I organize myself

I must react. I must organize myself. I cannot sit there all day long. I have to be active, both physically and mentally. To keep my body in shape I can do exercises, for my mind, mental arithmetic.

Next, from now on I will not believe them anymore, whatever they say. They are lying all the time.

Then I need to find some way to get out from this cell as much as possible. I do not know what time it is; I do not know whether it is day or night.

I start knocking to on my door. When after a while a guardian opens, I say:

-          I absolutely need to talk to your superior, urgent!

It takes a while, and then he comes back and takes me to his superior’s office. On the way there I see other prisoners getting interrogated. They are all blindfolded, their hands handcuffed in their back. They are barefoot, and must kneel down during the interrogatory.

Once in Nabir’s (That’s the name of the superior) office, I start lying, pointing on my heart:

-          I absolutely need some medication!

Nabir makes a phone call, and after a few minutes a doctor enters the office.

-          Do you have heart problems?

-          No, but I have very high cholesterol, and must take medication every day.

-          What medication do you need?

-          It is with my luggage

Indeed, I have such medication to prevent a high cholesterol rate, but I did not take it for weeks. Now it gets very useful. The doctor sends my guardian to take it. Meantime I look around, and notice a fridge in the office. This gives me an idea. When the guardian brings my medication, I immediately swallow one pill, then:

-          These drugs must be kept in a cool place. May I put it in your fridge, and came back every morning to take a pill?

After consultation with the doctor, Nabir allows me to use his fridge. I rejoice: Now I have my exit ticket every morning. I have to seize the opportunity of the doctor’s presence:

-          Doctor, I am quite old and have a prostate problem; I need to go to the toilets very often. Would it be possible to leave my door unlocked during daytime, so I do not have to disturb the guards all the time?

Another lie! Again the doctor discusses with Nabir, then:

-          OK, your door will be locked only during night time.

I can’t believe what he says: This is amazing! Although it will not be unlocked all the time, as promised, my door will be open quite often. It is such a great feeling just to know that I am not locked up.

-          There is a last favour, you could do me: It is so hard to communicate with my guardians, and I have an Arab dictionary with my luggage, if I could get it?.........

I do not expect to get it, but it is worth to give it a try. And it is NO at the beginning, but the doctor intercedes in my favour, and ten minutes later I hold in my hands a book that can keep me occupied for month!

Before I re-enter my cell, I go to the toilets; I must play the prostate game. There is a sink where I take my drinking water. This is also the place where I can wash, but I did not receive any soap nor towel. Next to the sink, there is a trash bin. It will be my box of wonders. Besides food rests, I find an empty 2 litres plastic bottle! I take it, clean it and fill it up. At last I will have enough to drink now; my half-litre bottle was insufficient.

Back in my cell I start walking around. One lap measures about 10 metres, maybe a little bit more. And then I start turning around. Ten laps to the left, ten laps to the right.

One hundred laps: One kilometre.

When I am not walking, I study my Arabic grammar.

Much later, when I lie down on the cold floor for my third night, I walked seven kilometres.