After our first week in Cambodia, which was difficult by anyone’s standards, I was very ready to get to Thailand and see the work that Destiny Rescue is doing there. In all honesty, I was feeling so hopeless after being in Phnom Penh and then in Pattaya. The problem seemed so huge and overwhelming! I just couldn’t imagine a solution that would even begin to address the problem.

But, then we got to Chiang Rai, Thailand. Of all the places we visited, this was my favorite. The city is clean, the weather was cooler, the mountains were beautiful, and I felt for the first time on the trip like I could breathe deeply and really enjoy my surroundings.

Beyond what I loved about the city itself, is the work that Destiny Rescue is doing there. This is the place where girls who have been rescued out of prostitution are brought to recover and start a new life. These girls are taught life skills: sewing and jewelry making (and a training center for hairdressers has just begun).

Here’s a few pictures for you. I hate that I have to black out the eyes on some of these photos (these girls are so beautiful!), but I’m sure you can understand the security reasons behind it.

The jewelry center:

I want to tell you that when I walked into the jewelry center that place was so loud! It reminded me of lunchtime in a high school cafeteria! So much chatter among the girls. . .of course I couldn’t understand any of it, but it was obviously happy, good-natured, laughter-laced girl talk, and it was so fun to listen to!

So pretty!

Bins full of beads just waiting to be made into jewelry:

Just a short walk from the jewelry center is the sewing center. This place is full of rescued girls sewing costumes for a local dance school. They also make t-shirts that are later screen printed by DR girls.

Check out the lights hanging from the ceiling. . .do you suppose that’s up to code?

On our first day in Chiang Rai we were broken up into groups to give English lessons to the girls. Of all the things that we did in this two weeks, this was my absolute favorite. Here are my girls:

These girls are learning numbers, letters, and colors in English. I pulled out a few skills I’ve learned over the years from volunteering in B’s and L’s class. We played Bingo, Go-Fish, and Memory with flashcards. So much fun! I could have done that all day. We laughed a lot and I really enjoyed interacting with them despite our language barrier. Side note: I could tell that they are learning their English mostly from Aussies because they kept pronouncing “brown” like “brain”. Ha!

I’m going to try to wrap up these posts soon. Thanks for reading!