Friday Nights

I had a really difficult experience on Friday, one of my most difficult personally so far. For our Friday nights on the streets, we went to the Red Light District here. It was horrible. In about a six block radius, there are 4500 prostitutes working day and night, 24/7. They have hotels set up where the women pay a daily fee to use a room.

It is hard to describe the scene. Before we started in the area, we were talking and getting prepared together on the streets. A drunk man was right on the sidewalk in front of us, digging for food and eating it out of a pile of trash bags. There was another man passed out right in the middle of the side walk and people just walked around him. The whole area smelled of urine and filth.

As we stood there I watched hundreds of men walking into just two brothels. I'm not exaggerating. With 4500 prostitutes, hundreds were piling in and out. I could compare it to watching people go to Starbucks on a busy morning to get their coffee, except the men pay less than we do for a coffee. There is a joke in the area, that you can get a woman for a '$1.99 special'- less than $1 Canadian. The women have to pay a daily fee of $20-40 reias for the room, so it is disgusting what she must do to just pay this off.

Prostitution is very common here. Many parents sell their young daughters into sexual slavery in order to make money. This is acceptable by men to the extent that some fathers take their sons to lose their virginity in this way even at young ages. You can imagine the disease, both physical and emotional, that grips this area.

As we walked around, I felt so heavy. I felt like I could barely breath, the feeling of oppression was so great there. On that walk I could feel just darkness and sadness. There are children in the brothels too, though they remain mostly unseen. I was feeling pretty mixed up emotionally, which I talked about in our de-brief when we got back.

As we have been studying, the way women are treated in society is so important to the health of that society. Women still bear the greatest responsibility for raising children and therefore passing on the values and ideals of the world.

At home, during the week I would plan what I would do on the weekends. It was something I always looked forward to. On Friday nights, I would go for dinner with friends, or maybe get together to watch a movie. My Friday nights have totally changed. What a luxury it is to have a choice of what to do to relax on a night off. How many people get that?