Chiang Rai, Part 1

Our last destination was Chiang Rai where Destiny Rescue’s administrative headquarters is located. The three-hour bus ride from Chiang Mai was relatively sleepless. Less than half way in, a beeping sound started from near the front of the bus, the kind you hear when a big truck is backing up, the kind that obliterates the possibility of rest.  Anyway, it was impossible to block out. But what a beautiful drive. I was struck by how similar the landscape was to what I remember of Guatemala. With only a few exceptions (trees I didn’t recognize, for instance, or the occasional street signs), these places, at least from the vantage of a bus window rolling through low mountains, appeared interchangeable.

Our three days in Chiang Rai coalesced around the Destiny Café where we took our meals—at least breakfast and lunch—and drank our coffee and smoothies. The staff, with the exception of a few amazing Australians, consisted of teenage Thai and Burmese girls in DR’s care, a sweet, hard-working bunch who served us with the upmost care and dedication. Though it sounds cliché, they made of the place a haven for us with good food, drink, and company, and it was a joy to watch them work. The café is designed in part to provide job training and instill confidence, and it’s working. The kitchen is virtually run by teenagers (can you imagine teenagers in the U.S. running a restaurant?) who manage to joke with one another (as kids should) and still do their jobs well.

One morning, we had the opportunity of tutoring some of the girls in English. What began as a vocabulary drill quickly turned into a laugh-fest as we tried, awkwardly, to get them interested in various café- and kitchen-specific words, like oven, blender, pot, knife, chop, whip, whisk, etc.

A highlight of the trip for me was a cooking class I took from some of the girls. It began with a trip to the day market just a few blocks from the café to purchase food for the class and the evening customers. I was mesmerized by the abundance and the noise and the colors and the smells.

Day market, Chiang Ria 

Thai Cooking Class instructors buying veg

Mesmerized too by the pig face.

Severed pig face, Chiang Ria market

Later (I can no longer remember which day), we visited the DR administrative headquarters where we met some of the full-time staff, including Corey, DR’s Director of Communications (or something like that) who had me in tears within minutes as he shared the mission and vision of Destiny Rescue—to rescue 100,000 children from sexual slavery by 2020. Corey’s team is responsible for the fine media DR has been producing. Here’s Corey promoting Destiny Threads, which I mentioned in a previous post.