I had one of those moments the other night when I was standing there thinking, “How is this really my life?!?”, in a good way! Let me back up and explain the evening. There are two girls at one of the go-go dance bars that a few of us have befriended. One of the girls has only just finished her first week of work at the bar. She is skittish when she has to work and very shy. When she is talks and tries to speak what little English she knows, she is so precious and cute that you want to steal her and take her far away from anything that goes on in those places. She sticks out like a sore thumb and doesn’t want to be there, but medical bills have to be paid and her two daughters need to be cared for. Her friend works with her, and has taken the new girl under her wing to the point where they even share money at the end of the night so they both have enough to survive.
So, Thursday night, Julie, Amanda, and myself went to the bar where they work, paid their bar fines, and we all walked out of there with the night off. Each girl has a bar fine that must be paid by the male customers if they want to have the girls for the night…it’s usually about 500 – 600 baht, depending on the girl and how long she’s worked there. As we were walking out, we saw one of the bar girls that we are friends with at the corner bar. We told her what we were doing and asked if she wanted to go too. She said yes, and then the very interesting mix of people piled into one taxi and headed out for a night of fun!
Anyway, we asked them what they would like to do that night, and one of the girls, without hesitation, announced that they wanted to go dancing. We had been thinking about just having dinner and going to Starbucks or something, so this was a shocker. After all, they had just been given the night off from having to entertain men by dancing around wearing almost nothing, and yet when faced with the option of a night off of work, they wanted to go dancing! We shrugged and changed our mindsets from coffee to clubbing and set out on our adventure.
We had dinner first, then went to a club called Hollywood. We were the first ones there, but the music was already on, so we talked for a little bit, then decided to get the place going! We all had so much fun, just dancing and having girl time!
At one point in the night, a thought hit me that made me smile and shake my head at how awesome God is: I am in a club in Bangkok dancing and having a good time with three girls who work as prostitutes, but who I consider my friends! I literally felt like I was just back home in Florida, having a girls’ night out! These girls aren’t my charity case, they are my friends.. I miss them when I don’t see them and feel like just picking up the phone and calling them when I have a funny story to tell or when I want to hear what they’ve been up to. They are funny and sweet and fun-loving. They are around my age, so it just seems so natural. Only God can make something like that seem so natural, like you’ve done it a million times. I even forgot that I had only known them for a week. The greatest part was that I got to see the other side of them, the part that isn’t on display. We saw the side of their personalities that is childlike and fun, not seductive and only there to please. They relaxed and were allowed to let loose without worrying about who they had to go home with at the end of the night. They got to go home alone, with no strings attached
On that dance floor in the middle of Bangkok, Thailand I decided that this is the life I was born to live. Everything that comes with the whole “serving God” package is perfect for me! And I also realized how hard it will be in a few weeks when I have to leave my friends, but that thought got pushed out of my head by the pounding bass line, the flashing lights, and the smiling faces of three girls who have definitely found their place in my heart.
