i’m sorry i didn’t write any blogs last month.
i know there are people at home waiting to hear from me, and i’m sorry.
i just didn’t know how to say what needed to be said.
i didn’t know how to protect the dignity of the stories i’ve encountered.
some times telling these stories is just hard. and heartbreaking all over again.
in thailand we were able to spend time with some incredible people in different organizations who help individuals leave the sex industry and offer holistic restoration, equipping them with housing, therapy, schooling and jobs.
in thailand, women are seen as the financial providers of the family, so often young girls will move into the city so they can make more money to send to their families. they are often promised jobs at hotels or department stores but quickly find these promises to be empty, and the actual proposition to be a spot in the red-light district. many of them do not even have high school diplomas, therefore disqualifying them from applying for most jobs – even at 7-11. they can’t go home for fear of shaming their families, so out of need to provide, they accept the position. sadly, the families often encourage these women to stay in the industry because they enjoy the financial benefit.
[to protect some identities i’ll just refer to certain people by the first letter of their name.]
[inside nana plaza, one of the most famous red light districts]
several times this last month i went out with some other women to the red light districts in bangkok. we'd buy time with prostitutes by purchasing a soda and inviting them to sit and talk with us.
it’s the worst place i’ve ever been in my entire life. and that is an understatement.
i’m not sure of the best way to describe these places. if you’ve seen the bar scenes in the hangover 2 (filmed in bangkok’s soi cowboy), that’s a fairly accurate representation.
[soi cowboy during the day]
there are barely dressed young women and ladyboys everywhere. and foreign men (generally between the ages of 40 and 70) everywhere. some of the women sit expressionless with vacant eyes, not even pretending they’d like to be there. other women approach men with wide flirtatious smiles. some men sit in corners, drinking, waiting for women to proposition them. other men approach women with vulgar statements and grabby hands. in a lot of the bars, the workers just wear numbers so men can more easily identify them.
the first night we’re there the speakers loudly blare american songs like robin thicke’s “blurred lines” (that sings about the unclear boundaries between consensual and non-consensual sex) and pitbull’s “everthing tonight,” which says “grab somebody sexy tell them hey, give me everything tonight.” sickeningly appropriate for the scene.
as we walk past one bar i see a sign at the entrance that reads
“happy hour! jaeger bombs 99 baht – blow jobs 99 baht – all day”
99 baht is $3.15
one woman we meet at a bar, ‘O’, is beautiful and friendly, younger than me by a few years and pretty drunk. we buy her a soda and invite her to sit with us. she tells us that she doesn’t like working here but she needs the money. she tells us she has a one year old baby girl that lives 6 hours away with her parents. she hasn’t seen her in months and misses her terribly. she says she’d prefer to do a different job, but can’t support her family on less than she makes now.
as we sit talking to ‘O’ my peripheral vision catches glimpses of men approaching women and buying them drinks, and then eventually buying the women and leaving the bar with them. these women speak minimal english and don’t know where they are being taken. they can only hope that the hotel they’ll stay at is nearby and that the men who have bought them will be “kind.”
on another night out we spend time with a ladyboy, “M”, who has been in the sex industry for the last 5 years – since she was 17. she tells us she doesn’t love her job and that she’d really rather work in a salon doing hair and nails, but she has to keep making money.
each woman or ladyboy we talk to this month tells us that they don’t like their job, don’t love the hours or the way they’re treated or the fact that they don’t get to see the family that all of their money is sent to. they say they’d rather be working somewhere else but feel helpless to change their lives because they need to provide for their families.
[rahab ministries – located in the middle of patpong red light district]
the organizations we worked with this month build relationships with these women and ladyboys and tell them about opportunities for them to exit the sex industry. it often takes months and sometimes years of pursuing them, but it is so worth it. they will continue to pursue ‘O’ and ‘M’ with the love of Jesus and hopefully next time i’m in thailand i’ll get to meet them again in a new working environment.
i’ll post another blog soon about the people working so hard to reach those trapped in the sex industry and the amazing strides being made in bangkok.
