“The men here are bad”, she’d told me a few minutes earlier during my first ever Thai massage. Leaving sons and Thailand looking for work must have been hard, ending up in a dark room in a town known for sexual exploitation must now be almost intolerable.

“The men here are bad.”

How those words cut me. Men who take. Men who oppress. Men who demand.

The extra 200 UAH cash may have been part of it, but perhaps it was the timing and intent. At the end in order to bless rather than at the beginning in order to take.

I got the feeling the room had seen more than mere massage and I felt sick.

She was a beautiful lady. Smiling, a long way from home, almost trapped and working for family far away. Who goes to Ukraine to earn money to send to Thailand?

I bet most days she felt more like a shower after a massage, but today, it was a hug. Really strong. Heartbreaking.

I pray she has more days like this, but we know it’s not likely.

Taken with my indestructible Olympus Tough 8000 this picture just goes to show that you don’t require the most expensive camera to capture something special.