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

Caribe 175compared to some of the Colombians in that group of seven, it seemedlike we did.Moving into a place where people had been together for a whileproved to be an interesting experience—almost like being the new kidat school and having to figure out who the cool kids were, who wasfriends with whom, and all of that. It took some time to get to knoweveryone, and it seemed like each of the three of us, as was normal, hadconflicting views of everyone. I was immediately suspicious when oneof the Colombian men, Orlando, came to us late the next day to tell usthat there’d been some dispute over where we were going to sleep. Wethought it had all been settled, but Orlando told Tom that Clara was tryingto get the FARC to give us a triple-decker bunk bed to save space foreveryone else. We didn’t know whether to believe him, since we hadn’theard Clara say anything like that to us. Orlando seemed to want tothrow Clara under the bus, but for what purpose? Immediately I madea mental note to myself to watch this guy.Not every one of the politicals presented such a mystery to us. ConsueloGonzález de Perdomo was one of those who seemed to shareour view of how we should have been treating one another. Consuelowas a first-year congresswoman who was abducted in 2001 while onher way to the capital. She told us that she had represented Neiva, arural district in Colombia, and she had been a schoolteacher beforeturning to politics. Ironically, she came from a leftist family and probablyheld the most anti-American views of any of our new bunkmates.Despite that, she treated us well. Consuelo was extremely religiousand a devoted mother, who talked a great deal about her babies andcried every time she spoke of them. At first, I assumed that she hadsmall children, but it was only when we got to know each other a bitbetter that I found out they were both in their twenties. She didn’tmoan and wail and make a spectacle of herself when she cried, shewas always very dignified—except when it came time to play banco