NAVIGATING THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD

Krista, Kristen and I went out with Pet to the bar scene near the beach in Pattaya early before the men came... and... tonight... I met this girl. I couldn't quite hear her name because the music was so loud and her English was not very good and my Thai is even worse than her English! She was beautiful. She had this sweet, innocent face. She was all dressed up and sitting behind the bar with other young women who looked a lot like her. She served me a 7-up. She was 25. She had been married at 20. Divorced at 22. She has two children. They live with her parents far from Pattaya. How will she support them? She will work at these bars and hope men pay for her time. If she is really "lucky" a western man will really like her and maybe get her an apartment or give her a larger sum of money... and when he comes to visit for his vacations she will be at his disposal, in a certain manner. She has only worked in Pattaya for 4 months. Does she want to work here? No. All the girls will tell you they are not happy about this life. She works from 3:30 until Midnight every day. 7 days a week. She gets 3 days off a month. She sends money home to her family and feels obligated to work here to support them. These women, however, are the lucky ones, as they in a certain way "choose" this life. Lurking in the underbelly of Pattaya (not that "under" either) is women trafficked in from places like Russia or even Cambodia. And women who sell their children for sex. Yes. Mothers selling their daughters because it is easier for them to make money this way than do hard labor. And then juxtaposed here in the midst of this "den of iniquity" are several Starbucks, a Benihana's, a Sizzler, etc. Strange. The marriage of commerce that you find in Pattaya. Money talks here. But what is truly the price for the ravaging of the human soul? It should be priceless. But I fear it is a cheap commodity in Pattaya. But God can restore. God can heal. God can redeem. God loves to make whole what is broken. God loves to make clean that which is stained. I will pray for my friend at Friend's Bar #5. Will you join me?