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

188 OUT OF CAPTIVITYdoor and a tiny cutout in one wall. When Ingrid complained aboutthe fact that it was so dark and dismal in the hooch, the FARC cameout with chain saws. I think they thought they were doing this to spiteher, but it turned out to be great for us all. They cut out an enormouspicture window in one of the walls. We enjoyed the extra light and air.If Ingrid’s political party was the Oxygen Green Party, then I at leastsupported one plank in its platform.In the end, those first weeks at Camp Caribe taught us that we all hadto be quick on our feet. On any given day, you didn’t know what sideof someone was going to come out—conciliatory, friendly, two-faced,political, or just plain nasty. I guess it’s true whenever you have a groupof people together. Allegiances are going to be formed, friendshipstested, decisions made and sometimes regretted. Mostly, though, judgmentswere formed, and while they weren’t cut in stone and impressionsaltered, I kept coming back to what my mom had told me. I wasa long way from home, but the same rules still applied.TOMI wasn’t immune from the bickering, and I saw some of the unfairnessthat was going on. We each have our own lines and our own tolerancesfor people and circumstances. I responded when I had felt a line hadbeen crossed. I’d hoped to find intelligent, good-hearted, and communicativepeople at Caribe and for the most part that’s what I’d found.If we could have stepped back and looked at things from the perspectiveof “are you better off today than you were before?,” I think that wemight have been able to get along better.So what if the manual-flush toilet system the FARC had improvised—you had to pour a bucket of water into the porcelain bowl—oftenclogged? That was still better than having to squat in the bush. So whatif Ingrid or someone else hogged the space where we could keep ourtoiletries? I was just grateful we were at least able to take showers—cold,muddy showers, but at least we were able to stand on boards instead of