Last night I met Maria. She first approached me on the sidewalk asking if we wanted to go somewhere, to the hotel around the corner. I told her no thank you, I just want to talk. As we started talking, I learned she was a single mother, taking care of her little boy back at home by herself. She didn't like doing what she was doing, but she has no choice. Selling her body was the only way she knew how to feed her child.
Every night, they come out around 9pm to 5am, hoping to feed their families usually by selling their bodies. They make about 250 pisos per "customer," which is equivalent to about $6. Some of them are in their early teenage years. They wait patiently on the street corners as "customers" drive by to pick them up. A cars pull up, immediately 10 to 15 girls hurry to the window, hoping, but not hoping, to be the lucky girl selected.
She would look anxiously at them, asking if she could go. When she didn't get picked, she would come back to talk. We told her about the organization we were with, Wipe Every Tear, and that we had a house just for women to live in. She could work there and finish her schooling. She shows a lot of interest, asking different questions about it, going through in her head whether it could be too good to be true, whether her pimp will let her go, whether it could really work.
Another car pulls up. She goes to present herself. As I'm watching her from about 40 ft away, I see her open the car door. She smiles and waves, happy to be chosen so she can feed her boy another day. As the car drives away, she smiles as she signals with her hand that she will call us.
I hope she does. I pray one day she will never again have to sell her body to care for her family. I pray one day she will know that a god does exist, and that He is a God that loves her so dearly and pursues her passionately. He is a God whose heart shatters for every tear that streams down her face. And He is a God that will one day wipe away every tear from her eyes.
