Yesterday was my first day working at the state prison in Concepcion. It´s is located just outside the city of Concepcion and about a 40 min bus ride from Horqueta. Lily, an urban youth volunteer that just finished her service and is now back home getting ready to start Law school worked for a couple months with her site mate at the prison giving lessons to the inmates on self esteem and job skills. She really enjoyed the work and said it was one of her favorite projects she had while being a volunteer in Paraguay. When she left, I asked if the prison was interested in having someone follow up her work there, she said they would love to have another volunteer there, and put me into contact with Andrea, a woman that works at the prison. Lily then left me a notebook filled with the work she did there and told me she would love it if i continued her work.
I called Andrea a couple weeks ago and asked for a meeting. Lisa, an educacion volunteer that lives in Concepcion said she would love to get involved. I was glad I would have a partner in crime (haha)as well so Lisa and I met Andrea in Concepcion last week at a little restaurant to talk about prison work. In the prison there is a school and every morning the inmates have classes with Andrea. If the school system behind bars is anything like the school system on the outside, i am sure it´s not very stimulating and is not really helping these men with rehabilitation. I gave Andrea my little peace corps resume that has a list of the topics I can give lessons and facilitate activities on:
Self esteem
Good Communication
Leadership
Working in Groups and Team work
Values
Gender Roles and Stereotypes
How To Look for Employment-making resumes, etc
Sexuality-sexually transmitted diseases and basic education
HIV and AIDS
Parenting-Motherhood and Fatherhood-IS it a job for me?
I gave brief descriptions of sample activities and lessons with each topic and when she looked at the list, she became really excited and started circling everything on the page, expressing that she wanted us to cover everything. She asked if we could come once a week, every Monday from 9-11am. We said we would start the coming Monday and as long as we had topics to cover we would follow through with that schedule.
On Monday morning I woke up, went for a run, then came home full of sweat and B.O only to realize the water was out-a normal occurance when there´s a storm like there was on Sunday. The electricity was out as well, and I hadn´t saved any water to bucket bathe in so sponge bathed using a small bottle of water that was in my fridge. Then I got ready by candle light and packed my things, headed out the door and got a bus to Concepcion.
I was on a very slow bus that stopped every 3 min or so to load on more passengers. People were standing in the aisles and I could barely see out the window. I was afraid I might miss my stop and pass the prison so when i figured we were getting close, I squeezed and pushed my way up to the front of the bus and asked the driver to please let me off at the prison. when i said that, everyone on the bus became wide-eyed and stared at me like "why is this white girl getting off at the prison?" As soon as I got off, i saw Lisa standing on the side of the road, waiting for me to enter the front gate to the prison. I told her how everyone had stared at me on the bus and she said she got the same reaction.
We went to the front entrance and were met by Andrea. The guard simply asked her who we were and she said "they´re peace corps volunteers" and with nothing more than that, we walked through the gates without being searched or questioned. We handed him our IDs and walked to a table where there were more guards. I thought, "oh, here is where we are going to get searched or questioned" Nope...all they wanted was our cell phones and keys. Lisa asked if there was anything else we weren´t allowed to take in, like our scissors or paper clips, etc that were in our backpacks. "no, just the cell phones and keys" they said. Lisa and I could not help but smirk as we were led upstairs, past all the holding cells and into an room that looked like a classroom. We got settled in and began setting up.
One by one the inmates started coming into the classroom and sat down. They were dressed in every day clothes, not uniforms, which was another surprise. They sat in their desks with their pens and notebooks in front of them and had big grins on their faces. Some of them asked questions like who we were and where we were from. About 30 men between the ages of 18 and 45 entered the room. There was no guard, Andrea was no where to be seen and Lisa and i stood there wondering when we should start. Finally I asked "is this everyone?" and when several heads nodded I started introducing myself and then Lisa introduced herself. Eventually Andrea came in the room and so did another teacher. I didn´t feel unsafe in the least bit but I could not believe that with all the guards with huge machine guns walking around, there weren´t any near us. I actually felt safer without the men with guns around and it made it feel more like a natural school setting and probably made them feel more like students instead of criminals.
Our first lesson was on Working in Groups and Team work. We started the lesson at 9:30 with an ice breaker activity called Human machine. We divided everyone into 6 smaller groups and each group had to make a machine with their bodys and each member had to be a part of the machine, working together to make it work. Every group participated and were very animated. They made planes, helicopters, cars and motorcylces out of their bodies. There was so much laughter in the room as each group presented its machine to the class, i knew right away what a fun group this would be. At the end of the activity I had the group that formed a helicopter stand in front of the class, and I took away the man that was the chopper part. I asked "what will happen to this helicopter now?" and they all responded "it will crash" and then I said " and what if this man here, takes over his part, will the machine still work?" and they said yes but it wouldn´t be as strong as before. They began to immediately discuss the topic of teamwork and they responded very well to questions like "what happens if there is a group of people working on something together and one person leaves the group?" This is how we introduced our topic for the day.
We then did two more longer activities related to team work and working in groups and they loved them. At the end of the lesson, we divided up into two large groups, one with Lisa, one with me. I asked each person to think of a word that describes how they felt about the activities today. Nobody could express just one word. Everyone wanted to say thank you to us, to tell us how much they appreciated us coming and working with them, that their own families don´t even come see them and how interesting what we Americans have to teach is. I thanked them for being such great participaters and told them we would be happy to come back once a week. They were thrilled we were coming back.
When we were led out of the prison, we walked by as the inmates were being led back to their cells. they were not locked up or being led in a line. It seemed almost as if this was their home. They smiled and were joking with the guards and the guards seemed to be a in a good mood too. They waved to us and said "adios profesora" I turned to Lisa and said "man, even in prison people in Paraguay just always seem happy and relaxed" Then we were led downstairs to the woman´s ward to retrieve our cell phones and keys. Right next to us were the cells for the woman prisoners. There were 3 woman standing at the gate holding packs of cigarettes in their hands asking Lisa and I for a light, then asking us for money, then saying things like "what, you don´t talk? What are you doing here?" They were scary looking to say the least. They showed signs of drug heavy abuse such as missing teeth, nappy hair, skinny bodies and sunken in eyes. Andrea whispered to me that they don´t work with the woman, that "they are very difficult to work with" I thanked my lucky stars that Lisa and I were working with the male prisoners instead.
We walked back to the front gate, got our IDs back and told Andrea we would see her next week to talk about Leadership. Since I was only 2k from Concepcion, i decided to go into concepcion and have lunch with Lisa and do some shopping. There are nicer grocery stores than in Horqueta and faster internet. Working once a week at the prison is something I am very excited about, it´s a nice break from my routine in Horqueta.
Some Paraguayans seem really confused as to why I want to volunteer there. Some people have even said the prisoners don´t deserve it, they already have better lives than most Paraguayans because they have food and school and a roof over their heads. My host brother Gino even said "well, maybe I should rob a store so I can be in your class too" Which made me mad because he gets more of my time and attention than any Paraguayan. But I understand these are the same aruguements and views people share in the U.S. What I plan to tell people is that of any group of people or individuals I have worked with, no one has made me feel so appreciated and been so grateful for my time and effort than the people at the prison. And besides, they will never be able to cancel my lessons for rain or other "commitments" and many other excuses I get from people. As a social worker, I am loving the opportunity to get to explore this kind of work because who knows, maybe one day I will want to work in a juvenil hall or rehabilitation program, having this on my resume will certainly grab some attention!
