Last night we took one of the bar girls that we’ve become friends with out. Her name is Ann and is 32. She has a daughter at home (up north) and told me that she works in the bars for the money and so someday, her daughter won’t have to go through the same thing. I met her with Candice on our second night out. We went back last Wednesday and tried to take her out, but ran into some problems with the mamasung. It was hard to leave her because you could tell in her eyes that she wanted to go out so badly, but couldn’t. We told her we could take her out in the daytime, but she said she prefered to go at night. (so she wouldn’t have to be there) We told her we would be back on Monday to try take her out again and she said she would try to work everything out with the mamsung.
So last night, we went back to the bar and things went so much smoother. The mamasung was busy with another customer, so we were able to talk directly to Ann. We asked her if she wanted to go out and she said yes. So we paid her bar fine, sat and talked with some girls while she got ready. When we left we explained to her that this was her night, gave her some options and told her we would go wherever she wanted. She seemed confused and I wondered how many times she had ever been given that option.
She decided to go to the mall, which she had never been to that mall. We piled in a taxi and thanks to her translating for us, we made it to the right mall. Once there, she decided she wanted to grab some ice cream, so we did. We all got frozen yogurt with fruit and she loved it! It was fun just to watch her trying to decide what flavor she wanted. She still wasn’t quite sure what to do after the ice cream and we could only have her with us till 10, so we decided to go bowling!
She had never been bowling, so we told her it was a game Americans enjoyed playing. She was like, “What kind of game?” And we reassured her we would have fun and she just said okay! So, we went got her shoes and socks and found our lane. We aked for bumpers, (to help all of us out) but I don’t think anyone really understood us, so we didn’t get any. We found the lightest pound ball we could for her (a 7lbs. ball) and laughed the first time she threw it because she weighs about 7olbs. and when she let it go, she kind of flew down the lane after it. We all ended up laughing so hard through out the night by our different dance moves (the music was techno/rap) and by the different techniques we used to roll the ball. It was so rewarding just to see her laughing so hard and loving it. That was what really made our night.
It
was hard to let her go at the end of the night and to know what she is going back to. She loves talking with Annie (the director of Night Light) and actually started talking to us because we looked like friends of Annie’s. So, it’s satisfying in knowing that once we leave here, she won’t be “lost”. Her birthday is September 6th, so we are hoping to take her some things on Friday for her birthday, including a photo album of our night and to tell her goodbye.
To those who put extra money in our accounts to be able to take the girls out, thank you so much!!! Not only were they touched and lives are being changed, but so are ours. Thanks for giving us a chance to show them a different kind of love for a night!!
