A word to the wise: If you’ve never been to a prison before, don’t start with one in Egypt.
Actually it wasn’t as bad as I expected. I’d been told all kinds of stories about how terrible the living conditions are in the prison, how the men have to sleep on their sides all squished together like sardines, and how the food consists of beans or peas every day. We didn’t see any of that when we went though. We met the prisoners in an open room with benches lining both sides and stools that you could move around to sit across from someone. All the prisoners we saw were foreigners – Nigerians, Cameroonians, Peruvian, Malaysian, Chinese… I think those were all the nationalities I met. They were also all Christian. Our church group is not allowed to visit Muslims, because that would be “missionary” work.
They were also all criminals. That was the biggest surprise for me actually. I should’ve expected that considering it was a prison, right? But I’d been led to believe that the Egyptian police more or less lock people up for no reason, or for minor infractions like missing immigration papers, or that people were wrongly accused and thrown in jail to await a sentence. Nope. I asked one man why he had come to Cairo. “Drugs,” he said. Er...what’s the next line in this conversation? I didn’t really know what to say. Do I avoid this topic because it got him in prison and is painful, or do I ask more to show I care? Another guy was telling me he’d travelled a lot. I asked him to tell me more and he explained, “I go to one country for maybe a week, make a lot of money, and run.” He was in jail for credit fraud. Once again, I was a bit at a loss.
Backing up, I should say this whole “adventure” started at the metro station at 7:15am. I took the metro to Dokki (about 45 minutes) with some friends from church, Tanja and Hugo (she’s Dutch, he’s South African). There we met up with Eva (the head of the prison ministry – she’s German) and several other people (Egyptians, a Russian, Cameroonians, another American) and drove another hour to arrive at the prison. We then waited in line with our goodies (food bags and blankets for the prisoners), and were called through 4 at a time to be searched. Then we went into a large waiting room where maybe 60 people were sitting and standing until they heard their names called for their visit.
It took a while – about 2 hours – before we were called. I passed the time talking more with Eva about the ministry. Some of the others sat down and spoke with the waiting Egyptians or played with the little kids. We all avoided the bathroom on Eva’s advice (she’s been doing the prison ministry for 30 years and said she’s only used the bathroom 3 times). When we were finally called, around 11:30, we got on a little trolley that drove us further into the compound and to a door to an inner courtyard. There we waited yet again, for about 20 minutes. Finally we were let through (searched again, had to give the guards our goodie bags for the prisoners – I assume they’re distributed later?). We were allowed to see as many prisoners as we had visitors – we were ten people, so we saw ten prisoners. Like I said, it was in an open room where we could all move around and talk to whoever.
Thence commenced the awkward conversations I’ve already mentioned. They weren’t all awkward. I asked some of the men about their families, or what they planned to do when they went home (eventually). We had about an hour to talk with the prisoners before the guards started yelling at us to finish up. I suppose they were more yelling at the prisoners, but it seemed like they just enjoyed yelling at everyone. They weren’t very nice. We were allowed to pray together before they ushered the prisoners out (apparently sometimes this is allowed and sometimes not). Then it was over. We weren’t really allowed to talk to the men after we left that room; they were sent to one side of the courtyard and we were sent to the other side to grab our passports and leave.
All in all I’m not really sure what I thought. I definitely admire the people who have committed to visiting every week and really forming relationships with these guys. They were greeted like old friends by every man we saw. They really care and have invested in this. I found it exhausting to go just once. So many hours of waiting and then making chit chat with people I could hardly relate to… It was difficult. Kudos to those who do it all the time. It’s an amazing ministry.
Actually it wasn’t as bad as I expected. I’d been told all kinds of stories about how terrible the living conditions are in the prison, how the men have to sleep on their sides all squished together like sardines, and how the food consists of beans or peas every day. We didn’t see any of that when we went though. We met the prisoners in an open room with benches lining both sides and stools that you could move around to sit across from someone. All the prisoners we saw were foreigners – Nigerians, Cameroonians, Peruvian, Malaysian, Chinese… I think those were all the nationalities I met. They were also all Christian. Our church group is not allowed to visit Muslims, because that would be “missionary” work.
They were also all criminals. That was the biggest surprise for me actually. I should’ve expected that considering it was a prison, right? But I’d been led to believe that the Egyptian police more or less lock people up for no reason, or for minor infractions like missing immigration papers, or that people were wrongly accused and thrown in jail to await a sentence. Nope. I asked one man why he had come to Cairo. “Drugs,” he said. Er...what’s the next line in this conversation? I didn’t really know what to say. Do I avoid this topic because it got him in prison and is painful, or do I ask more to show I care? Another guy was telling me he’d travelled a lot. I asked him to tell me more and he explained, “I go to one country for maybe a week, make a lot of money, and run.” He was in jail for credit fraud. Once again, I was a bit at a loss.
Backing up, I should say this whole “adventure” started at the metro station at 7:15am. I took the metro to Dokki (about 45 minutes) with some friends from church, Tanja and Hugo (she’s Dutch, he’s South African). There we met up with Eva (the head of the prison ministry – she’s German) and several other people (Egyptians, a Russian, Cameroonians, another American) and drove another hour to arrive at the prison. We then waited in line with our goodies (food bags and blankets for the prisoners), and were called through 4 at a time to be searched. Then we went into a large waiting room where maybe 60 people were sitting and standing until they heard their names called for their visit.
It took a while – about 2 hours – before we were called. I passed the time talking more with Eva about the ministry. Some of the others sat down and spoke with the waiting Egyptians or played with the little kids. We all avoided the bathroom on Eva’s advice (she’s been doing the prison ministry for 30 years and said she’s only used the bathroom 3 times). When we were finally called, around 11:30, we got on a little trolley that drove us further into the compound and to a door to an inner courtyard. There we waited yet again, for about 20 minutes. Finally we were let through (searched again, had to give the guards our goodie bags for the prisoners – I assume they’re distributed later?). We were allowed to see as many prisoners as we had visitors – we were ten people, so we saw ten prisoners. Like I said, it was in an open room where we could all move around and talk to whoever.
Thence commenced the awkward conversations I’ve already mentioned. They weren’t all awkward. I asked some of the men about their families, or what they planned to do when they went home (eventually). We had about an hour to talk with the prisoners before the guards started yelling at us to finish up. I suppose they were more yelling at the prisoners, but it seemed like they just enjoyed yelling at everyone. They weren’t very nice. We were allowed to pray together before they ushered the prisoners out (apparently sometimes this is allowed and sometimes not). Then it was over. We weren’t really allowed to talk to the men after we left that room; they were sent to one side of the courtyard and we were sent to the other side to grab our passports and leave.
All in all I’m not really sure what I thought. I definitely admire the people who have committed to visiting every week and really forming relationships with these guys. They were greeted like old friends by every man we saw. They really care and have invested in this. I found it exhausting to go just once. So many hours of waiting and then making chit chat with people I could hardly relate to… It was difficult. Kudos to those who do it all the time. It’s an amazing ministry.