Talia’s thoughts

Hi Everyone! My free weekend in Chiang Mai is coming to a close now (we have to leave for a little city call Chiang Saen just north of here in about an hour and a half), and I am hoping to fit a quick update in and let you all know how I am doing.  If there are typo/grammar errors, so sorry - this keyboard at the hostel is a little defective. Anyways, my time in Thailand so far has been so unbelievably emotional, unique, conflicting and eye opening.  I arrived in Bangkok on Thursday the 30th, and we really got straight to business and hit the ground running on the 1st.  First stop was a place called Home of New Beginnings.  I would describe this place as somewhat of a halfway house for girls/women who have been rescued from the brothels, red light districts, etc.  The house is located in the heart of one of Bangkok’s red light districts called Nana Plaza.  Basically, the staff does nightly outreach in the various red light districts in Bangkok. They go into the clubs, order a soda or orange juice, and begin simple conversations with the girls, in hopes to return on a consistent basis and build a sense of trust between the staff and prostituted women. The home will also host weekly parties for any amount of girls, just to have a weekly escape from the bars/brothels and to actually see the facilities and the choices that ARE available to them.  It’s interesting, often the house has to pay the fee to the bars for each girl to actually leave the bar and attend these parties, as if the house is a man that wants to take one of the girls out of the bar.  A little weird to think about, but also necessary for some of these girls to actually get a chance to see things outside of the bars and brothels. The goal for New Beginnings is to take a girl out of the brothels/clubs, give them shelter in the home, provide them with english classes and vocational or university options, stipends for monthly costs, as well as emotional support.  Their perspective on the issue is to save one girl at a time - each and every life is valuable to that one person. So even though the results are on a smaller scale (they only have capacity for 15 girls) that is 15 girls that will have new opportunities and a chance for a better life. So that Friday, we had a basic introduction to the issue of human trafficking and sex slavery/tourism.  Here are some of the “facts” (I don’t know the research behind this, so I hate to say FACT. But from what I’ve observed, I’d imagine that much of it is completely true). 70% of tourism in Thailand is considered sex tourism (this includes prostitution, sex shows, and things you wouldn’t believe).  Sex tourism accounts from almost 20% of the nation’s domestic income - so if the industry were to collapse, the entire economy would really as well.  They say that Thailand’s greatest means of money are rice and sex.  Prostitution is also illegal in Thailand; however, it is RARELY if ever enforced, as most of the clubs in the red light districts are owned by the police, police use these women, and if a policeman makes an arrest they are usually just looking for a little extra pocket change and a bribe.  The only real way to get arrested for using a prostitute is if you rape the girl or boy (and usually only “westerners” are caught with this). Another piece to the puzzle is the idea of elder respect in the culture. These girls/women/ladyboys are usually sending this money they make in the brothels back to their impoverished families in the north.  While this profession brings the girls and their families great shame, in the eyes of buddah, Buddhist also believe in the idea of karma.  So what happens to them in this life is a direct result of something bad they did in their past lives.  Conversely, the bad that they are doing in this life is balanced out by the good they are doing to their families by supporting them, and they will be repaid in the next life.  So even if a girl desperately wants to leave the bars and brothels, if the parents wish for her to stay and continue to make money for them (as much as 6000 bhat/month=200$) the girls must stay in Bangkok or whatever city they were trafficked to.   Ok, so here’s a LITTLE bit of the background, there is literally so much more that I could never fit into this email.  But if you have any specific questions, let me know and I’ll do my best to answer. After the introduction, the home had one of their lunch parties and the girls got to leave the clubs to come and spend some time.  We had lunch with about 40 of them and had a great time.  They loved taking pictures and just playing around and laughing - escaping for a bit.  I couldn’t imagine what these young girls were going to be doing in just a couple hours after we leave for our Shabbat dinner.  Too heartbreaking.  That night we had dinner at Chabad in Thailand and then on Saturday some of the kids and I went around Bangkok to see all of the temples and palaces.  Then on Saturday night, only the girls of the group were invited to do outreach with The Home of New Beginnings.  We each had one American partner and a Thai translator.  I went with my friend Natalie, and we spoke to a girl who was 30 years old with two children back north with her family.  In simple English, she said she hated her job and she actually had a “boyfriend” in England who sends her about 10,000 bhat a month and comes every September to be with her.  This is very common - many of the girls will have multiple “boyfriends” sending them money in return for a promise that they won’t continue to work in the brothels. But the girls continue to work and send this money to their families.  I can’t even describe to you what this Nana Plaza looked like.  Imagine you were in a sex mall, where you could just pick out a girl as easily as you could pick out a dress or a pair of shoes.  These Thai women are wearing next to nothing bikini tops and thongs, and all have numbers pinned to them - so you don’t even have to know their names or point, you just say a number to someone.  What was interesting to me was that all of these girls looked BORED.  Not like strip clubs in the US where I’d imagine that he girls are somewhat engaged with the crowd and actually working for customers…these girls looked so miserable, texting and on the phone while they were dancing on stage, not even moving and just talking to each other.  When Natalie and I came in, the girl that came and talked to us was basically begging for someone to talk to (even if she couldn’t speak English). From Bangkok we went to the city of Chang Rai, where the focus switched from the “acute care” in the red light districts, to a more prevention based “bigger picture” non-profit.  The Sold Project, the name of the organization, focuses on scholarship and education in the small villages in the north of Thailand (where most of the prostituted women come from).  Their theory is that the reason why many of the girls go into sex industry or are coerced into trafficking is because of the lack of education or educational opportunities for the children.  After a certain grade in Thailand, kids have the option to stop schooling, go to high school (and then hopefully university), or go to vocational programs or something.  The issue is, many of these impoverished families simply don’t have the money to send their kids to school.  Although the school system is public, the kids have mandatory uniforms around the country, as well as costs for books, etc…and farming and rural families simply cannot afford the cost of education.  I urge all of you to check  out the website/films at http://thesoldproject.org/ …it’s really an amazing organization, started by a bunch of 20 somethings. Incredible.  It gave me A LOT of ideas too, and really re-affirmed my belief in prevention.  So while we were there, we did a multitude of things, including: laying cement and gravel driveways for a new resource center for after school programs, taught English classes, painted with the kids, made balloon animals for the kids, and just played. We also did outreach at a Chiang Rai University, to recruit Thai volunteers, translators,and mentors for the children (they are implementing new parts of the vision, and starting community awareness in Thai villages).  These young children are so beautiful and innocent, and just have infinite potential…for some of them though, I can’t imagine what would come of them without the scholarships - especially since many of their mothers currently work in the brothels in Bangkok and are being taken care of by their grandparents, or their mom’s formerly worked as prostitutes.  Teaching English class at the public schools was a once in a life time experience, so exhausting and fun.  We have lots of video and pics that I can show everyone later too.  I want to share one story with everyone: Natalie and I were playing with a bunch of preschoolers at the school (probably around 4 years old).  Basically, one boy got knocked in the mouth pretty hard and was obviously hurt.  What was interesting to us was that non of the teachers went to console him, and when we went to hug him, pick him up and make sure he was ok, the boy was noticeably and consciously holding back tears. This is something very indicative of the Thai culture in general - that when something bad happens, parents often say to their kids, “never mind never mind.”  It’s a country in which much of emotional expression and love is so suppressed, that a lot of the acting out (if you will) is in a sexual and destructive form.  Add this cultural aspect in with the broken, western men that visit the country looking for sex, it’s a continuous cycle. Today, we’re off to a city called Chiang Saen in which we will be working with an organization called VCDF (volunteer childrens development fund). this week’s focus will be working with the beggar children population (these children are also basically pimped out if someone asks for them), as well as rescued prostituted young boys, and some girls.  It’s gong to be a very emotional and intense week, so I’m glad I had a free weekend with three friends here in Chiang Mai.  We did yoga, massages, shopping and took a Thai cooking class.  The cooking class was so fun! And I have a book full of recipes now and can cook for every one when I get home.  I’m glad I’m getting to experience some touristy stuff here.  I don’t want to become jaded about thailand because of the work we’re doing.  I want to appreciate the culture as well - and I really am.  I will say, that is a little bit difficult when you still see white men (of ANY age…I even saw one with a Penn State tshirt) walking around with little thai women. Even in the temples I saw middle-age men basically renting out girlfriends for the day/week/month…even in our hotel room across the hall in Bangkok.  It changes my perspective completely.  But I am finding a lot of hope in it at the same time when I work directly with the kids.  Thai culture is also just so rich and beautiful, I have met such lovely people here.  I don’t know if all of the men are broken or have issues of their own - but I do think that many of them don’t consider the bigger picture…and the consequences of their actions in this country and with these boys, girls and women. Ok. I hope that this was mostly coherent and not too depressing. It’s a little hard to process everything while I’m in the thick of it, but I can tell you right now that this has been such a valuable experience to me and what I hope to do in my life.   I miss everyone so much and think of all of you on a daily basis. I’m so thankful to have such loving people in my life - and I try recognize it all the time. love, Talia