Carol Bontekoe

This blog has been keeping track of my adventures since 2004. The stories and the adventures have come from my college dorm room to Uganda, Peace Corps Kyrgyzstan, learning Dutch in the Netherlands to living in the wilds of Homer, Alaska. I went back to school in Amsterdam to study Theaterwetenschap (Theatre Science) at University of Amsterdam. And now my adventures as a Fruit Fly, a Sexy Unicorn, and creating a movement with Team Sparkle in Chicago.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Worst first day of work ever...

One of the nice things about bicycling through the Baltics and Poland was they aren't that developed of countries. I don't mean in any kind of backwards sense. I mean that they have trees and even sometimes enough trees together to constitute what I would call woods-also known as forest. After living in what is probably the most developed country in the world it was nice to go cycling a long treelined roads. The Netherlands really doesn't have a lot in the way of woods. In fact wildernis is so precious here that they publish several books on where to find it.
One day while cycling along a highway that cut through some of these elusive woods I saw a girl standing near the road and crying. Though this would be an odd sight regardless I found it particularly weird since I was about 15kms from any town in either direction. She had on what would barely be considered clothing and was wearing high boots with a high heel... often reffered to affectionately as hooker boots. She really did appear to be in some kind of trouble. I figured she must have had a fight with the boyfriend or whatever and he was like, "fine walk your ass home," and then let her out of the car.
I stopped and tried to speak to her. She was saying something, but I really didn't understand. Hell, for all I know it wasn't even Polish. All I know is I didn't understand her and she did understand me. I tried to explain I could bike into town and get her some help or if she was going to walk and didn't want to walk alone I could walk with her. Whatever, I was just trying to help. She was waving me off. The tears becoming more rapid. I really didn't know what to do and since nothing that I said was making her stop crying I gestured that I would be leaving. She gave me a look that seemed to say, "It's for the best."
While cycling I thought how odd that was. I wondered if even if we could have spoken to each other if she would have let me help her. Who did she piss off to get left in the middle of the woods next to a highway? When was she left there since that didn't seem like day time clothing to me. I then spotted another girl a couple kilometers down. She was also very skantly clad. She wasn't crying or anything. She appeared to just be chilling on a stump and texting. But why was she in the woods? Why was she dressed like a skank? Maybe that's just how Polish girls are.
I dind't pull over for the second girl cuz what could I say? Also, she seemed to be fine with whatever her situation was. I continued biking and then saw another girl about a kilometer away. This girl had the least clothing on of the three girls that I had seen. I started to grow suspicous and started thinking all of these girls were some how linked. By the 4th, 5th, and 6th girls dressed in near nothing sitting next to the road I realized these were in fact prostitutes. They must be there for truckers on the highway because they aren't near any towns. Also, how odd to have your job be in the woods. I guess when it's nice out it's not too bad of a location. You can do what prostitutes 2-6 were doing: sitting looking bored and texting.
It began to dawn that it might ahve been girl #1s first day of work. That would explain the crying and the genral look of disspear where as all the other girls appeared to be pros. I couldn't help thinking, "Man your first day on the job as a prostitute in the woods for truckers. That is one hell of a first day."
I'm glad I was on my bicycle because if I had seen the girl next to the road crying I would have really freaked her out. I would have insisted she get in my car, ushering her to it. I would have then pointed as to where we should go and would have been really bubbly and cheery to try and get her to calm down. She probably would have become very panicked and really freaked out and since we don't speak the same language I would have thought she was crying about the jerk boyfriend that left her on the side of the road while she would have thought I was making some kind of list of demands. So, yeah good thing I was on the bike... or I would have made an already bad first day of work worse.... just by trying to have some midwestern hospitality.

1 comments :

  1. Anonymous said...

    omg, too funny. and you're so right about how upsetting the 1st day of work as a prostitute for truckers in the woods would be!! hahaha..