Sentenced to 4 Weeks

Yesterday I served my first day in women´s jail. I will serve two or three days per week for 2 hours a day, for four weeks. This is a service opportunity through my school.

Eleven women are in the jail. They are serving for petty crimes, such as crossing the border without paying border fees or stealing small things. Unlike in US prisons and jails, the women have packed up their lives and moved into this place for up to 2 years. The women have suitcases, televisions, perfume, children, scissors and knives for cooking and sewing, and anything else you could imagine. It is an open space in the middle with side nooks of bunk beds where women have hung sheets for bedroom walls.

On my first day I chatted with a middle aged women named Sarah, older quiet women and young snappy women. We participated in a Christian serve hosted by two men from the church. The message about prostitution really touched some women who cried in the end.

Another student and I will be visiting the women for a few weeks. We can host classes in aerobics, sewing, dancing, basketball, english, massage, all sorts of things that I do not know but will soon teach.

The main issue for me is the spanish. I have a difficult time communicating delicately what I mean, and understanding the women for that part. Que horrible! I hope this changes with time.

Yesterday was also an emotional day because I listened to a man´s story about the civil war in Guatemala in the 1970s. The man´s father was involved in the war so this man fought as well starting at age 15. He grew up with the so to say guerrilas in the mountains and was engaged in the war for 17 years. His story was one I had read about in books but to hear it first hand in spanish gave me a pause. Today this man has a copy of the first guerrila radio broadcast. I guess the government was or is looking for this but so far has not found it. I did not actually hear it but other students purchased it on cd.

In other news, there may be pictures soon from the famous country tour in the unstoppable bus.