First Evening in Pattaya

We made it to Pattaya and I think I can speak for my entire team to say that we are all exhausted.  Thailand is a beautiful green country with a lot of traditional architecture.   It is very different from India… there is a lot of the same type of underdeveloped impoverish communities but these shanty towns are few and far between.  The poverty here can be seen in the outer villages of the city where the girls who are trafficked come from.

There is a dark energy that hangs over the city… while I was warned to prepare for this I don’t think I fully anticipated what it would be like.  Everything is dirty but not in the sense that it is not clean… it is dirty with sexual activity and filth.  To tell you the truth I am uncomfortable being in our hotel knowing what goes on in these rooms each night.

These girls that have been forced into prostitution come from the outer, more rural villages around Pattaya.  Their families are poor so they send their children into the city for work, but without an education, not knowing the local language, or having any type of personal connection here they end up working as sex slaves.  The girls live in the back of the bars and can turn up to 20 tricks any given night.  The bar owners manipulate them and force them to pay a rent that is far above what they make, so they have no choice (especially without an education) but to stay where they are at.  The girls continue to work hoping that they will make enough money to send home to their families, but after a while and with increasing medical issues from STDs the girls realize they cannot go home due to the shame of admitting what has come of them, and that they made no money.  The family then sends more of their children to the city which continues to feed the cycle of trafficking. 

Tonight we walked the streets, beach, in and around the bars, etc.  What I observed is so disgusting and sad that I can’t put it into words… but I can tell you my heart aches over the depravity in this city.  After a nights rest I will hopefully be able to process my experience more....