Out of Captivity : Surviving 1,967 Days in the Colombian Jungle

Settling In 121Marc and really take my time doing things, I wouldn’t be so anxious. Icould get some control over my thoughts and my emotions. I began tosee a pattern emerging in my life. As a pilot, I had been constantly onthe move. My job was all about going somewhere. I’d moved aroundthe country and the world; I was seldom still. The march was horrific,but I did have those moments when I marveled at how I was able tokeep going. Now I had no place to go. I had to sit idle, which was hard,but Marc’s example really helped me.At one point early on, Marc had talked about watching spiders weavetheir webs and how he could sit for hours to watch the spinning. Whileat first I couldn’t do that, I did spend hours tying fisherman’s knotswith a string. Back home, I’d always anticipated problems and devisedstrategies to fix them, but in captivity, I didn’t have any real objects todo that with. I began to make lists of things that needed to be doneto our newly purchased house, going through the house system bysystem—electrical, plumbing, structural—and deciding the necessarysteps. As time went on, I’d do the same thing with other objects thatwere familiar and important to me. I’d ridden motorcycles on and offfor my whole adult life. I mentally took one apart and reassembled it,piece by piece, every nut, bolt, washer, flange, housing, circlip, switch,and wire. I’d think about whether a part was aluminum, steel, plastic,or rubber, or whether it was milled, anodized, cast, or plated and whatthat meant in terms of what tools to use on it or what solvents couldbe used to safely clean it. When I got through with that, I’d narrow myfocus down even more intently. For each nut and bolt, I’d picture in mymind what kind of thread it had (coarse or fine) and what its pitch was.When I was done with the motorcycle rebuilding and maintenance, Iwould start working on a plane.I was definitely a work in progress. I still worried about my health,and in particular my blood pressure. The FARC seemed to be of theopinion that if they gave you medicine for something once, it meantthe problem was gone and you were cured. After the supply of pills that