I have spent weeks trying to formulate this blog! I want to find a way to give a clear visual of how we, in the camp, live every day.
Every Sunday or Monday, we are given three or four rolls of toilet paper. Not two-ply or soft toilet paper; I mean this toilet paper is a step below sand paper. Whew! Tough on the butt!! Anyway, we are rationed out toilet paper for our personal use and it must be carried back and forth be each individual as they need to use the restroom. Now, the question that I’ve yet to have answered is, “Why don’t we just have toilet paper in the bathroom.?” Nobody has an answer yet! We all just conform to the norm and proudly accept our weekly rationed rolls!
A few weeks ago, we were all laughing in the unit because one of the women in the unit, “Nae,” said she went to the restroom and as she was walking out, there were three precious rolls of t.p. sitting on top of the trash can and her first instinct was to grab them! Just then another woman from the unit saw her and said, “You know you really don’t have to do that.” We laughed, and laughed at how this environment truly makes one feel in survival mode. Even when it comes to toilet paper, it’s every woman for herself! It is so crazy to walk out of the unit with a roll of toilet paper in hand and walk towards another person carrying their own roll. People in here also have TOILET PAPER PURSES….NO lie! Honestly, If I had not seen the lovely crocheted toilet paper purse, I would never have believed it!
I have often said that I feel like I have lived many different lives in my short time on this Earth, and this one is proving to be pretty interesting to say the least. Our government can destroy, diminish, demean, and lie about a lot of things, but the true, honest, raw beauty of the human spirit cannot be deterred even when you are incriminated if you are a peaceful, loving, intelligent, powerful woman and surrounded by such. We are not meant to survive this kind of treatment, but I know we will. I am thankful for those women who keep me laughing while we are all trapped here in hell!
The Felonious PhD. 