A new friend from within the Bolivian jail

I experienced a life lesson from a wonderful English woman who happens to find herself incarcerated in Bolivia. She has been “inside” for 3 and half years. Her fair skin, bleached blonde hair and blue eye shadow make her stand out amongst the dark braided hair and colorful long pleated skirts worn by the other female prisoners. At least 90% (if not more) of the women who find themselves in this particular Bolivian jail are of indigenous decent. So my English friend is easy to notice. 

She generally sits close to the worn down empty water fountain built in the middle of the courtyard. Day after day, she sits reading one of her books very peacefully. As an observer I can almost see the chaos spin around her and away. It’s as if she is sitting in the eye of the tornado in complete stillness and peace, while everything around her is seemingly going array, or not… and if so, she doesn’t notice.  On many occasions we’ve had the opportunity to chat, and in her presence I almost forget where I am, she has the amazing gift of emanating stillness and peace.

She is probably somewhere in her fifties, she has 3 sons and had lived many years in South Africa. As in most of the cases of incarcerated women, she had an abusive husband and now recognizes her incarceration as a profound experience. She shared with me that this time “inside”, has taught her to stay inside herself and experience authentic peace. “It was the only way to survive”; otherwise negativity from the jail can seep in very easily and make life miserable. She is grateful for her imprisonment which has taught her the meaning and beauty of being still and living in the present, “inside the jail, nothing changes, every day is the same”. I have only recently met her, but I image much of her has changed from her incarceration, and I am grateful for her lessons, which also teach and remind me to go back inside, into that space where I am home, and loving is the only way to be.   

Once again Viktor Frankels’ message comes to mind, “Everything can be taken from a man or a women but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” 

~Namaste