The first question I was asked in jail was "What are you here for?" And I must have heard the same question a hundred times before my six months was up. I stopped answering it after the first day. Actually for perhaps the first time in my life I didn't feel the need to explain anything. There was no one there that I needed anything from. There was no one there that I felt the need to impress. I would be housed and fed and clothed regardless of who liked me or who I pissed off. It was very liberating. I chose to clam up. The only person I felt the need to communicate with was the nurse practitioner and that was only until I realized she wasn't listening to anything I had to say, so I stopped talking to her and just hid the pills that I didn't want to take which eventually got me in a world of trouble, but that's for a different blog.
Now this is not to say that I didn't talk at all, but I chose my confidantes carefully. One woman was a legal whiz and until I had figured out with my attorney what was going to happen to me I would ask questions of Dulcie. Caroline was friends with one of the guards and whenever I needed something from a guard I would go to her. Meghan and I both liked to do Sudoku. She would find all the hard puzzles, do them first in pencil, erase the answers and pass them along to me. Hey, it kept my brain from atrophying. Cheryl always had the best books which she shared generously with me and vice versa, plus if she had coffee and I didn't, I could always count on her for a spoonful.
Now Chip, she was my lifeline in jail. We played countless games of Scrabble and were together for most of each and every day. I talked about my personal life with Chip and she told me all about her life with Mitch in Belize. We were both artists. We laughed a lot together and we cried some too. Chip got out of jail a couple of months before me and I wrote to her when she'd left. When I got deported back to England we emailed each other on a regular basis. Chip, Mitch, Randy and I all lived together in Punta Gorda, Belize for three months just before I came to Mexico. It was interesting to see who she was outside of jail. She was much more flamboyant in her own environment. I enjoyed spending time with her. Chip died suddenly from a very short illness in Belize last December. I am glad I got to know her. I miss her a lot.
Now this is not to say that I didn't talk at all, but I chose my confidantes carefully. One woman was a legal whiz and until I had figured out with my attorney what was going to happen to me I would ask questions of Dulcie. Caroline was friends with one of the guards and whenever I needed something from a guard I would go to her. Meghan and I both liked to do Sudoku. She would find all the hard puzzles, do them first in pencil, erase the answers and pass them along to me. Hey, it kept my brain from atrophying. Cheryl always had the best books which she shared generously with me and vice versa, plus if she had coffee and I didn't, I could always count on her for a spoonful.
Now Chip, she was my lifeline in jail. We played countless games of Scrabble and were together for most of each and every day. I talked about my personal life with Chip and she told me all about her life with Mitch in Belize. We were both artists. We laughed a lot together and we cried some too. Chip got out of jail a couple of months before me and I wrote to her when she'd left. When I got deported back to England we emailed each other on a regular basis. Chip, Mitch, Randy and I all lived together in Punta Gorda, Belize for three months just before I came to Mexico. It was interesting to see who she was outside of jail. She was much more flamboyant in her own environment. I enjoyed spending time with her. Chip died suddenly from a very short illness in Belize last December. I am glad I got to know her. I miss her a lot.
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