BANGKOK — Lek, tiny having enough time black locks and you can a timid smile, try an ‘Ooang Nua’ — a beneficial Thai expression definition ‘little girl from the North’ — whoever operate in a brothel try giving her family relations back home.
Lek, fifteen, is among the most a huge selection of ‘Ooang Nua’ recruited every year regarding the new agriculture towns off impoverished north Thailand to help you stock the brand new brothels from Bangkok.
Best for their light complexions, young girls eg Lek, from the state off Chiang Mai, often find themselves living in special ‘teahouses’ one to focus on elderly Chinese guys exactly who trust consorting with younger girls have a tendency to heal their individual childhood and you can efforts.
‘The town man involved the community and everybody try very happy,’ Lek said. ‘The man confronted with all of our community headman and also the next thing I knew I became into an air-conditioned bus likely for Bangkok.’
‘My father and mother received step three,000 baht ($130) for my situation. That’s adequate to feed all of them and you may my five brothers and sisters for some time.’
She told you she as well as 2 almost every other community girls just who got new bus so you’re able to Bangkok did not understand what was a student in store having them regarding big-city.
‘Of path father and mother knew I would be employed in a beneficial teahouse from inside the Bangkok,’ she said. ‘But just what more you may they do? That they had no cash at all to possess restaurants.’
When she found its way to the town, Lek and her ‘sisters’ on community were given mats in order to sleep on in an area having a dozen other girls ranging in the ages away from 15 in order to twenty two. Dishes and you can unexpected medical monitors in addition to was in fact offered, she told you.
Despite more than 6 months throughout the brothel, this lady has maybe not ventured outside of the building, located in the heart out-of Bangkok’s teeming Chinatown area.
‘We are not permitted to go additional,’ she said. ‘One regarding my sisters tried to try to escape one-time but they stuck her and overcome their unique. We never tried.’
Lek’s work day initiate within noon and you can finishes on ten p.meters., seven days a week. Much of their time was spent sitting on a bench into the a great dingy wishing space discovering comic courses and you may talking-to the new almost every other girls.
Users enter the teahouse because of a maze off right back streets, towards the an unbarred-air Chinese bistro and up a couple aircraft from rickety stairways. It browse the brand new collection of girls on workbench, each one of exactly who wears a designated badge.
The purchase price are sixty baht ($2.60) for example hour within the a tiny cubicle equipped with a mattress and a pot regarding Chinese beverage simmering for the good hotplate.
Lek stays a town girl inside frame of mind, having an effective feeling of loved ones support and you may an exclusively Buddhist feeling of resignation
‘Usually I sleep having four or six men each and every day,’ Lek said. ‘Most is actually Chinese and the other individuals are Thai.’
Lek said the man of Bangkok repaid the newest categories of for each and every of your girls a lump sum, with regards to the appeal of the newest girl and the negotiating ability of your own village headman
Lek’s relaxed ‘contract’ on the agent whom recruited their try away from long period. But such as the almost every other girls, she is conscious their own worth to the teahouse diminishes since she grows elderly.
Her mind is focused on this new Thai New year vacation from Songkhran, notable into the April, when she told you she will be allowed to head to her town regarding north.
‘I have-not got a great boyfriend,’ she said. ‘I don’t believe about any of it. Now all I lituanian bruder want is to try to select my children on Songkhran. I don’t want to look at the future.’