I think I now understand what “Red Light District” means. Before
I thought “red light” like stop, don’t go. But yesterday, in my first day at
work, we arrived in an alley in the “bad part” of town that I was told not to
venture into. One by one, sometimes in pairs, a bunch of young women arrived. Finally
we were let inside and I thought, “Oh, okay, we’re doing our workshop in a bar.”
And then I thought, “wow there are a LOT of
bathrooms here…”—and then it hit me. Each room, emanating a red glow, had a
toilet, a chair and a bed. Each door had a number on it. Some of the ladies
waiting outside with us went directly, each, to a room to claim as their own. And
I understood. No one explained to me where exactly we were going and it was a
total shock to me when I finally figured it out. Everything was fine during my
colleagues’ presentation. The girls paid attention, for the most part. They
were putting their makeup on. After the presentation we gave each girl about 20
condoms and a box of fried chicken and rice. 41 girls we had. We packed up to
leave and I followed Oscar outside. I waded through about 100 men and teenage
boys on the way to the car. The stares and general feeling rolling through the
crowd made me sick to my stomach. When I got home I was shaking and couldn’t
finish my dinner or tea. I think the worst sight of all was seeing a girl of
about 8 years, sitting amongst the men on the sidewalk with a basket, selling
cigarettes, condoms and candy. 8. years. old. What a first day.
Today was better, at first. I spent the morning looking for
lesson plans in Spanish, online. And then translating an article to English to
put on our website. I had the afternoon off, to do laundry and have lunch. And
then, with my bout of bad luck, I went off to meet some coworkers at a little
art center, café place. I left the house at 4:22. It’s called mARTadero
(Matadero is the place where they butcher cows, so mARTadero was in an old
matadero building). So I perfectly arrived by bus where I wanted to get off
with no problem, and then flagged a taxi to take me the next few blocks. I
should have known right off he didn’t know where to go when he told me it would
be $15Bs to go 5 blocks. It should have been $4. So, the taxi driver took me
way out of the city to the new “matadero.” Me, of all people, wanting to go to
a butcher farm? Yea, right. From the beginning I showed the guy my ticket with
the address on it AND the map! We got way out to the “matadero” and I was like ‘no
way dude, bring me back to the city, I told you already where to go,’ and so we
stopped like 3 times to ask directions. FINALLY we found it. Arriving at 5:50.
He wanted me to pay him now $30Bs for the long ride. I said, no way man it’s
your fault. I told you a million times where to go AND showed you a map. You’re
a friggin taxi driver, you should know major tourist places, like the mARTadero
Cultural Center
Not to mention that before all this stuff, yesterday at noon
I fell out of the Taxi/Trufi van onto the dirt and concrete.
Needless to say, my first few days of work have brought me
bad luck. I can only hope things get better!!! Ay ay ay!
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