We are now in Pattaya, Thailand; arrived here about 3 days ago. Pattaya is commonly called the adult male Disneyland of the world. My version of Disneyland does not look like this! When I think about Disneyland I think about shinny happy people in brightly colored costumes.
Perhaps the shinny happy ones are the bar keeps in this beach city; the bars are the homes of 20,000 women in Pattaya. On the main street you can see bar after bar after bar. Most of the bars have chairs out front where the women wait for the next customer. One bar even had divided plate glass windows with bar stools inside where the women display themselves for the men to select. As far as the costumes go some women / lady boys are dressed in school girl outfits or colorful flight attendant uniforms.
You do see many men here from around the world and yes they may temporarily be happy thinking they have found what they are looking for. I have seen many sitting beside the most beautiful women of the world with a sad look and an abundance of alcohol. Yes there are the men who live here and are marriedand have families but that is the rare exception to the rule. Most come looking to fill the voids that only Christ can.
The women also are searching waiting for broken men to come along and be their prince charming and heal their broken souls. One women who I talked with yesterday was about 6 years older than me; she told me she is too old. I enquired further and found out it mean that she was too old to be a bar girl; she now works at a massage parlor. Her husband left her and her with two children so she moved to Pattaya to try to make a living to support her family. She told me that her two younger sisters had also been in Pattaya and got married ;one to a man from Arizona and another to a man from Italy.
I have been told that the women that come here to Patttaya are not trafficked for the most part; they are still held captive to something bigger than them. Many of them have left low paying jobs to come here in order to make an income to support their families. Whatever the case whatever the reason they have come to Pattaya they are here and prayer is the only thing that changes everything.
Please pray God will change the socio-economic conditions in Thailand that make this appear like a viable alternative, pray God will heal the lives of all men who enter here, and pray that God will heal the broken hearts of these women and give them a desire for something bigger; bigger than the need to suppport their family, bigger than the need for a man but that they are fillled with the love of Christ !
Love you all, Carla
