Dear friends,

It seems that the sisters here at the shelter have really started to take on me, and so have the mosquitoes. Everytime I get a mosquito bite it becomes a large welt and bruise and the talk of the office. The sisters and staff at the office have all offered their own suggestions as to how I should avoid the mosquitoes. Cha Cuong said I should set up a mosquito net in my room and sleep outside of the net because the mosquitoes will be too busy trying to get inside the net to bother the person sleeping outside of the net. It's this type of humor that goes on at the office that helps me get through the day and I am sure it's this type of humor that comforts the sisters enough to stay here at the shelter.

Since I've been here, I've seen several people come and go. Some of them go back to Viet Nam, some of them find jobs and leave, some of them run away from their jobs and employers and seek shelter here with us. There are mixed feelings about each situation. Some are happy to go back to Viet Nam because they're time here is up (under Taiwanese law, foreign workers can only work here for a maximum of three years) and they miss their families, especially their children. Some are unhappy because they do not want to go home to Viet Nam and their families "tay trang" (empty handed).

For the most part, everyone here is anxious. They have lawsuits which may or may not be successful and they are desperate for some sort of assurance that they will be able to send money home to their families in Viet Nam. This type of desperation has led some of the women here to think about running away before they are to be sent back to Viet Nam and try to seek jobs illegally. This has made the office staff very anxious and I find myself staying up at night listening for the door at the shelter open and close, taking a mental count of all the sisters and making sure they all come home. I know that sometimes your heart wins over your mind and that fear may sometimes cloud reasoning. Thus, I can sympathize for the sisters who want to seek drastic and vulnerable measures such as running away from our shelter, but I have grown really attached to them in the short time that I've been here and do not want to see them abused anymore than they already have been by a system that has not taken sufficient means to protect them. I am talking about both the Taiwanese and Vietnamese government. By the way, the office has been celebrating ever since the 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report was released, we can't wait to get our hands on a hard copy!

When I first arrived here and was getting to know the women and men at the shelter, I noticed that everyone looked familiar. There was a man who looked exactly like my friend's older brother! I had to do a double take and found myself staring to make sure that this really wasn't someone I knew from the States. There are women who look exactly like my aunts and cousins and some speak mien Hue just like my mom. I came to the realization that human trafficking really is a crime that is happening to our brothers and sisters, to faces we know, to people who speak our language. However, now that I have gotten to know everyone on a personal level, I have started looking at human trafficking at the individual level. Now that I know their stories and their voices, I can recognize their chatter from a distance (they are loud!) and I am able to wish each person "chuc chi ngu ngon" (have a good night) as they walk through the door. I can then let out a sigh out of relief as each sister makes it home to the shelter safely.

P.S. Happy super belated birthday to Miss Tammy Tran (the hardest working woman in the world)! And a Happy Birthday to computer whiz Minh T. Nguyen.