I went to the night bar to rescue a woman who has been driven to selling her body…
A woman who closes her eyes and checks out of her body for a few minutes while a John gets his money worth out of her.
A woman who’s husband abandoned her and their children for younger women or new horizons… This was the woman I had created in my head…
This was the woman I looked for as I walked the streets of Thailand studying the prostitutes surrounding me.
I needed to find her and save her.
Anger stirred in my belly as I looked around me.
A man the age of my grandfather sat at the bar kissing the neck of a young ladyboy.
The young beautiful ladyboy laughed and gently nudged him off a bit.
Six or seven women and ladyboys stood around the open air bar displaying themselves for purchase as my squad mates, myself and a few of our parents took a seat at a table and ordered drinks.
I saw her sitting on a bench with a few lady boys. She wore a high necked polo and a pair of jeans while the ladyboys wore tight low cut dresses and high heels. She broke away from the group and with a ladyboy joined our table. As my friend Katie asked about jobs, life and dreams I listened… Not long into our conversation with the two of them a vivacious gorgeous ladyboy dressed in very little clothing made her presence known by rushing to our table and making a show of herself. She was animated and flirty… she was giggly and bold. She introduced herself and explained that her name meant good sex. In the next twenty minutes we learned all about her while she adjusted her scanty clothing.
I was so upset with what was going on. The ladyboy was so clearly dominating the conversation and she so obviously was there to get money from us so that she could pay for the hormones used to make her into a woman enabling her to continue on as a prostitute. She was stealing our attention from the woman we came for…
Katie was not so easily upset though. The ladyboy drank as Katie engaged her in conversation… She asked her about her dreams. The ladyboy explained to us her dreams of owning a shop where she could do people’s hair and makeup for special occasions. She said she had no desire to be a prostitute and all she honestly wanted was for someone to love her enough to marry her… Her next words sent a screwdriver through my heart. She said, “I want to get married to one man and love him for the rest of my life, but no one wants to marry a ladyboy.”
I looked at her and I finally saw her… a young boy… maybe her mom is a prostitute… maybe she is the second or third son in a poor family which can’t afford to educate her as a son. Maybe becoming a monk isn’t an option. She is given estrogen as a small child to make her body change… her face doesn’t grow hair and her chest begins to develop. As she grows older she starts in the business that was chosen for her. She is so careful about what she eats, how she walks, what she wears… She sells her body; the body that has more body parts than most others… And as she does her job she dreams of love.
What did I walk into that bar to give? Did I come here to save a woman or did I walk in to see with the eyes of Christ and love with the heart of Jesus?
As I looked around again I saw a broken man… a failed man… a lonely man… a man running from himself kissing a boy sold into a woman’s body…
I saw a woman longing to provide for her fatherless little ones so they don’t end up working in a bar selling their bodies.
I saw a ladyboy in search of love.
I saw my friend Katie reach out with arms of honest unconditional love towards them all.
As I walked out… the ladyboy took off her shirt as a incentive for tips. The man walked away from the lady boy at the bar. The momma prostitute stayed in her seat sipping her coke. God knows what will happen to those there. More missionaries will visit bars, and maybe… just maybe all the Gomers of Chaing Mai, Thailand will see how they are already thoroughly loved.
All for now through the eyes of a storyteller…
