stephaniebernotas - Good House, Bad House

The following blog, "Good House, Bad House" is written by my teammate Amanda Howard. I really couldn't have said it better myself. Check our her other stories at www.amandahoward.theworldrace.org...

You know that feeling when your heart hurts so badly it sinks into your stomach and makes you feel nauseous? It's the feeling you getting after suffering from an intense break-up or attending the funeral of a loved one. You feel like you have a knot in your throat and it becomes a challenge simply to swallow. It's the adrenaline that rushes through your veins when your 2/3 of the way through a gut-wrenching film and you're just dying to know whether or not the protagonist will survive.

That's how I feel every day.

That's how I feel when I think about child sex slavery.

That's how I feel every time I picture a little girl being sold into the brothel and her mother thinking she has a promising future or job ahead of her.

That's how I feel every time I see a little boy selling flowers in the market, knowing that in the distant future he will be transformed into a woman against his will and sold for sex.

That's how I feel every time I imagine a child abandoned, lost, and alone, just waiting to be rescued.

It breaks my heart like nothing I've ever experienced, and sometimes I want to run home and immediately tell you the truth and reality of the world we live in, but sometimes it's to heavy to even put into words.

This morning we were given the opportunity to visit the Hill-tribe Villages to see where the children come from that live at "Remember Nhu". I didn't really know what to expect, but as we arrived, it looked like many other villages I had seen before.

One thing I noticed was that, as usual, many of the houses were made of natural materials. However, a few of them were much fancier. It didn't take long for our contact to explain where the money had come from. Many of the families sell their children out of desperation. They are poor. They are starving. If they don't send away one child, the others will die. Many times the families are tricked into believing it is for a decent job, only to later discover that the children end up in a brothel. So I ask you: what would you do if you had 5 children and your entire family was starving? Would you risk sending one of them to spare the rest?

Well, that's what people do here. They take the risk. After a while, like any decent business, the money comes back to the home. The industry must keep the families of the workers happy if they want them to continue sending "employees". Some stay content with survival, and as you can see by the nicer homes, some get more involved with the business and greed. Here's an example of some of the homes, as well of a few other sites that we saw today:

This is one of the most beautiful homes in the village. The irony is that directly in front of the home, there is a bird cage that houses the most beautiful bird, desperate, anxious, and fighting for freedom.