December 10, 2011
Choose What Breaks Your Heart
I remember vividly something Freedom 4/24 founder, Christine Gelatt, told me about Bangkok before I came on the first trip with her back in 2009: “You have to choose what to let break your heart.” She is so right because just about everything here could tug at your heartstrings if you let it, rendering you ineffective in what you’ve come here to do.
For me, one large aspect of that battle against those darn heartstrings are the beggars here. They are on every street corner, shaking cups at you for money. Some use their kids to run up and tug at your clothes. Others rely on their literal cries for help.
Beggars come in all forms here. Some have lost limbs.
Others have been severely burned at some point in their lives.
While others still have just been dealt a bad card in life.
Even to the point that some beg all day in the streets, and when they become tired, lie down and sleep in the very same spot.
As if these visuals aren’t enough to make your stomach hurt, there’s this… a streetwalker waiting on a customer, next to a beggar waiting on a handout to pay for her next meal.
It is almost impossible not to feel the tug. But guarding your heart here means making a choice as to what will break it the most.
For us, that choice is simple: to allow our hearts to break for the girls and women here who are in sexual slavery.
Next up, a visual three-part series showing the massive fight we have ahead to make headway in tearing down the strongholds that exist in Thailand, and around the world, when it comes to the sexual exploitation of women.
For the complete blog post with images, go to www.calfeesinthailand.wordpress.com
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