National Human Trafficking Awareness Day

This post is about my first day in Angeles City, the #1 city in the Philippines for prostitution. The next couple weeks of posts are going to be filled with things that happened and things that I'd seen. Ironically, this day that I was exposed to this whole new world was also "National Human Trafficking Awareness Day". It was so very appropriate. I don't know how much you want to read. Feel free to skip parts if you must. I will try to say it all gently but I feel like I shouldn't. I just want to give a clear image of the world here where I spent 2 weeks of my life that taught me so much and I hope you learn something too.

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Wow. What a day. So much to process. First I had the MOST FRUSTRATING conversation with the driver about poverty and he believed that people are only poor because they are lazy. As this conversation progressed I became more frustrated as he blatantly insulted my career choice and telling me that I was wasting my time and literally laughed at me the whole 3 hour ride. I later discovered that many MANY people think this way! It was most enraging and I couldn't believe it as he stood his ground. If you want to open this conversation up feel free... I have a whole soap box rant about it now :) I arrived in Angeles city mid-afternoon with my food from Jollibee and got introduced to the staff. They happened to be eating from the same famous fast food chain as well. They all seemed great and I became more excited to be there. I spent the rest of the day talking to Paulo about his organization and it was so interesting. They help women escape from the bars and help educate them in getting an education and a real job afterwards. I learned so much today that it's difficult to recall it all now. I'd need to write a 10 page paper to fully explain everything... Oh heey! Good thing I am! :)

My first impressions of Angeles was basically shock. I had sat down and talked to Paulo for hours about the city and everything about it and what I should expect. But seeing it in real life was a little overwhelming. To see how plainly, unhidden, and open prostitution was in this city was truly a whole new world. I can continue to explain it in words but it just doesn't do it justice. It just feels like I'm repeating what everyone already knows, and what I knew before I went. I knew it all yet it was still shocking to me. I rode down the street on the back of a motorbike and we didn't even pass half of the 300 bars lining the roads, prompting people to go in. There were white, caucasean males everywhere and here for one reason only. "There are no beaches here" Paulo said, "why else would they come here?" It was disgusting. And it wasn't even 3 o'clock, and yet the bars were busling with unattractive, large, and older men. One man was still zipping up his pants as he walked out of a bar. We stopped to get a fruit drink (4 seasons became my choice drink) at one of the 5 star hotels (that they have EVERYWHERE for all the rich folk that come here...) and sat out by the pool. There were countless men hanging out by the pool, laughing with their friends, some with 1 or 2 women that they just bought for the evening. Just sitting out there in front of everyone else, unashamed and unembarrassed. You think they'd care a little more but it's so accepted here... and this is all in a city that claims that prostitution is illegal. It's just so sad.

I became more frustrated as I let it all sink in. What kind of men would come here?? There's a whole retirement home for retired American soldiers right down the street. Do they really have nothing better to do with their lives? If I had a pension like that I'd use it to retire where its pretty, like the beach...

This world is going to take some getting used to. I had the night to process as I prepared to actually go inside of the bars of Angeles City the next day.