The stories of these people are on my blog and podcasts. Even after a month in Cambodia, my Thai friends are still on my mind and in my prayers. Here they are:
Emmi
You’ve heard about this girl. I have her full life story on video, and you’ll probably see it when I get home. It’s too long to upload! If I ever get a chance to go back to Thailand and work with her for a while… I will take it. No words can capture who she is and what she means to me.
O
Yeah, just O. We would not have survived our first week in Chiang Mai without this 31-year-old Chiangrai native. She was our translator, and did her job well! When she shared with me that her life dream of starting an orphanage was months away from becoming reality, I got so excited. I’ll keep you updated on that as I hear from her.
Seeneelat
Shortly after her husband left her and her daughter, Seeneelat felt she had no choice but to move from Luy to Chiang Mai for a job at Kitty Cat Bar. Four days later, I walked into that bar and asked her if she wanted to play pool. I went back to see her and hang out nearly every night for 2 weeks, talking about her life and laughing a lot. Some days it was hard to laugh with her; our hilariously awful games of pool just scratched the surface of what she did to support her daughter. I met her “boyfriends” and came to see them as broken, lonely men. She brought me pictures of her daughter named Tang Mo (it means “watermelon”). She told me all about her mom. She got an email address so we could stay in touch. We have several other pictures of our friends in the bars… but my home church might ask for their support money back if I post them!
Beer
One of Seeneelat’s coworkers, Beer is just working at the bar to pay for college. She goes to school during the day, works the red-light district at night, and visits her mom in Bangkok every month. The first night we came to hang out, she bought us popsicles. This photo is from our last night in Chiang Mai: me, Seeneelat, Mandi, and Beer.
There is so much work to be done in Thailand. I saw girls sitting in bars, waiting for “boyfriends” when they should have been sitting in high school… maybe middle school. In Buddhism, kharma tells you that your current life is the result of your past life, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Hope tells us a different story, and it is one they need to hear.
And if you ever feel the desire to go to Thailand… go in late November. Loi Krathong festival is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. In this picture and video, the small bright spots in the sky are not stars–they are tissue paper lanterns, thousands and thousands of them. The buddhists say they carry away the year’s bad luck… but for me, they just light up one of my new favorite places in the world.
-Katie
