The heat index was 105 degrees yesterday. To protect myself from the sun, I carried an umbrella in my clear plastic backpack--clear plastic because getting through security at the prison is much easier if the guards can see what they're going to be sticking their hands into! The umbrella and I got through, but I didn't have to use it.
A woman with a key came to the final gate into the education wing at the same time I did. "You're my hero of the day," I said. Often I have to stand for a while before someone comes to my rescue. With one hand she held the handle of an open box filled with vials for taking blood, in the other some files --and she opened the gate embedded in sky-high fencing topped with razor wire. I had already come through 1,2, 3 locked doors and gates, each one letting me know I was going deeper and deeper into life inside a prison.
"Are you a phlebotomist?" I asked. She was indeed. A phlebotomist in a prison--what an interesting job! I asked her if it had been hard to get her job. "No," she said--and this particular certification was all she needed to get her job.
I've been doing some investigating into jobs related to medicine knowing this is a growing field of jobs for the future. I know it costs about $999.00 to do a Phlebotomy Course at a local college. Not a bad investment for a marketable skill.
After we got inside the education wing I was taken to my new classroom. Other than the students wearing uniforms of beige, the education wing feels and looks like any other school--in fact, this school was originally built for incarcerated minors.
Signs on doors revealed classrooms filled with women learning new skills--it's a new quarter of learning, an exciting time for the "cream of the crop" I was told these women are: making the effort, taking the time to improve themselves. They could do assigned duties and stay in their cells, but these women have chosen to learn! The education building is also air-conditioned and the dorms are not!
The first session of the "Becoming a Mentor" course went well. There were ten women living in the Faith and Character dorm who participated. Here are links to articles I wrote about the course: http://www.intrepidmedia.com/column.asp?id=3584 and http://www.intrepidmedia.com/column.asp?id=3588
The dynamics are different every time I do the course because we are all different, but I give them the same information--the best I've gotten, the most useful information, gathered in my lifetime--history, psychology and people skills are some of what they'll be offered. I tell them, "With this information you will be plugged into everything that is happening out there in the world!"
It's a bold statement, but I believe it. I believe these women can find a place in this world and be productive--if not always physically, then mentally and spiritually.
More than anything, at this point, I want to learn their names. I want to know their stories.
We do an Icebreaker, an activity designed to reveal group dynamics, to let us see how we function in "up close and personal" situations with others. I lay the small blanket my sister-in-law cut up for me so that I can cover myself on the train ride from Georgia up and down the East Coast. I tell the ladies it's a boat. The blue carpeting surrounding it is water full of sharks and alligators. I think of President Obama and members of Congress struggling to settle conflict over our nations's budget.
"Now," I say, "you have to figure out a way to turn the boat over without anyone falling off."
I step back to watch.
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