It’s strangely quiet. No sounds of drunken men
shouting, or vehicles passing by. Just quiet. I guess it’s probably because it’s
almost four o’clock in the morning, and unlike me, most people are sleeping at
this time.
Most people. Not all.
After tossing and turning for a couple of hours
I finally got up and made myself a cup of herbal tea. Waiting for the water to
boil, I was looking out of my living room window. The few people on the streets
were men and the bike-taxis, but it was quite empty. A rare sight in the
largest Red Light District in Amsterdam.
Empty except for the men walking with purpose
towards the windows. The windows with their bright red lights lit, showing that
although the city sleeps, they are open for business. Windows with women who
are awake at this hour because they have someone or something that has to be
paid for and this is the way they make the money.
Windows with women that I know. Women I am
hoping and praying for.
It messes with me to remember them at this
hour. Remember that women whose names I know and lives I have been invited
into, are stood in some of those windows with the red lights at this very
moment, hoping that the man passing by will choose her.
And it causes me to pray. Pray for them by
name. Pray that as I cry out and they cry out, that God would hear us and make
way. Make a way in their thinking. A way of hope; hope that life can be different.
Hope that this isn’t the only way to survive. Hope that this is not their
destiny.