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

136 OUT OF CAPTIVITYWith the introduction of these restraints, things had gone from brutalto inhumane. Sleeping on the ground with just one or two threadbarecotton sheets to keep us “warm,” a sheet of black plastic as a mattress,a bug net to keep the insects off of us, and a nylon tent top as the roofover our heads was barely tolerable. But to be tied up? After the firstday of being tied while marching, we learned that it was going to beour life for a while. Eventually we stopped marching. We simply roughcampedin the bush. We didn’t make a clearing, we didn’t build anyplatform beds or any structures, we made do in the mud. Worse, ourharnesses stayed on and the ends were tied off to a tree or bush or post.As a result, we spent most of our time in what passed for our beds,lying beneath our nylon camouflaged tent tops. The only time we wereoutside we sat in the rain tied to a post. Any thoughts of being releasedwere buried in the mud along with everything we had to our names.As much as we tried to keep to our routines, and stay positive, it simplywasn’t possible. Our nerves were frayed and now, without any realphysical activity to speak of to help us blow off steam—Tom couldn’twalk his laps, I couldn’t spend hours cleaning things—we took outsome of our frustration on one another. None of us was surprised bythis. We had been together with very few exceptions from mid-Februaryto May. I defy anyone to get along 100 percent of the time with anyone—notyour wife, your twin sister or brother, your best friend—forthat amount of time without there being some tension between you.Take three people who were, essentially, not strangers but coworkers,and put them in the situation we were in and under the conditions weexisted in and see what happens.Much of the problems stemmed from the fact that, in what westarted to refer to as the Mud Camp, we were in much more of a confinedspace than we had been at either Monkey Village or the New Camp.We weren’t just in the same area, we were right on top of one another.Americans have a pretty large personal space we like to keep aroundourselves, and ours had been reduced greatly. Rubbing up against one