« It's Always Late | Main | Spur Of The Moment »

Machachi Calabozo

Got a call last night from the program manager asking if I'd be willing to help out. Katie wanted to get up to Machachi today to visit her husband, who has been in jail since last Sunday. Basically it boils down to this: the accident wasn't his fault, but he's being held because the person who drove into Dale's car when it went out of control and into the other lane, doesn't trust that the repairs on his vehicle will be paid for by Dale's insurance. So Dale stays in jail until this guy has the assurances he wants that the work is going to be paid for. Seems crazy. We had really hoped he would get out on Friday, but by 6 PM, when the courts closed, the papers were still being shuffled, passed from office to office, and that meant Dale wouldn't get out until at least Monday.

So, he's spending his seventh night in a small cell, about ten foot by ten foot square, with a sink and toilet in an adjoining room, which has no door, just a curtain. No beds, so you sleep on the cement floor with blankets. You don't get out for excercise, and with six or seven guys in the cell, it's rather crowded. They don't serve food, so when it's meal time, family members come by with a bag of food. Of course, Dale's family is far away, so some money was given to the police to buy food and bring it to Dale. Katie brought him some food today, and I gave him three magazines and three Power Bars. He seems to be doing fine, but he's going to be so happy to get out of that hole, take a hot shower, and sleep in a real bed! It took Katie and me about three hours and fifteen minutes each way to make the drive, and she got to visit with him for forty-five minutes. They actually let him out of the cell for a few minutes with her, which he said was very unusual. She brought some clean clothes, and we took the dirty ones with us. We were back home at 5:15 PM, in time for dinner with Ellyn and all the kids. Katie's three kids stayed with Ellyn all day.

My camera was almost taken away today. I was taking a couple photos of Katie waiting at the door of the cell, and the guard stopped me. He asked what I was taking photos for, to which I responded, "Just for memories." He said that the other policement could take the camera away if they were there, but that he was a good policeman. I quickly put the camera away. I thought about showing him that I could delete the photos, but decided I'd be better off just putting it away. I did take a spy photo (those are the windows of Dale's cell) later with the camera in my backpack. I was getting ready to sneak one more photo of Katie talking to Dale through the iron door, as there was nobody in the hallway at the time but us, but then they called time on us, as visiting hours were well over. I really wanted the photo, but at least I got out of there with my camera.