Yesterday, we had the chance to go back to the women's home. It was so great to be there. When Kim and I drove through the gate, some of the girls started clapping. At first, it was a little bit awkward since Kim and I were the first ones there, and I don't speak Thai, and Kim is still learning Thai. We did our best to communicate though. While we were waiting for the other four people to show up, we had a relay race where the girls balanced plastic eggs on spoons and then had to run to the wall and back before passing on the spoon to someone else. The room we were in was pretty small, so the game was pretty easy, but I think the girls enjoyed it at least. We also sang some songs for the girls, and then we started the craft. Fortunately, this time, we chose a much simpler craft to prepare- jewelry.
It was funny though, because after we bought the materials, we experienced a brown-out (basically, a partial power outage). We decided to go to Big C (Thai version of Wal-Mart) to wait it out and eat dinner, but when we got home, it was a complete black-out. So as Cory was cutting strings, and Kim and I were spooning beads into plastic bags, we had a flashlight on the table and book lights clipped to our shirts or bowls. Thankfully, the power came back on, which was a blessing for not just the lights but for the air conditioning as well.
But as the girls were sitting at these little tables making the jewelry, we sat with them. It was a little bit frustrating for me, since I don't speak Thai, and hence couldn't REALLY communicate with the women. I really wanted to get to know them, learn their stories, and ask where they were coming from, but I couldn't due to a language barrier. I have been learning a little bit of Thai though, so when they'd ask me for a bead of a specific color, I could understand them. It turns out that learning colors in Thai really did come in handy! I did find that another way I could communicate with the girls was through physical touch. So many of them would reach out to me, and just holding their hand, putting my arm around them, or giving them a hug was something small I could do to show them love. They also LOVE LOVE LOVE being in pictures. Once we broke out our cameras, they would literally flock to whoever had a camera in order to have their pictures taken. I guess they think that making faces is a weird thing to do in photos, because a few times when they wanted to take a picture of me, I would make a face, and they would always giggle. They never actually took a picture of me making a face, but it was a good way to make them laugh.
Although it was really fun to go and hang out with these women, it was a little bit heart-breaking. I really didn't know what to think about it, partly because I know next to nothing about the home itself. I think there are a lot of different reasons the women are there. There's a girl who's ten years old who's there because she used to live in an orphanage, but she kept stealing things and lying, and there are also a few women who are there who have special needs. I'm not really sure if it's a correctional facility, or if it's just a place where they take in women whose families send them there, or if it's something else entirely. I was told that most days, they don't have anything to do. I found myself with a lot of questions after we left. If they're not allowed to leave, is there some graduation they work towards after which they can leave? Or are they stuck there indefinitely? What kind of treatment do they get there? How do they normally pass their time? It's always frustrating to me to leave with more questions than answers, and that's definitely how I felt yesterday.
The one thing that was clear to me was that these women are in desperate need of love. It doesn't seem like there are a lot of people working there, and hence, there are very few people to offer help to these women. They have each other, but really, they're all in the same boat. These women have essentially been cast off, forgotten by the world, and it seems like they feel that way too. It makes sense that when people come to visit, they desire their love and attention. And these women certainly are no lovable or worthy of love than other people. I wish I had more to offer. It also makes me think that there have to be tons of places like this in the world- places where people have been cast off, forgotten. I won't be in Thailand much longer, and I probably won't ever get a chance to return to this specific women's home, but I definitely have a passion for working with women. I want to not just share with them the hope that God has to offer, but to take care for their physical needs as well. In this, I know that I'll need some direction from God. I pray that God will open my eyes to the forgotten people around me wherever I am. After all, God certainly hasn't forgotten them.
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