-^-for posterity-^-

i was sitting in my room on christmas eve minding my business. i was reading from a magazine i bought in ho chi minh city. someone knocked on the door. i was sitting in a comfortable patch on the bed. it was warm and i was sinking into the mattress. i got up and walked across the cool floor in bare feet. there was a meek looking vietnamese girl on the other side of the door. she must have been about 28 years old and was wearing simple clothes.

it took a second for me to recognize her. she worked in the hotel i was staying in. she was the girl who walked around in a large, black jacket carrying things too and fro. she was the maid.

i guessed she wanted to clean my room or supply me with clean sheets or towels or something of that sort but she had other things on her mind. she asked if she could come in. she heard that i spoke vietnamese from the people downstairs and wanted to chat about something.

she sat on the edge of the bed which was a mess. i made sure the door was open because i really didn't know what she wanted. she started talking to me about nha trang, a city about four hours north of here. she said it was her homeland and that she had been away for the past five years. she talked in a low, sweet voice. she told me that if i ever went there, one of her cousins would love to take me around and show me the place. she took out a piece of paper and wrote down his phone number.

i told her i appreciated the offer and next time i came up to this part of vietnam i would be happy to take her up on her offer. i thought that would be enough for her to leave. i thought i was cordial enough and kind enough and she just wanted to give her cousin some business. she stayed firmly planted on the bed.

she told me the story of her life. her family was too poor and couldn't keep supporting her in nha trang. they told her to go out and find work. they told her that she would probably find some sort of job in da lat. she left and that was five years ago.

she rarely communicates with her family and is more or less on her own. she can't marry anyone because she is too poor. she found a job at this hotel but the manager of the hotel is a very strict boss. she only paid her 500,000 dong a month which is about 35 dollars. she couldn't live on that much in one month.
as her story grew juicer, her voice lowered until i had to strain to hear it. she had to work all hours of the day from sun up to sun down. she had to cook all the meals for the family and clean all the rooms in the hotel by herself. she had to do all the washing and all of the preparing. she even had to sleep on a couch in the front of the hotel incase someone came late at night.

she had wanted to leave for months but she couldn't. she had an uncle in america and he was going to come over next year and he promised to find a way to take her to america. she said she would be happy in america and that she could not keep on going here. if she had enough money she would move down to saigon and find a new job. she said that all of her hopes rested on moving down to saigon and finding work. that was where the opportunities were. she would wait there, in purgatory, before her uncle swept in and took her off to the promise land of america.

she told me this whole story and i wasn't sure why. did she want me to finance her trip? did she want me to give her money? how much would the whole trip cost?

she looked at me with the most sincere eyes you can imagine. they were large, brown saucers. she turned those saucers up towards mine and asked the question. 'could you give me some money so i can leave this place?'

she said she needed 60,000 dong, about 4-5 dollars.

i was stuck in a situation i never wanted to be in. do i give her the money out of pity? will she use the money to leave or will she use the money for something else? was i being swindled or could i possible do something to help her? i was in a position of supreme power.

did she ask many foreigners for money? no, there weren't many foreigners who would stay in a hotel like this and there are even less who speak vietnamese. did she just see me and see an opportunity? maybe.

i hate being swindled and i hate being cheated. i hate being lied to and i hate being taken advantage of.

i took out my wallet and gave her 100,000 dong, about 7-8 dollars. she took it and told me how thankful she was. she said she would never forget me and that this money would help her leave, help her escape. i smiled and watched her walk out of the room.

i wasn't going to give her any money but then i remembered what jesus once said, 'whatever you to the least of these, you do to me.'

merry christmas.