Picture a street lined with all your favorite people. It’s a city street so it’s also filled with bright lights and is bursting with hustle and bustle. Your favorite people are moving all around, doing everything.
Some are taking pictures on the side of the street, some are smiling at you asking them to join you on an adventure.
Sounds pretty pleasant, doesn’t it? A city filled with all of your nearest and dearest people with endless opportunities for things to do?
Now, picture that you are a woman between the ages of 15-25.
You’ve just been told by a man who just approached your house that they are hiring waitresses on the main island and they want you to come work for them. They are even offering you five- hundred pesos upfront for your family!
That’s so great! How rare an opportunity!
(Five hundred pesos is about the equivalent to 12 US dollars. It is the sum of 1-5 days of labor depending on the job.)
You look around. You see your family, and brothers and sisters. You look around and see your home. Sheet metal roof, with two by fours and plywood forming its structure. You remember all the times you and your siblings were hungry, but it wasn’t your parents fault, they’ve been working all your life. It’s just been hard. You see joy in this option. This man comes and offers a new future for your family, and boy, does it look shiney. Sure, you will have to go away from your family for a little while, but you will be able to send money back to them frequently, and, eventually, be able to come back and join them.
It’s a risk, but what you see on the horizon is beautiful.
So you do it. You get on the boat, or the bus, or the plane, which ever they tell you you are taking and tell your family a noble goodbye. They are proud and thankful and reluctant for the opportunity.
The future is bright. The air seems fresher. Your stomach even seems fuller, but it’s full with a fresh hope and knowledge that everything is going to be alright.
When you get there, the air is colder than you thought. The breeze doesn’t seem so life giving. You follow the man who offered you a job to your new place of employment.
“We have arrived too late”, the man says. “All the waitressing jobs are gone. But you still owe us five hundred pesos, so put on these clothes. You are working tonight.”
You are now a prostitue.
You now forced to sell your body and dance on a stage to repay a debt that you didn’t understand you were getting yourself into.
What is to be of your life now?
What about your family?
Stay tuned for the continuation of the story next week Monday!
Now, this is not the story of every man, woman, and child who are involved in the trade. I was blessed to meet a beautiful woman who was put into the sextrade by her aunt years after her parents died, amongst countless others. In total, it is said that there are 15,000 sex industry workers with in a quarter mile stretch of street, and few neighboring side streets.
I am still fundraising for this trip and the one to come! If you are interested in getting involved, please click the “Support Me” link on the side.
Love you guys!
