Growing up as a M.K. in Thailand my childhood consisted of frequent travel and relocation; my paint box, colored pencils and sketchbooks proved to be reliable companions for the journey. Early on I recognized drawing to be a natural extension of my thoughts, feelings and prayers. Art-making is more than expression of experiences and ideas; it is a process of “working it out” — a method of seeking understanding and gaining knowledge. I was eighteen when I met Sombong and had never before needed so much to find a way of “working it out.”
As a child I had been aware of Thailand’s sex trade, but it was only when my family started visiting AIDS patients that the tragedy became a reality to me. Each visit was like having the air knocked out of my stomach as I learned the stories of the young girls from rural Thailand, Cambodia, Burma and Laos who are trafficked into Bangkok’s brothels and sold as prostitutes. They are kidnapped, deceived, or sold by their own families. Once they are working in brothels, they are strapped into a system in which they will continually be in debt to the owners. The government of Thailand does little or nothing about this industry, instead government officials, policemen and the majority of men in Thailand are open about their patronage of local brothels. Wives and mothers are passive and accepting of this reality. Most importantly, the Thai government turns a blind eye to the sex trade because the streets of Pat Pong in Bangkok are probably their biggest international tourist destination. Anyone who has traveled in Thailand will have noticed the disproportionate number of male tourists.
When she was 13 years old Sombong’s family sold her as a “house-helper” to a Chinese man in Bangkok, but it was no secret that Sombong was going to be used as a sex slave. Later on she worked as a prostitute, all the time sending her wages back home. When she became ill, she returned to the village in Det Udom, Thailand, but her family refused to care for her. Now stigmatized by AIDS, she was put in the back room of their home and neglected. Somehow her name was put on the HIV/AIDS support group roster at the hospital. Around the same time, a group of Thai believers made a commitment to start visiting AIDS patients on a weekly basis. They partnered with the support group at the hospital and soon befriended Sombong. In between hospital and hospice care, she also stayed with my family for some time.
Through contact with Thai believers, Sombong experienced the unconditional love of God. Here was a group of people that did not shun her, and instead reached out in friendship. The experience of church transformed her and she recognized herself as a child of God. I remember being awed and shocked to hear her say that she had forgiven her family. Though her body was weakening and she often expressed frustration, Sombong was energetic and motivated. While in the hospital, she wrote letters exposing the corruption of hospital officials who siphoned government aid money designated for HIV/AIDS patients. She also wrote thank you letters to her nurses and dreamed about opening a restaurant.
Hearing Sombong’s story and watching her struggle with dying so young, I started to draw. At first I was horrified with myself for wanting to draw this, but I knew there wasn’t a choice — it was going to come out one way or another. I was eighteen; I didn’t know what the word “catharsis” meant, and I wasn’t trying to do art therapy. I was simply responding to the fraction of her anger that I could understand, and dealing with my own feelings of outrage. The drawings here are mixed media: pen and ink, coffee stains and graphite, chalk pastel, monotype with printing inks and collage. I often used coffee washes, printing ink, or graphite rubbing to lay down a base layer that would both highlight and obscure the figure drawn into it. I wanted to achieve an evocative rather than articulate effect.
Sombong died in February 2002 alone in a crowded hospital hallway while I was still completing this project. Her family did not give her a funeral.
The same year Sombong died I returned to the USA and began university. In 2002 the situation of people with HIV/AIDS in the USA was quite different than in Asia. The crisis, hate crimes and rapid health decline of the 80’s seemed something of the past. But in Thailand in 2002, Antiretroviral treatments were not yet affordable or available in Asia because of the patenting laws of United States and European pharmaceutical companies. Without the new medication, a person with full-blown AIDS could not recover from infections. Four years later in 2006, I went back to Det Udom, my “home-town” in Thailand to volunteer with the HIV/AIDS support group at the local hospital. I found that due to the availability of new medicine (patents had finally expired) and better government funding, people who had advanced stages of AIDS recovered and could again lead normal lives. However, the stigma of HIV/AIDS continued to be a challenge. I found that when I sat down to eat lunch with a group of HIV+ friends, their family members and neighbors would exclaim at my actions and then ask, “Is it safe?” It was truly wonderful to see that after a few weeks they would come over and eat with us too.
Although the life expectancy of HIV/AIDS patients in Thailand has changed, widespread acceptance of the sex trade continues and people with HIV/AIDS all over the world still struggle with isolation and stigma. People in Africa – our brothers and sisters – are being decimated. While you look at these drawings, I invite you to think not only about the issues of HIV/AIDS and the global sex trade, but the invaluable worth of each human being, each as a child of God. What worth do we assign to other people consciously or unconsciously? At what cost are our actions played out? How can you, as a follower of Jesus Christ, walk with these brothers and sisters?
The originals are not for sale unless an organization would like to buy the whole show, but if you would like to use them to raise awareness for HIV/AIDS, have comments or questions, or want to buy a print of one of the originals here, please contact me. I would love to hear from you.
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