Creek, Egg Bake, and Chicken Pot Pie!

Family and Friends,

Well once again another week of life has gone by. I can't believe that it is almost the end of June already. Last weekend was Sarah's birthday and we had a wonderful weekend. Sarah had to work on Saturday all day but when she got home she was really tired. She decided we would just have a couple people over and then go to bed. We had some people over for cake - and half way through eating Sarah changed her mind and decided that she wanted to go out. We ended up going out of town just a few miles and hanging out at a bar near the national stadium. It was a really fun place with not too many and not too little people. We had a great night! :) The next morning we got up and went to the creek with a friend of ours. We ended up seeing a ton of people that we knew there and hung out all day. We didn't get back to Georgetown until about 8pm. The creek is one of my favorite places because you can swim, relax, and enjoy the day with no stress. The creek is made up of "black water" and looks like coca cola. The water is this color because of the sediments from the leaves the fall into the water. They saw if you drink black water and eat laba (wild meat..wild rat) you will come back to Guyana. I have yet to drink black water or eat wild meat from the fear of getting sick. I guess if you count all the water that got up my nose then maybe I have drank some black water! :)

This week was fine and normal until Friday when my school decided to take a trip to the New Amsterdam Prison. The trip to the prison was about a two hour drive. We had to reach "town" (Bus park) for 7:00 am and we ended up leaving town around 7:45. When we reached the prison they were having a meeting so we had to wait about 15 minutes before we were brought inside. Once we were inside we had a brief info session and then we were able to eat our lunch. After lunch we packed all our stuff back into the bus and entered the prison. Once inside the prison they explained to us the different things about the prison. They are allowed 2 phone calls, 2 letters, and one visitor per month. They have different uniforms depending on if they are in for capital offense (murder) than if they are a normal committed prisoner. The remand prisoners get to wear their own clothes from home unless they are on remand for capital offense.

After the briefing we were able to go and sit and talk with the prisoners. I went into the lunch room for a while and talk to a few different women for just a brief period of time. They are a few inmates from the US there and hearing them talk made me realize most of them were from New York. (Which they then confirmed) After a few minutes I went back outside to a different sitting area and sat down next to a girl about my age. We started talking for about a half an hour about random stuff. One thing that we talked about was how so many different church groups come in and she doesn't like it because they all preach a different thing. She made a comment on how even though they are all Christian they all answer questions differently and she doesn't like the fact that its never the same.

After some more random conversation we were talking about tattoos and somehow tattoos lead into her telling me the story of what had happened. She is being charged with a capital offense for killing her lover. The details of the story all become blurry to me now but I just remember what she kept saying to me: "in one second of your life everything can change forever because of one small event". She kept saying how one moment can change someones entire life. She never in her life had intentions to hurt anyone. She then proceeded to tell me how she had hoped to continue her education and if she is found innocent.

As we continued to talk we ended up talking about how much we both like to write. Both of us record everything we do for the day and it is our way to clear our minds. As we were having this conversation I realized how much we have in common. We are both young women with hopes for the future. My heart went out to her as I could sense her true remorse for everything that had happened.

After our conversation we ended up going back over to the meeting area where seven different prisoners talked with us about their experience. They all explained their circumstances of what they had done and how long they were in jail for. Something that really stuck out to me was: "Nothing that comes easy in life lasts long". They kept repeating to the students: "If something seems to good to be true, than it is". I was amazed at their ability to talk about their mistakes and share so much insight to those of us on the outside. They all emphasized how important it is that the students live good lives so they won't have their freedom stripped of them. Having someone tell you what to do 24 hours a day can make you feel and think like a robot.

The students all responded well to the prison trip although, it was emotional for them. I think that I was reminded of the compassion that we all need to have in life. It is much easier for me to have compassion on someone who I don't know, and who never hurt me. For me to talk with the girl who had murdered someone it was easy to see the good and beautiful things inside of her without having judgment on what she had did. Had I known this girl and seen the altercation my opinion may have changed and it would be much easier for me to judge with a harsh eye. Sometimes we need to be reminded of the compassion that comes when we have no emotions tied to the situation. Its easier to be mad at someone you know because it affects your own life. It would be impossible for us to remove emotions and personal ties to incidents in which people have hurt us and therefore I know it would be impossible to have the same ease of compassion but, experiencing this type of compassion has helped me to see areas of my life where I know I lack compassion. None of us are perfect, everyone makes mistakes, and yet forgiveness and compassion can be a very difficult road.

On a lighter note our house has been full of many different foods this week! My aunt and uncle sent me a WONDERFUL cook book and it has added spice to our lives. My roommate Audrey made an egg bake and my roommate Sarah made chicken pot pie. This week I cooked a pasta with eggplant, tomato, and pesto sauce my family bought me while they were here. It has been a really huge blessing in our lives because we all got into the routine of cooking the same things over and over again. Its amazing how the simple things in life can be an adventure when you are trying something new.

Anyway - I hope and pray that you all have a blessed week. "Peace begins with a smile" - M. Teresa

Ashley Ann