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by Kanoelehua Hook
Participant on Pepperdine University's month long service learning program "People, The Environment and Sustainability," Summer 2002

Part of what I saw on my trip to Thailand is most men's dream - go-go bars with half-naked girls in thongs dancing around poles everywhere. But the reality of these places and the desperate circumstances of the people who live there was actually more like a nightmare.

The night we walked Loi Kraw Road we stopped into three go-go bars and saw ordinary girls dancing around with numbers on them. Numbers ... like cattle. Call a number out, get your piece of meat. That's how it worked.

Two mama-sans were in the bar glaring at the girls who cowered together in a corner. They obviously did not want to flirt with the stinky, old drunk farang sitting next to me. Young children - boys and girls - forced into prostitution.

Eventually, a customer went over to the mama-san and I watched as he paid and left hand-in-hand with a girl.

I could tell you about Mona, a name behind all the faces at Spotlight, Star 6 and the countless other brothels in Chiang Mai. I'll tell you how Mona fled her country, in order to save her life when she was 17. Two officers raped her when she crossed the border illegally. She has had sex with as many as 20 men a night. She aborted her child for the fear that it might have been a girl and she would be forced into prostitution.

Mona is now 23 and despite ongoing problems in Burma, all she desperately wants is to go back.

I can tell you about bamboo houses and dirty water, a village without electricity and a people who slashed and burned forests. As soon as we came up the dirt road, there they were with rotten teeth, pulling out their town-bought goods to sell.

And I saw a village of people that fled to Thailand from Burma; a group that was frightened when the Burmese Army took men away for forced labor, raped women and destroyed rice paddies.

I can tell you about people who were tricked into falsely purchasing land, and how the men of that tribe were sent to prison. Their biggest fears revolve around the daily question of if the forestry department will return and kick them off the land. Where will they go?

I can tell you about bugs flying around my food, cold "bucket showers," squat toilets and tin roofs and being poked at and laughed at.

All this was true. But there was so much more.

Here existed families who welcomed strangers with loving arms. Although they were 100 times poorer than the strangers, they gave 100 percent of genuine love - no strings attached. When I became sick, they comforted, cared for and loved me as they would their own. Although I was only there for five days, they were some of the most meaningful, loving and intense days of my life. I felt as though I belonged.

In the fisheries from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. I cleaned nets, caught fish, sorted fish eggs and aided in the development of the ponds. I worked side-by-side with people: Mother, fathers and grandmothers who struggled daily just to make a living.

I learned that the poking, prodding and laughter wasn't directed at me. Although I scarcely understood the Thai they spoke, I knew they meant no harm. They thought I was beautiful and special and they loved me.

You'll ask about the elephants and I'll tell you I went bamboo rafting and elephant riding, and you'll think I'm cool. But I had an entirely different perspective on being a tourist. At the end of four weeks, riding an elephant was about as fun as crossing the street. But that's what people want to hear about, not that America is one of the most wasteful countries in the world and we're vastly depleting our resources.

A hungry child in Asia doesn't faze us. Prostitutes in Chiang Mai remain faceless and village poverty is "out of our reach." What happens in other cultures is their own business, and we remain aloof, segregated and safe in our mundane bubble.

But I saw.

I saw with my heart and learned that we need to make a difference. We need diversity and we, as Americans, need to stop being so selfish and start being more concerned with the well being of others.