…and I saw sadness. I saw an emptiness and a longing for
something more. Every now and then she smiled when a potential customer passed
by, but within a second that smile was gone and the emptiness in her eyes remained.
As me and my team sat at the bar we
began to talk with her and got to know a little bit about her. I won’t tell you
her real name for security reasons so I’ll call her Flower because she is as
beautiful and fragile as a Flower. She is 30 years old (she looks like she’s
20) and works as a bartender/prostitute just like all the other girls on Bangla Road. She
has 2 younger brothers that she takes care of. She uses the money she makes to
help put her brothers through college. She says that she is so proud of them
both.
A couple days later my team and I
came back to her bar and we got to talk with her again. We asked her what she
liked to do for fun and she said “Drinking because it makes her happy“. She
does not feel happy without it. She needs it to make her job a little easier.
She says it not fun to do what she does every night, but she needs the money. I
asked her if it was hard to pretend to be happy. She shook her head yes and
said “I just smile really really big and pretend”.
A few minutes later her customer
walks in and she says “excuse me” and quickly rushes to his side. I watch her
interact with him- a huge smile on her face as she links her arm around his. He
looks over 50 years old with a wedding ring on his finger. After a brief
dialogue he smiles and walks away and she comes back to sit with us at our
table. Her smile is immediately gone and her eyes are once again empty. She
says he’ll be back later to take her out.
She charges $2000 baht equivalent to about
$70. We told her if we had more money we would pay that price and take her to
the movies to just hang out. She laughed and shook her head in disbelief. WE ended up getting her phone number. We plan on calling her during the week to just have lunch and get to know her more. To show her that we do care and love her because there is a God that cares and loves her.
Flower is one of many other girls
that we talked to and they ALL had similar responses. They do it because they
need the money not because they like it. I haven’t met one girl yet that said
she loved her job. It breaks my heart.
We are partnering with a ministry
called “She” it helps to provide other opportunities for women in the bars. Monday
through Saturday every night we go out into the open bars and talk to the
bartenders/prostitutes. We try and show them that they are important and that
they are worth talking to. We want them to know that they are loved by a God
and that there are ways out. Here is the website for “She” ministeries http://www.shethailand.org/index.php.
Check it out. AND watch the vid below. If you would like more info or have any questions please contact me by clicking on the link on the left. There so much that can not be explained in one blog, but hopefully you get a glimpse of what goes on. ALSO, please keep me and my teammates in your prayers.
