You Gotta Know...

...I went to jail today! I have never been to jail--in the U.S. nor otherwise--but today was the day!

About 9 volunteers and I, along with our placement director (Marisol), went to the prison here in Ayacucho to take some of the children there on a little outing. Children are allowed to stay with their mothers (who are actually the ones incarcerated)until they are about 3 or 4. The women are mostly there on different types of drug charges, usually transportation of drugs.

Alejandro drove us in our white van for about 20 minutes to the outskirts of town where the prison is located. We had to show the guards out front our passports and they recorded our names and passport numbers into a large handwritten book. They stamped our right inner arms with the first of three stamps we would receive. We had to line up so they could count us. Meanwhile, I saw several guards with long hand or feet cuffs as if they might be getting ready to transport someone. This was getting exciting!

We knocked on the little door outside and had to wait quite a long time before we were allowed to enter. We weren´t exactly sure what was going on, but the Ayacucho sun was getting pretty hot (and they told us it was winter here). Later, we found out that there was a stabbing and a search of the cells going on inside. Glad they told us this after we left the prison for the day.

Our group entered the first holding chamber and we were searched by the guards. Luckily, we got a woman guard because she definitely patted us down and made me chuckle in a "I´m pretty uncomfortable with this" kind of way. We also got stamped again, but this time on our inner left arms. We passed through some smaller rooms where I found out that the guards do full searches on visitors day. Glad we didn´t come on Wednesday.

We walked over a bridge type thing to reach another holding area. This time when we entered we got stamped one last time. There were more guards and people in suits. Lawyers maybe. There were also two dogs just laying around. (There are random dogs everywhere here and this was just further proved by the fact they are in jail too)

Next, is when my heart started racing. We entered a walkway skirting the courtyard full of male prisoners. They were all in lines doing some sort of check in maybe, but we still definitely got lots of cat-calls. A herd of gringas must have been the high point of the day based on the whistling. We walked around to the women´s side and entered their little courtyard. On the way in there was a little store like thing selling candy and snacks. Wait, I thought we were in prison.

Once in the women´s courtyard (about 1/4 the size of the men´s), we saw many women sitting around and most of them doing some embroidering. We had to wait for Marisol to fill out some more forms and figure out which children were coming with us. While we were waiting, one of the volunteers who had been there before showed us around the women´s cells. I could not believe the amount of stuff crammed into the cells and hallways. Again, wait, I thought we were in prison. How did they get all of this stuff?

There was food and plenty of utensils for cooking. We saw some women cooking a nice hot pot of soup. I also saw a big knife for cooking. I know this is my first day in prison, but I sort of thought you weren´t allow to have big knives in prison. Four women per cell with a little wash "room" in the middle.

Back downstairs to play with kids, walk around watching at the women at work, and to stand around. I thought to myself how these conditions do not seem as bad as they could be. I know that is probably naive to say, but the place was clean enough and they are allowed to cook food. It seemed like a little community and based on the conditions I had seen in other parts of the country, it did not seem awful.

Ok, finally ready to go and we each grabbed a kid. I got a cute little girl a little about 2 and a half years old named Mitay with two braids in her hair and overalls. She clung to me as we walked back out of the maze to the front. I felt weird walking back by the male prisoners, but somehow thought I was protected by little Mitay clinging to me.

We loaded up the van, each with a little one on our laps, and began to sing as the van took us to the main plaza. When we arrived in the main plaza there was actually a protest march of little school kids (at this point I am no longer surprised by protests). They held signs about child labor and rights to education. Marisol bought bird seed and the our little ones threw it everywhere as flocks of pigeons came to eat it. Mitay loved it and laughed every time she threw it as high as she could in the air.

After feeding the birds, each of the kids got some vanilla crackers and some juice for a snack. They all sat in a cute little line waiting patiently to be served. Next, we each took our little one´s hand and walked around the plaza. What a cute sight to see all of these volunteers holding the hands of these little Peruvian children!

Back into the van and Marisol said the first child asleep would win the game. Ah, the old turn anything into a "game" trick and kids will go for it. Well, all of them did except for Mitay. She instead insisted on standing in my lap and yelling in the most ear-piercing voice Marisol´s name. I tried to tell her to be more quiet because the other children were sleeping, but she didn´t really go for it. Oh well, this was the highlight of her week and who was I to deprive her.

When we arrived back at the prison one little boy started crying because he didn´t want to go back. It broke our hearts. All of the children pretended to be sleeping soundly (if they weren´t actually sleeping soundly) so that we would hold them. The men prisoners were walking around the hallway now and I felt really self-conscious as we made our way out. Several tried to talk to us and I just smiled as we passed. We made it back out of the prison and headed back toward the van all ready for a big lunch.

Today, I finally felt needed. I had so much fun and felt like we were actually helping. I´d like to do this again.

You Gotta Know, Pat Green