The Prison

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Today was an interesting day. I was able to go to the prison to help out with the day care there. Marisol, a CCS coodinator works there everyday, but she was short staffed for the rest of the week so I went to help out. Before we entered, Marisol recognized two past inmates waiting outside with their child. They travled all night to wait outside the prison because they were witnesses of a murder. While she was speaking to them a little girl (probably 4 yrs.old) ran up to her to hug her. The little girl´s mom had been in prison for killing her husband. Yikes!

When we entered the prison, we went through a checkpoint where I received two stamps, one on each arm. The next checkpoint, I had to leave my passport and the third was where my bag was checked. We then proceeded to the women´s side of the prison, while passsing the outdoor recreational area. The men were playing futbol. There were several people in the halls that we walked through and I was told that they were all inmates. The only people who wore uniforms were the guards. The atmosphere was more upbeat than I expected, but I did see the occassional intimidation tactic between inmates. When we entered the women´s block I was amazed to see the living quarters. I will have to draw a picture because I couldn´t take pictures. Each cell was stocked with food because in addition to the children sleeping in the cell with the mothers, the mothers also have to cook all of their meals. We went to each cell to collect the children to bring them outside. We took about 6 kids(ages 2-5) outside, some decided to stay with their mothers until later. From there it got crazier......

It felt like it was a full moon or something because these children were wound up! I know from hearing stories from others that this was not usual for them(but usually there are more volunteers, too) The first thing we did was sit at the table to color. Marisol brought out a large peice of white paper and some colored pencils. Before we were all seated at the table, one little boy slipped on the floor and began crying. Then when we were ready to color, one boy decided to just start throwing all of the colored pencils on the floor. When told not to several time, he still continued, without consequence. The rest decided to join in, too. This was a little difficult for me....ms. control freak that I am. Then, it just gets better. One boy decided to hit a little girl...then she hit him back and the rest starting hitting, too. We tried dancing with them and some kicking and pulling of hair was the result. We took them to look for bugs and some decided to pick up rocks the size of a fists and throw that at others´heads or whack others with brooms. I had rocks thrown at me as well. Needless to say it was not my favorite placement. I can imagine that it is very difficult to teach your child to respect others and treat them as you´d wish to be treated when they are so isolated. It´s difficult that they only get to play together for a few hours and most of the moms aren´t there to discipline. Having said that, the children still need more of a routine and need to be taught how to behave in social situations.

I wish I could be more positive about this day, but it just wasn´t enjoyable at all. Oh well, we have our pub crawl and farewell dinner tonight. I am really looking forward to it! Chao!

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