My traveling companions, all sixteen of them, and I have taken thousands of steps this past week. We traversed the city so that we could better understand its history and perhaps glimpse its future. Along the way, we have witnessed poverty and experienced sadness, anger, and disbelief. We have also encountered loving kindness, joy, and hope as we stood in the midst of everyday heroes. Not heroes to the world, but to their neighbors and to one another. The kind of heroes we all need from time to time, ones who will help us when we lose our way and rejoice when we find it.
Stories of life and death engulfed us and made us fully appreciate the commitment our hosts have made to their mission of preventing children from being trafficked. This happens in several different ways, one is called “loverboy grooming.” This is a long game in which traffickers build trust and create a psychological dependence through promises of a better life. Traffickers can then manipulate their victims effortlessly into domestic servitude with sexual exploitation as the traffickers’ end game.
Once trapped, there is little support from society to help women who have been trafficked.
We came here to learn about Romania’s response to human trafficking. It is quite possible we knew more about how to appropriately respond than we realized, because in addition to participating in games and crafts with the children, we developed and delivered lessons on the importance of respect for ourselves and others. Recognizing the dignity of others helps us to show compassion. As a result, respect becomes an exchange.
Parliament Palace
Days of community outreach are emotionally intense. For that reason some sightseeing was built into our schedule. This gave us an opportunity to process what we learned about human trafficking and our interactions with the children and young women we have met.
Tomorrow we travel by bus to a new city. Three hours to prepare our hearts and minds for what’s next. Tonight, there’s dinner on the patio. And gelato!
Honie Briggs 
I am reminded how desperate the need for outreach is, not just ‘over there’, but here as well. Poverty is a terrible thing, creating terrible circumstances and tragic choices.
You remain one of my heroes.
Reading these posts reminds me how very well off we [the West] are in comparison to so many in the rest of the world, and how much I and women like me take the safety of our children for granted. This degree of exploitation leaves my head spinning. And even for the children who have been saved, how do they get over this rape of trust?
Beautiful sights and amazing efforts by you and your colleagues. It is nice to hear that they have provided moments of respite and sightseeing so that you are not overwhelmed by enormity of the problem.
Ω
From my brief glimpse through your posts, what shocks me the most is how much the problems here mirror those you see there. There are clearly many resources available here and poverty seems much more hopeless and widespread there. Overwhelming sadness for women and for children, always the victims it seems all over the world.