It’s not all warm fuzzies…

It’s funny how much life changes in just one year. Last Halloween I was sitting in my office at the Center for Food Safety in Washington DC, wearing a mad cow disease costume, and frantically putting together a grad school application in one night. Then one year later I am in Amsterdam at an Irish pub dressed as little red riding hood with grad school classmates. Wait a new country you ask?
Yup, I will be in Amsterdam, actually a little outside, for the next four weeks. I am taking a course on Sexuality and Health. I signed up for this class because of course the topic is interesting and the timing was also good. It’s nice to have a month where I focus on something different before heading back to Pecs to wrap up my thesis. I am writing a paper here about mapping of prostitution in this test city which is 50 km north of Amsterdam.
Prostitution is fascinating. I mention to anyone here what I am doing and I have a captive audience. Nevertheless, yesterday it really struck me what I am dealing with. Two other students and I are working with this organization called TAMPEP - Transnational AIDS/STD Prevention Amount Migrant Prostitutes in Europe Project. Last night Pui Sai, Inken, and I went to the redlight district of a nearby city with a TAMPEP representative. First we did interviews with a public health nurse and then with a brothel owner. The brothel owner was a very friendly man. He had two daughters and got in the family business of renting rooms to prostitutes. He runs it like a business and avoids the mafia.
After the interviews we visited a prostitute in her room to educate her about safe sex. This girl spoke some German so the TAMPEP representative could communicate to her how to put on a condom, dental dam, etc. There are more details that I won’t mention here. I can send you the paper if you want more information. Anyway, as we were about to leave I found out that the girl was from Hungary. Eighty percent of the prostitutes are immigrants and the majority of the girls come from central Europe because of the expansion of the European Union. These girls are trafficked around europe and sometimes don't even know which country they are in. The fact that this girl spoke some German means that she probably worked in Germany before coming to Holland.
After the interview I lost it. It wasn’t crying with sobs or the hiccups. It was quiet and subdued. I am not Hungarian and I don’t speak Hungarian. In fact, all I could say to the girl was thank you, good night, and good bye. Nevertheless, I have been living there the last two and a half months and I feel some kind of connection with the culture. We couldn’t really talk to this girl because she needed to get “back to work” which is probably a sign that her pimp is keeping tabs on her. We didn't ask her how old she was but I think it was safe to say that she was probably around my age or younger.
So, this is my life these days. When I am not learning about prostitution I am speaking Spanish with my roommates. They are really nice girls. Two are from Spain and one is from Columbia. I also am eating a ton a vegetables. In fact, the last time my eyes watered was tears of joy after checking out the produce isle in a Dutch supermarket.

The following is my contact info until the 25th of November. I would imagine that it takes about the same time to get mail here as it does to Germany – about one week from the US.

Ms. Paige Beckley
Fideliolaan 34
1183 PM Amstelveen
Netherlands
Skype: paigecbeckley
Cell: 011 31 (06) 152 440 52

From the 26th of November until mid December I will be back in Hungary:

Farkas Lili
Pécs 7632
Kerényi Károly u. 2/b
Hungary
Cell: 011 36 20 200 7837