I have written and re-written blogs for this month and nothing I wrote ever seems to do justice to what is going on here in Thailand. Walking into the bars the first night we were told to go to bars with few men and lots of girls because they are more likely to have time to talk to us and make a relationship with us. The goal is to make relationships with the girls and visit them a few times in the bars and have a good enough relationship to meet outside of the bar. The idea is to draw them out of the bars and tell them that are other options. The organization we work with provides English classes (huge draw so women can talk to men better and get more customers (or so they think)) jobs with the organization, housing, and childcare if they have children. It’s brilliant! We break into teams when going into the bars and mine consist of Angela, Jenna, and me. We had been praying for someone we could really connect with.
The first night we met Lisa. She was at the second bar we felt like we hit the jackpot with her. She was awesome! She was funny, honest, and sick of working at the bars. She had her head on straight and she was not one to just go along with things if she didn’t like it. She showed us burns on her legs from men walking by and putting their cigarette out on her leg (it KILLS me to think people are treated like this) I had to tell her that it is not ok to be treated like that and that she had WORTH. She continued to share about her family, living situation, and how much she didn’t like her boss and didn’t like working there (Thank you JESUS).
We met with Lisa one more time before we asked to ice cream. She was overjoyed to meet with us. At the ice cream place we told her that she could pick out whatever she wanted and she couldn’t pick because there were too many options. Honestly, I could of bought her ice cream all day just to see her so happy. As we ate ice cream we began to ask questions about her life and if she didn’t work at the bar what she wanted to do. She said that she wanted to be a lawyer and I truly believe she could do it. In Thailand, the women have the role of making income so she went 5 hours from her home and is making money to send to her family and 11 year old son. She gets to see her family once a year that is if she makes enough money to travel home. Lastly, I asked if she ever wanted to get married and she said no because all she sees of men is that drink, buy women, and treat them badly. We reminded her that there are good men out there and that she just needs to keep waiting for the right one.
We told Lisa that we friends who can help get her a job and teach her read English better and she was thrilled. At the end of ice cream we said we would be going out tonight and stop by her bar. She said I might not be there because I don’t like working there. We were jumping up and down inside because she is sticking up for herself. The key is to get her into something else other than the bars industry which is where we come in. God has placed us in her life for such a time as this.
