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

166 OUT OF CAPTIVITYcould relate. Keith and Marc passed the book back and forth to devourover the course of the first few days we had it. Without reading glasses,I couldn’t read, so Keith and Marc took turns reading to me. Almost assoon as we’d finished the book, we started to read it again. It provideda nice escape from jungle life and we were able to immerse ourselvestemporarily in the world of a high-powered Washington, D.C., lawfirm. We enjoyed reading about Michael Brock’s decision to drop outof the fast lane and work to help those with little or no money. I thinkwe were all glad to add Michael Brock to our short list of people whocould reason clearly, communicate effectively, and be trusted to do theright thing—even if he was a lawyer.A couple of months after the POL, Mono JoJoy made another appearance,announcing this time that we were going to be placed in yetanother camp—only this time we wouldn’t be by ourselves, we’d bewith the political prisoners. We had a pretty good idea of who would bethere—we’d read all about the various kidnappings of major politiciansand candidates before we’d been taken hostage. We never thought thatall the FARC’s high-value prisoners would be put together in the sameplace, and we were excited about the possibilities this development represented.We were eager to meet with them. Suddenly, after months ofonly having one another, we’d have many more people to interact with.Suddenly we’d be thrust back into some semblance of a society.In spite of the uncertainties involved, we were all convinced thatthis political camp would bring nothing but good into our lives. Morepeople, less boredom, more freedoms. As usual, we were surprised byhow wrong we were.