Ground control to Major Tom
Ground control to Major Tom
Take your protein pills
And put your helmet on
(10) Ground control (9) to Major Tom (8)
(7, 6) Commencing (5) countdown
Engines on (4, 3, 2)
Check ignition (1)
And may God’s love (liftoff) be with you
One of David Bowie’s most famous songs echoed off of the walls of bars lining the street we walked. I was venturing through a road off of Walking Street (a street in Pattaya, Thailand that is dedicated to brothels, strip clubs, and bars that offer more than drinks when the sun starts to go down…and really anytime of day) with two women, one from Holland and the other from Germany. They are a part of an organization in Pattaya, The Tamar Center, that teaches English, life skills, cosmetology and baking, production of goods, customer service, and more to the women and men that work in the bars or freelance on the streets. The two women have been doing outreach all over the red light district for the past few months and tonight was my chance to join them in (hopefully) making a difference in someone’s life.
We walked down the street, peering into different bars, waiting to see which one we felt pulled to. One had pool tables and girls dressed as nurses, another was filled with men of all ages sitting around as the girls danced for them, the bar next to that one had five or six lady boys smoking cigarettes and applying bright red lipstick. None of these bars felt quite right though…
Now Adam told to Eve
“Listen here to me,
Don’t you let me catch you
Messing around that apple tree”
Oh yeah, ever since the world began
A hard headed woman been
A thorn in the side of man
Then we came across a beach/luau themed bar. I asked the two women I was with if this could be a good place for us to go into; I was certain it felt like the right place for us to be, but that might have been because Elvis was booming from the speakers. I grew up listening to Elvis with my dad and every time I hear the King of Rock I think about driving to get shaved ice, running errands, or fighting the wind blowing in my hair as we drove around the desert. (Miss you dad! Thank you for everything, including all the music…but not the Johnny Cash… *hugs and kisses*) It must have been a sense of safety and comfort in a place that was wildly uncomfortable to be in that drew me to that particular bar. However, I was told that because there were quite a few customers in that bar that the girls would ignore us knowing that we were not going to be big spenders.
So instead of going to the beach themed bar, we ended up at a place just across the street from the luau called The Smurf Bar. I’m not even kidding, that’s the actual name of it. We walked up and saw that a few girls were sitting down, having their dinner before the long night of work ahead of them, while a few more were playing pool. We knew this would be a good spot to stop as they didn’t have anybody else in the bar and would hopefully talk with us. Well we were right! The two girls eating were excited to have customers and hopped up as we approached the entrance. We took a seat at a bar top and as one girl told us the different drink specials, the other waited patiently to hear our requests. One of the oddities was an espresso machine behind the bar so we ordered lattes and then waited as they went bouncing off to put in the order.
The two girls walked back up with our lattes and set them before us; now let me tell you, that cup of joe was quite honestly one of the most beautiful (and delicious!) lattes I’ve ever had. We talked with the girls (Pang and Pang; yes, they had the same name) as they floated around the area we were sitting in. Eventually we broke the ice enough with them to see if they would want to sit down at a table with us, and luckily they took enough of a liking to us that they agreed. The girls carried our lattes and we brought our bags over to a table and chairs made of stone. They laughed and giggled with us over the language barrier and the confusing realization that (admittedly took us a minute or two) both girls were named Pang. We asked their age, where they were from, what their families were like, if they had any kids, if they liked Pattaya, and other questions that one would ask upon first impressions. They were both young, in their early twenties, and from one of the most common slums that women and men come from simply looking for work. The Pang that sat closest to me told us about her son and that he was living back in that slum with her grandmother, a familiar pattern within the Thai culture, while she worked in the city and sent her money home. She then broke our hearts when she told us that she had an older son, but wasn’t sure where he was or if he was even alive anymore. She believes the father took him, but she’s not sure if he abandoned him and the son is now dead, or if he was sold into the trafficking industry, or if he is alive and well with another family, she hopes for the last one though. Through all different parts of her life she shared with us from her ex boyfriend beating her, the uncertainty of her son’s whereabouts, to having to working in the bars for the past year, she kept her composure and didn’t shed a tear. She was one of the strongest persons I had ever met and I just felt so much love and care for her, even if I had only known her for less than an hour.
The two women who work at Tamar went over the event the organization was holding in a few weeks that would provide dinner, a little party with some games and dancing, and all the information they could possibly want about the center and what they do for the women and men who attend the classes and events. They told the girls that everything was absolutely free for them and that they would pay their bar fees so they could come at no cost to them! For most of the bars in Thailand a woman/man needs to have a fee paid, this can be between $10-$30 approximately, for them to be able to leave the bar with a customer for the night. It is then up to the woman/man to decide how much to charge for any service they would provide the customer, but often times they are haggled with by the customer and end up selling themselves for very little money because “the customer already paid to get them out”. Both girls showed even more excitement and eagerness to attend the English classes and the party Tamar Center was hosting knowing that they wouldn’t lose anything by going, but little did they know they had so much to gain by simply saying yes.
Our time to meet up with the other groups was coming up and we let Pang and Pang know we would have to be leaving soon. One of the women I was with asked the girls if we could pray for them before we had to leave and they said we could. I had a little inkling in my tummy that I wanted to pray for them, but I wasn’t going to step on any toes during outreach since these women were the ones who came out here on a weekly basis. Then God came through and the women who asked the girls if we could pray for them looked to me and asked if I would pray for them (Thanks for the little nudge to do what you were pushing me to do man!), so I also said yes. While I prayed I talked to God like He was siting at that stone table with us, holding our hands, listening to the stories of these girls, and hearing our hearts as we asked Him to look over the employees at that bar and every other bar in Thailand. For the first time in a long time I felt like He was really listening, even if He wasn’t saying anything back, and that He was truly present in that moment. As I came to the end of my prayer I felt a sense of calm (and not one that Elvis could ever give, sorry dad!) come over myself, and all of us at that table. When I opened my eyes the girl that had told us all about her family had tears brewing in her eyes and rolling down her cheeks, but her whole face was still smiling. Her eyes turned up, her nose crinkled, her teeth shown as she beamed at me with sheer glee radiating off of her. In that moment I could see that she was genuinely happy. I’m not saying my prayer was the ticket to happiness for her (not by any means!), but that by praying over her she was able to feel the presence of God in that moment and there is nothing more joyful than that.
The girls hugged us goodbye, then they hugged us again, they thanked us for our time and pulled us in for another hug, and then they hugged us one more time. Then we started to make our way back to the meeting point, but I looked back one more time before the bar was out of sight and the two girls were standing there smiling at us. They saw me look back for one last glimpse of The Smurf Bar and waved their arms wildly and smiled those same happy filled smiles at us.
Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia
Mountain mamma, take me home
Country roads
I silently giggled to myself as I heard the John Denver song I’ve recently taking a liking to. I’m not much for country music, but on a road trip to Tennessee this time last year I ended up falling for the whimsical tune…just ~fifty years late. Hearing that song just wrapped up the events of my bar outreach so well. The whole evening I heard music that reminded me of happy times and good memories, while I was in a place that is filled with hard times and impending regret for the women and men that work there. It was like God had a little soundtrack going for me, He knew when my ears would pick up on the different tunes that made me feel a little more unworried, He knew I needed to be embraced by those memories in order to connect with those girls, He knew I needed to be pushed to pray. He just knew, and that’s the beauty of it all.
