Here's a clip about RENEW and what they do for the girls of the city. The song at the end of the video is just beautiful! One of their main forms of help they provide is outreach, where they visit the bars where the girls work to try to get them out... which is exactly what I did today.
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Nothing could prepare me for what I would see occur today, the things I would learn, the sadness I would experience, and the most surprising thing of all, how much fun I would have.
My day started by being introduced to a group from YWAM that was there visiting RENEW for the day. We went to visit the city of Pampang, a city feeding off of a dirty, trash filled "river". This was one of the main city's where the girls that become prostitutes come from. RENEW goes to visit these communities to find girls that are at risk to enter prostitution. They hope to
help them and their families economically to prevent them from having to work in the bars. When you see it yourself you realize the severe situation they are in. They truly have nowhere else to turn to survive except prostitution. I came across children digging in the mounds of garbage scavenging for food, and men fishing in the tiny stream that they call a river; lucky if they catch even one fish. It helped me understand the life the girls have come from before I went that night to meet the women in prostitution myself.
I'm so glad that the YWAM group was there that day. They were a really fun bunch that kept the day from getting too depressing. After dinner began one of the most confusing... saddening... angering... greatest nights of my life. Angeles City was literally a whole new world. The 18 of us divided into groups of 4 and 5 and we each had a "guide" to take us through some bars. Our guides were amazing girls who had been rescued from a life of prostitution and took us through the very same bars where they used to work. I can't imagine what that was like for them to be there again. Later they told me that it keeps them forgetting their past and how far they've come. Our guide, only 10 days older then I, had an amazing story whose life of prostitution began at age 13. She has come so far and wants to use her story to help others like herself. She is now going back to school with the help of RENEW, and will study social work so she can do what she can for others that were in her situation. She is so intelligent and such a charming person, and was so great for me to see the real soul of a person that I was watching on stage.
We walked into the first bar and tried to be discreet and get seats in the back, but being the only white females in the entire place, discreetness was not an option. The bar owners, or mommasans, saw us and pulled us to front row seats. My first exposure was to an enormous man that had just purchased 2 girls to take home with him. All the girls could muster were souless smiles as the drunk pig cheered for himself as they walked out the door, the girls with their heads hanging. Nothing too eventful happened for awhile so I just looked around the room, examining the people while the dancers studied us. The men young and old had goofy smiles on their faces while the girls just looked sad. They might flash a smile at a guy and wink at another but their temporary appearance of happiness was replaced by concerned and sad expressions. I could tell how torn they were by their body language. The last thing they wanted was to get picked so some stood in the back trying not to get noticed. But at the same time they knew that they wouldn't get paid unless someone picked them. And sometimes a girl would get picked... and my heart would ache for her. One minute a group of guys are sitting around hanging out, and then the next minute the dreaded lazer pointer appeared on stage and bounced around a few times from girl to girl as the mamasans asked the customers which girls they wanted, only to land on the next victims. It was so barbaric! Even the way the girls are ranked in the bar is so inhuman! Based on how popular the girl is, they are given a different footwear so everyone will know their "quality" and pricing. Black boots are given to the most expensive, white to the middle price, and bare feet for the least expensive... It just makes me sick.
I tried to imagine what the girls could have possibly thought of us being there. Here was a group of 4 American girls that were obviously not here for the same reasons as everyone else. We sipped on our non-alcoholic mango drinks and munched on the popcorn and just observed. Who did they think we were? Did they know about Renew and know why we were here? Did they think we were judging them for their lifestyle? I hope not! I smiled I one and only got a half smile in return. Off to the side I saw an older man receiving a lap dance from one of the girls while a younger man was sitting with his arm around his girl for the night. As I was soaking all this in, the most amazing thing happened... 2 of the girls from the YWAM group came back from the bathroom with 2 of the girls that worked there. After a short chat with them they decided that we needed to hop on stage with them. "WHAT? nooooo... sorry. We cant..." But after MUCH deliberation we decided that it wouldn't hurt. Besides... at this point we were basically being dragged on stage and didn't really have much of a choice anymore! The club immediately transformed from a lonely sad bar to "goofballs gone wild!". One girl even grabbed my camera and started taking pictures, so I have a forever memory of these shenanigans. Everyone was just laughing and dancing around us... I just couldn't stop laughing! (Those pictures will never make it to the internet by the way... I mean, we were dressed appropriately but that wasn't the problem :) hah.) And zooming in on all of the girls faces in the pictures the next day made me so happy. Every single one was laughing or smiling. Whether it was our amazing caucasian dancing skills or they were just happy to be having fun with some new friends, I don't know. But looking back I know that that's exactly what we came to do. We created a judgement free zone and showed them we cared about them.
Sometime during that night, the long, strategically planned phallic shaped balloons (same ones that clowns use at birthday parties) were brought out. The girls used them to shoot around the room at each other, but we turned it into a different kind of fun :) Dogs, flowers, hats, hearts... all of the above were made and more. But our favorite of the night was the Jesus fish that we gave to a few girls before we left. We were having so much fun and we could tell how much they girls were enjoying themselves too. The excitement calmed down a little bit we were suddenly reminded of where we actually there when the laser pointer appeared on stage yet again...
The walk to the next bar was awful and I saw one of the hardest things I've ever had to see in my life. Don't keep reading if you don't want to be as scarred as I was... There were many points in the night when all those came together and I almost burst into tears was when I saw the fear in a young girls face. I looked toward the entrance of one of the bars we were passing and I saw in clear sight a middle aged man that had a small girl by the nape of the neck. He shook her firmly as we past him to keep her from causing a commotion in the midst of her sobs. I would better be able to guess her age if her face wasn't buried in her hands and her face not drenched in tears, but judging by her height she couldn't have been more then 12 years old. I looked at this scene unfolding in front of me. This poor, terrified, innocent girl was being carried of to be raped right before my eyes and there was absolutely nothing that I could do! I don't think I have ever felt more helpless in my entire life!! We were currently on good terms with the bar owners and mamasans, but we would no longer be allowed back if we were to instigate any problems. I haven't been able to get the image out of my head since it happened. Everyone knows rape happens in the world but when I saw it unfolding in front of me it stirred something inside of me that I can't silence. I want to do something for these people but I have no idea what I can do with my minimal skills and lack of experience right now. Although I couldn't do anything for this poor, innocent girl today it did something in me that brought me to reality and is helping me understand how severe the situation actually is. The day left me sad but strangely hopeful. All I wanted to do was go back to those bars and try to make them smile again.
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My next week was far more encouraging as I lived at that shelter home where all of the rescued women live now. And it turned out to be one of the most amazing, special, greatest experiences of my life.
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