Pattaya
Flabby old white guy, his No Money No Honey wife-beater showing off a bad sun-burn. Crammed next to him in the pick-up truck taxi is a young Thai girl, hair streaked orange and plucked eye-brows growing back in again. She jockeys her mini-skirt closer and throws an arm around him.
A more middle-aged Thai woman with warm brown eyes and a wide smile sits on a bench in a local shopping mall. Grocery bags are sprawled all around, and an ironing board is propped up behind her. She’s waiting for her more-than-middle-aged German boyfriend to finish up his emails home from the internet café.
Two-year-old Daniel is fidgety in the afternoon heat, fussing in his mom’s friend’s lap while she gets her hair straightened at a local salon. His pale skin and light hair prove his connection to a father who doesn’t know he exists. He’s an obvious step-brother to five-year-old Tim, who’s hyped up on Pepsi! and also missing a dad -- but that doesn’t put a damper on their brotherly scraps, even here in the salon…
Eve uses a plastic bucket to douse herself with cool water before she puts on a pink t-shirt and some striped orange pants. She doesn’t want to smell like home when she goes in to work tonight, and it’s been stinking hot lately. Swamp land is free, so this is where she’s lived all her life, but they might be able to move soon. When she finished grade six her mom asked her to go work at Naughty Girl. Eve’s been making pretty good money since then.
Nicha’s a nice girl from Sukhothai who finished grade nine. She moved down to Pattaya five years ago in hopes of snagging a rich American boyfriend like her friend Lutti did. Nicha would love to have a place like Jeff and Lutti’s, with plenty of space for cute little half-foreign kids to run around in. Maybe plant some fruit trees – her favorite is papaya. Nicha’s still mixing drinks in Pattaya, though, a few papaya slings thrown in for good measure, and hoping for the best.
Maow has been a mother to them all, every one of these obnoxious boys lounging around the table in their heels and lipstick, competing for the best joke. Teenagers! she thinks, and sighs. She’s glad she had a few drinks before she came to this party. The food is always great and the people mean well, but she’s been working the bars seventeen years and can’t always handle these smiling Christians and their hope. What?! Seventeen years already, since Bo died? Her young-married-farm-wife days are that long gone? Maow shifts her seafood salad around on her plate. Shrugs and smiles a bit apologetically at the young white church-girl sitting next to her at the banquet.
Rose is stunning in red, and unashamed to stand and ask for prayer. Nervous nonetheless, she is stunned herself when a small foreigner comes up and begins praying in broken Thai. Tears flow with the simple words she repeats with all her heart: Thank you, God. You love me. You give me new life. You see the good in me and you can take away the bad. We can walk together every day. Thank you, God. You love me...
A more middle-aged Thai woman with warm brown eyes and a wide smile sits on a bench in a local shopping mall. Grocery bags are sprawled all around, and an ironing board is propped up behind her. She’s waiting for her more-than-middle-aged German boyfriend to finish up his emails home from the internet café.
Two-year-old Daniel is fidgety in the afternoon heat, fussing in his mom’s friend’s lap while she gets her hair straightened at a local salon. His pale skin and light hair prove his connection to a father who doesn’t know he exists. He’s an obvious step-brother to five-year-old Tim, who’s hyped up on Pepsi! and also missing a dad -- but that doesn’t put a damper on their brotherly scraps, even here in the salon…
Eve uses a plastic bucket to douse herself with cool water before she puts on a pink t-shirt and some striped orange pants. She doesn’t want to smell like home when she goes in to work tonight, and it’s been stinking hot lately. Swamp land is free, so this is where she’s lived all her life, but they might be able to move soon. When she finished grade six her mom asked her to go work at Naughty Girl. Eve’s been making pretty good money since then.
Nicha’s a nice girl from Sukhothai who finished grade nine. She moved down to Pattaya five years ago in hopes of snagging a rich American boyfriend like her friend Lutti did. Nicha would love to have a place like Jeff and Lutti’s, with plenty of space for cute little half-foreign kids to run around in. Maybe plant some fruit trees – her favorite is papaya. Nicha’s still mixing drinks in Pattaya, though, a few papaya slings thrown in for good measure, and hoping for the best.
Maow has been a mother to them all, every one of these obnoxious boys lounging around the table in their heels and lipstick, competing for the best joke. Teenagers! she thinks, and sighs. She’s glad she had a few drinks before she came to this party. The food is always great and the people mean well, but she’s been working the bars seventeen years and can’t always handle these smiling Christians and their hope. What?! Seventeen years already, since Bo died? Her young-married-farm-wife days are that long gone? Maow shifts her seafood salad around on her plate. Shrugs and smiles a bit apologetically at the young white church-girl sitting next to her at the banquet.
Rose is stunning in red, and unashamed to stand and ask for prayer. Nervous nonetheless, she is stunned herself when a small foreigner comes up and begins praying in broken Thai. Tears flow with the simple words she repeats with all her heart: Thank you, God. You love me. You give me new life. You see the good in me and you can take away the bad. We can walk together every day. Thank you, God. You love me...
posted by sparrow anne at
3:51 a.m.
1 Comments:
oh sarah this blog made tears come to my eyes; you have met so many endearing yet broken lives, and it sounds like God is really teaching you through them... how beautiful they are in his sight. please keep sharing about them; one day it would be wonderful if you could write a book, you have such a good hand for description. love you, em.
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