go.
As word made it back to us, anxiety filled each of our hearts. “Could one of my girls actually walk through those doors today…” we all wonder to ourselves. Someone says one of Leslie’s girls that broke a dinner date last night was coming, one of Jodi’s, one of Marissa’s, 2 that came the other day were coming back that Anna knows, a few were unreachable, Michelle’s was still with a customer when they called, and a few phone numbers didn’t work…some of us rejoiced while some were severely disappointed.
We all prepared for their arrival regardless.
A casual atmosphere, and a home cooked Thai meal met the girls as they entered SHE and almost immediately I overheard one of my teammate’s whisper that two of the girls had already committed to leave their jobs at the bar and move into SHE.
WHAT!? It actually happens? All of work isn’t in vain?
As the news continued to spread it was almost like a wave of rest and refreshment swept over our team. So much joy filled my heart. The thought that two girls never have to return to work captivated me.
As time went on we found out more.
Jaeb will be moving in today. Just like that, she is done with the bar scene. She now is a resident of SHE where she will join the other girls who have made the same decision as her. She will be taught a trade and receive a salary. When she decides it’s time for her to move on SHE will help her find a job using her new trade. Her life of freedom starts now.
Pla will move in on Tuesday. She is one of the girls that came for lunch earlier in the week as well as today. She too will leave her life at the bar for a life of security and love. We cannot wait until her arrival on Tuesday.
Rung came to SHE earlier in the week with Pla. Since then she hasn’t been back at work, which caused my teammates that knew her a lot of worry. We heard today that she has since moved back to her home in another part of Thailand and is living with her family. We are overjoyed that she too has left the bar and pray that it is a permanent decision.
