2. Deficiency in amount; scantiness.

  Alright here you go I am so sad and so angry so this may get all jumbled up but I am going to put it out there to you anyway. Many people are very poor here in Thailand, yes I know there are lot’s of countries, people and place that are stricken with poverty but I am here in Thailand now so I am writing about what I see while I am here. So please don’t get pissed at me for not talking about other places or other people. A really good friend of mine here is really in a bad spot and she is not the only one but since she is close to me the pain goes deeper. I mean I came here to work with kids to help give them options for when they get out of school other then gangs or the sex trade but shezzzz.

  So let me paint the picture for you, she is a beautiful woman, 33 years young with a beautiful spirit. She has a smart, cute 10 year old daughter and they live with her sister, brother-in-law and 2 nephews, very nice farming family. When he  boss started having her work 16 hours a day, cleaning hotel rooms with only 1 day off a month for $150 a month well it was time to go, you would too. Then there was a lot of  problems here in Thailand with the “Red Shirts” and the current government and this killed a lot of businesses. Tourism was way down, we even had curfews. Restaurants, bars, elephant camps, clothing stores, hotels, jewelry shops, noodle shops, well if they did not close they lost a ton of money. Some people I know had to change careers completely or relocate.

  Then came the rainy season and that hits all of the above businesses, keeping the problem going. So back to my friend, she was then cooking at a market but with the rain and people not shopping there very much, there went another job. Now here in Thailand every student has to wear a uniform and some schools charge a small fee to go there but if you are not working, any fee is hard to pay and to have to buy uniforms for a growing child, hard. There is also money for rent, food and all of the other bills that we know of and all have. Well I just spoke with her last night and found out she has moved to Patong Beach in Phuket. For those of you that have never heard of this area, I will fill you in. It was destroyed during the Tsunami and now has been built back up even better and quickly too since it is a HUGE tourist area. It is also one of the biggest areas in the world for sex-tourism. Everywhere you go there are “Beer Bars” and massage polars basically places for prostitution, or $30-$50 you can get your rocks off. Lot’s of girls move here to send money back to their villages for their families to buy food, pay rent and send their siblings to school. They do not tell their parents where they are working, they just lie to “save face” and the parents don’t really ask, but at what expense do these women have to pay.

  A lot of these ladies turn to alcohol or drugs to get a buzz or wasted to go to a hotel with some drunk, usually older man. So my friend, she is not much of a drinker and has not had very much sexual experience in her personal life,  she is so sad that she has to do this kind of work. She was so embarrassed to tell me, she thought I would never want to talk to her again, wrong she is my friend and I am not judging her, I am just sad that she sees this as her only option. As for a lot of other girls that feel the same, “I have to do it”…I am just worried about her safety and since she does not want to do it, I hate that she thinks this is the only way, again this is what a lot of the ladies think.

  When I am upset that my students or the other kids here at the Wat do not do their homework or fail a test or don’t ask for help, this is why. I always tell them if they want to get a good job, it starts with a good education and that the hard work will pay off, I promise. The thought of any of these kids thinking they “have to” get into that line of work just kills me, I feel like I have 700 little brothers and sisters here and I love them all. I hope by helping to educate them and help teach them that they can do and be anything they want in this world, will make a difference. This is real and I am real sad, thanks for reading my posting (vent)…     

Poverty Sucks!