The movie Call and Response made me think of Phone.

Phone is a girl I met in Thailand during my seven month stay there. I volunteered at an outreach to prostitutes once a week. I think at that time prostitution was kind of illegal but not really. The country depended on the sex industry–or that’s how they looked at it. So even government workers owned some of the brothels.

Rahab ministry’s hair salon was in Pat Pong, a district known for its sex bars. In that salon I met Phone. She was 15 years old. She was friendly, spunky, cute, loveable. She called me P’Nun (pronounced Pee Noon). Nun was my Thai name, P is a word for addressing someone older than you who is a friend or a family member. She had my cell phone number. I remember her calling me once and being upset because she was sick and didn’t want to go to work.

Phone worked in a sex bar, but I don’t think she was servicing men with sex yet. She was new in the bar. She had to dance on the tables in a bikini. She didn’t like doing this. To do something like that in Thailand is very shameful and embarrassing.

I will never forget her saying to me, “P’Nun, would you take me home with you. I’ll be your maid.” I will Never forget, and have regrets. At the time I didn’t think there was anything I could do for her. At least she was connected to Rahab Ministry and if she asked them for help leaving the bar, they would have helped her.

I don’t know if she was forced into this. My impression was that she was from a poor family. She came to the city to work and support her family. Of course, this is where she ended up.

Call and Response:

My call is Phone!! I want to yell out her name.

But, what is the response. It’s been four years. She is now 18. Is she out of the bar? Is she OK. Is she alive?

I’m so, so sorry Phone.

 

Maybe you know the meaning of this saying “call and response”. I didn’t before I saw the movie Call and Response. I’ll tell you this much, it relates music to slavery. 

If you haven’t seen Call and Response, please see it. If you are interested in fighting modern day slavery, I know you would want to see it. It’s probably the most well done documentary I’ve seen on modern day slavery. It incorporates music which is a really unexpected way to address this issue. 

Some of the music artist in this film are: Moby, Natasha Bedingfield, Cold War Kids, Matisyahu, Imogen Heap, Talib Kweli, Five For Fighting, Switchfoot, members of Nickel Creek and Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, Rocco Deluca.

It’s absolutely beautiful and moving and heart-wrenching.
It’s totally not for profit either.

I saw it at the Hollywood Theatre in Portland and the director was there, so that was quite a special thing!

I don’t know how long the movie will be running, but this weekend was supposed to be the weekend that it’s showing. So don’t delay in finding a showing near you!

I have a connection to Myanmar. Several times during my 7 month stay in Thailand I had to cross the border at Mae Sot, Thailand to Myanmar in order to renew my visa. Although I really wanted to see the country, I probably didn’t stay in Myanmar for any longer than 15 minutes.This is how my visa runs usually went: I would ride a bus from Bangkok to Mae Sot at night. After that 8 hour bus ride, a missionary would come pick me up or I would get transportation with a traveling buddy (if I had one) to the border. At the border there were some diners and merchants. To get to the other side I just walked across a bridge that was over a river. Usually someone from the Myanmar side would accompany me across and try to get me to visit sights inside the country. These guides spoke English and I enjoyed talking with them. Many of the people wore yellow make up on their faces. Some women carried things on their heads. Once I got to the other side I would go to a small office to get my visa stamped to prove that I left Thailand. Then I walked back to Thailand and got a stamp to say that I reentered. I had to return almost immediately to Bangkok after that.While I was in Thailand I was aware that there were “Burmese” refugees living there, and immigration from Myanmar was illegal. At the time foreigners (or people from the U.S.A.–I can’t remember) were only allowed to stay for less than eleven days, or something like that. It was dangerous to have a Christian church there.